Transportation Secretary, Peter Buttigieg, will announce a new program designed to help communities better prepare for natural disasters and extreme weather.
The $7.3 billion Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Formula Program will build community resiliency to respond to extreme weather including wildfires, flooding, and extreme heat, according to a Department of Transportation press release.
“In every part of the country, climate change is impacting roads, bridges, and rail lines that Americans rely on--endangering homes, lives and livelihoods in the process,” Buttigieg said in the release. “Using funds from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we're launching this unprecedented effort to help communities protect their transportation infrastructure from extreme weather and improve routes that first responders and firefighters need during disasters.”
The PROTECT program will provide funding over five years for states to upgrade transportation infrastructure to improve resiliency to extreme weather, the release stated. Funding is available for highway and transit projects, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and port facilities.
“We see the effects of climate change and extreme weather play out across the country every week, with extreme temperatures and rainfall and resulting flooding and wildfires that damage and in some cases destroy roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure,” Acting Federal Highway Administrator, Stephanie Pollack, said in the release. “The PROTECT Formula Program will help make transportation infrastructure more resilient to current and future weather events and at the same time make communities safer during these events.”
Buttigieg recently met with Salt Lake County, Utah, Mayor, Jenny Wilson, to survey damage from last year's fire.
"With Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson and local firefighters to see the damage from last year's canyon fire and talk about infrastructure investments we are making to protect against extreme weather," Buttigieg wrote in a July 29 tweet.
The PROTECT program will help advance President Joe Biden’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas pollution by 2030, according to the release.
