'We have met the challenge'
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Aviation funding totaling $1.1 billion was made available through the Recovery Act and Texas received funding of $17 million for six aviation projects. Two of the projects submitted by TxDOT for High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Grant funds were awarded $11 million in stimulus funds. Two existing rail lines in Texas benefitted from that funding - Amtrak's Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth was awarded $4 million and Fort Worth's Trinity Rail Express garnered $7 million for improvements to commuter service between Fort Worth and Dallas.
The U.S. Department of Transportation also had another allocation of discretionary funds from the Recovery Act and Texas was awarded $7.2 million from those funds. The money is to be used to construct a new 28-car ferry for TxDOT's Port Aransas Ferry System in Nueces County.
Two Texas projects also benefitted from the Recovery Act's Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grant program. The North Texas Tollway Authority was named recipient of $20 million to support a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan of about $400 million for the State Highway 161 project in Dallas. The North Central Texas Council of Governments was awarded $23 million to develop a streetcar service in the downtown area of Dallas.
This is the second time TxDOT has met the federal government's obligation requirement on Recovery Act funds. After the act was signed in February of last year, 50 percent of all highway and bridge funding - $775 million in Texas - had to be obligated within 120 days of the date that the states received their allocations. Texas met that requirement two weeks before the deadline.
