US RAILWAYS and ports took a third of the US$600 million awarded in funding by the Department of Transportation for high-impact infrastructure projects.
    The department picked 75 projects (42 construction and 33 planning projects) from almost 1,000 applications seeking more than $19 billion with road projects representing 29 per cent of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) money; transit, 26 per cent; rail, 20 per cent; ports, 16 per cent, bicycle and pedestrian paths, four per cent while five per cent was earmarked for planning.
    The TIGER scheme used merit-based criteria to determine which projects meet critical long-term needs or do the best job of improving transport efficiency, reducing energy consumption and creating jobs.
    Fifty-one TIGER programme projects shared $1.5 billion with the first round created by the 2009 stimulus act and attracted 1,500 applications, reported American Shipper. Overall, freight projects received 53 per cent, or $316 million, of the available TIGER II money. Three of the top five recipients and five of the top 10 are freight projects. Seven of the 42 capital projects were for ports, which together garnered $95 million of the $557 million in capital grant funds available.
    "The percentage of funds going to ports for TIGER II is more than twice as much as in the first round of TIGER grants and moves us closer to the 25 per cent of overall TIGER grant funding we believe is appropriate," said Kurt Nagle, head of the American Association of Port Authorities.

Source: Shipping Gazette