A grant program created by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act has received more than 200 grant applications from state and local governments, lawmakers said today.
The program was created to address major highway projects and improve the transportation of freight nationwide, proponents say. The Department of Transportation, has received 212 applications totaling nearly $10 billion.
The FAST Act was signed into law in December 2015. The measure authorized $4.5 billion over five years for the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program, also known as the FASTLANE program, including $800 million for this fiscal year.
“One of my primary goals in the FAST Act was to refocus our resources into improving the flow of commerce and helping large-scale infrastructure improvements to move forward,” U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a news release. “The amount of interest in the program demonstrates the infrastructure needs we have across the country, and the FASTLANE program is going to strengthen our transportation system, help improve the economy, and make American businesses more competitive.”
