U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today announced that 40 projects will receive a share of $3.59 billion in federal disaster relief funds to help public transportation systems affected by Hurricane Sandy. The action comes at a time when the Highway Trust Fund is insolvent.
About 90% of the funds will be invested in projects primarily in New York and New Jersey where transit systems sustained the worst of the storm damage. The remainder goes to projects in Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania.
The project evaluation process was “rigorous,” involving bureaucrats from the FTA (Federal Transit Administration), the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FTA received 61 proposals seeking a total of $6.6 billion.
