Business View Magazine - November 2016

76 Business View Magazine - November 2016 2 siness View Magazin Maritime projects awarded more than $74 million in TIGER VI infrastructure grants After evaluating 797 applications totaling requests for $9 billion for fiscal year 2014 Transportation Invest- ment Generating Economic Recovery grants, U.S. De- partment of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced 72 awards totaling $584 million will be distributed in the sixth round of the multimodal, discre- tionary grant program. Of those, seven awards totaling $74,241,904, or about 13 percent of total funding, are going to projects that USDOT classifies as “maritime.” Another $54,469,652 comprising five awards, which is equal to about 9 percent of the total funding, is going to what USDOT classifies as “freight rail” projects. Like freight rail, millions more are being awarded to various road and planning projects which aid in the movement of freight into and out of America’s seaports. On the U.S. DOT’s TIGER Grants web page, Foxx said, “As uncertainty about the future of long-term federal funding continues, this round of TIGER will be a shot in the arm for these innovative, job-creating and quality of life-enhancing projects.” He further noted that more projects could be getting done if Congress passed the GROW AMERICA Act, which the American Association of Port Authorities supports and which would double the funding available for TIGER.