Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy by Rod Lamkey/Associated Press
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy finalized $607 million in 76 infrastructure grants May 14 among a backlog of 3,200 projects dating to 2020 that had been approved under the Biden administration but left incomplete.
“The last administration claimed to ‘build back better,’ but they didn’t build back anything. Instead, they inserted wasteful social justice and green mandates into grants that drove up construction costs and delayed projects,” Duffy announced. “We’ll continue to move at lightning speed to get shovels in the ground and projects up and running.”
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DOT linked the Biden-era backlog and the Trump administration’s faster federal approval process to having “ripped out burdensome [diversity, equity and inclusion], Green New Scam and social justice requirements that Congress deliberately did not mandate. This includes social cost of carbon accounting, pointless greenhouse gas emission reporting and discriminatory DEI language.”
Biden
Duffy’s announcement noted that under his watch, DOT has approved 405 grants totaling almost $5 billion “or roughly 13% of the Biden-Buttigieg backlog.”
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DOT predicted that removing the Biden administration additions, such a green energy objectives, to infrastructure project contracts will result in millions of taxpayer dollars in savings. According to DOT, “Road construction costs skyrocketed roughly 70% under the last administration. The greenhouse gas reporting burden alone increased project costs and added months to the permitting process.”
The Federal Highway Administration’s National Highway Construction Cost Index has shown continuous increases for the past few years. In December, FHWA released the latest figures showing a slight dip in highway construction costs during the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter. “The 0.9% decline in construction costs is in stark contrast to the recent inflation but is in line with the slowdown in the rate of inflation since 2022,” FHWA noted, adding that “inflation appears to be declining, although it is still higher than historical levels.”
The latest May 14 DOT batch of approved Biden-era infrastructure projects included two approved in 2020, 46 OK’d in 2021, two grants awarded in 2022 and 147 others authorized in 2023. The grants were from agencies under DOT, such as FHWA, the Maritime Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration.
FHWA projects given the green light for federal funds include eight National Culvert Removal, Replacement and Restoration Grant projects valued at $33 million in Alaska, California, Maine, Oregon and Washington as well as $126 million for 17 wildlife crossing projects.
A rendering of the Alabama Interstate 10 project. (MobileRiverTruckBridge.com)
Duffy announced the Trump administration “inherited a record number of 3,200 unobligated grants that had been announced by the previous administration but never obligated. This unprecedented backlog of unobligated grants delayed critical investments in communities across the country.” He said DOT is whittling through the backlog to release “these long-overdue funds and address core infrastructure projects.”
On May 6, Duffy finalized 180 infrastructure grants valued at $3.2 billion from the Biden backlog. That group includes one $550 million project to break ground on Alabama’s Interstate 10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway multimodal project. “This project will allow the state to implement desperately needed infrastructure upgrades by bypassing two aging tunnels and replacing the existing Bayway Bridges,” DOT noted.
A $54.2 million grant was released for an expansion of the first part of the Port of Tacoma’s Husky Terminal Expansion. (Port of Tacoma)
Two other federal projects that now have funds moving are a pair of 2023 grants from MARAD’s Port Infrastructure Development program. A $54.2 million grant was released for an expansion of the Port of Tacoma’s first part of its Husky Terminal Expansion. The project will reconfigure the Husky terminal yard to improve truck movements and install 40 reefer racks and related power supplies. And in Texas, a grant is going forward for $15.9 million for the Velasco Terminal Sustainable Expansion Project in Freeport. The project calls for building a 36,900-square-foot, cross-dock warehouse on a 10-acre site. Construction also will include a new terminal truck gate on port-owned land to alleviate congestion. Cargo can be unloaded, sorted and placed on trucks without interfering with other terminal traffic.
