The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) recently announced the launch of a new program designed to reconnect communities that have been adversely affected by previous transportation infrastructure developments.
"Today we’re announcing the 45 communities that will receive the first-ever Reconnecting Communities Program awards — to unite neighborhoods, ensure the future is better than the past and provide Americans with better transportation options," U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote in a Feb. 28 Twitter post.
According to a press release, the newly established Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program will award $185 million in grant funding to 45 projects to assist communities in planning and constructing projects that will remove, retrofit or mitigate transportation barriers such as highways and railroad tracks.
The grants will support projects such as filling in sunken highways for housing, converting transportation facilities into tree-lined complete streets and creating new crossings through public transportation. The department will provide 39 planning grants and six capital construction grants in the first round of funding for the program.
"Transportation should connect, not divide, people and communities,” Buttigieg said, according to the press release. “We are proud to announce the first grantees of our Reconnecting Communities Program, which will unite neighborhoods, ensure the future is better than the past and provide Americans with better access to jobs, health care, groceries and other essentials.”
The release mentions several projects, including the construction of a new highway cap and tunnel in Buffalo, New York, which will reconnect several east-west roads and create greenspace. Long Beach, California will receive funds to redesign West Shoreline Drive, converting the urban freeway into a landscaped, lower-speed roadway, opening up park space and serving as a gateway to better connect residents, visitors and workers.
The Sac and Fox Tribe of Mississippi in Iowa/Meskwaki will plan a project to cross barriers formed by US Highway 30. Birmingham, Alabama will receive funds for the city’s Transportation Capital Investment Plan to mitigate the negative impacts of existing rail and highway infrastructure on the connectivity of many of Birmingham’s historic neighborhoods, and historically black communities especially. Lastly, Baltimore, Maryland will receive funds to address the impacts caused by the construction of US 40/Franklin-Mulberry Expressway by planning for the redesign or removal of the highway to improve safety, access, opportunity and innovation in West Baltimore.
