The Department of Transportation announced that 47 transportation projects in 34 states and the District of Columbia will receive a total of almost $500 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation's TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) 2012 program.


Roughly 35 percent of the funding will go to road and bridge projects, including more than $30 million for the replacement of rural roads and bridges that need improvements to address safety and state of good repair deficiencies.

The TIGER program is a highly competitive program that is able to fund innovative projects difficult or impossible to fund through other federal programs, says the DOT. In many cases, these grants will serve as the final piece of funding for infrastructure investments totaling $1.7 billion in overall project costs. These federal funds are being leveraged with money from private sector partners, states, local governments, metropolitan planning organizations and transit agencies.

Applications for this most recent round of grants totaled $10.2 billion, far exceeding the $500 million set aside for the program.

Over the next six months, 27 projects are expected to break ground from the previous three rounds of TIGER. In addition, work is under way on 64 capital projects across the country.

Under all four rounds combined, the TIGER program has provided $3.1 billion to 218 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The fiscal year 2013 appropriations bill currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate provides $500 million for a future round of TIGER grants.

Click here for additional information on individual TIGER grants http://www.dot.gov/tiger/fy2012tiger.pdf