Transportation department announces $145M for projects that reconnect communities

When the Interstate Highway System was constructed starting in the 1950s, its path cut right through communities—decimating previously vibrant and racially diverse neighborhoods. A recently announced initiative, the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, seeks to rectify those wrongs. For the first time, the federal government is set to distribute $145 million to 45 nationwide projects designed to reconnect communities cut off from opportunity by historic infrastructure decisions like the federal highway system.

“Transportation should connect, not divide, people and communities,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg about the grant opportunity. “We are proud to announce the first grantees of our Reconnecting Communities Program, which will unite neighborhoods, ensure the future is better than the past, and provide Americans with better access to jobs, health care, groceries and other essentials.”

Simultaneous to the award distribution, Buttigieg’s department announced the creation the Reconnecting Communities Institute, which will provide grant recipients and other organizations with the technical assistance they’ll need to achieve their goals.

The program’s first round of funding is focused at “community led solutions,” according to a statement about the program. Those include, among other things, capping interstates with parks, filling sunken highways on which housing can be built, and creating new crossings through existing public transportation infrastructure.

All of the projects are notably designed to reconnect communities historically cut off from accessing services and opportunities. Projects from economically disadvantaged communities were prioritized, especially those targeting environmental justice and equity, and others that “demonstrated strong community engagement and stewardship, and would catalyze shared prosperity in its development and job creation,” the statement continues. “Highways and rail lines can be physical barriers, preventing residents from easy access to social and economic opportunities. This burden is often felt most by communities of color.”

A selection of the 45 winners, which include 39 planning grants and six construction projects, can be found below:

Buffalo, N.Y. is set to receive $55.6 million to build a new highway cap and tunnel over the Kensington Expressway, a physical barrier that isolates residents on the city’s primarily Black east side.

Long Beach, Calif. will receive $30 million to redesign West Shoreline Drive. The redesigned road will open-up 5.5 acres of park space and will target construction jobs to underserved communities.

Sac and Fox Tribe of Mississippi in Iowa/Meskwaki will receive $1.2 million to plan a project to cross barriers formed by U.S. Highway 30, which creates hazardous conditions for the rural, tribal community that lives to the east but works on the west side of the highway.

Baltimore, Md. will receive $2 million to address the impacts caused by the construction of US 40/Franklin-Mulberry Expressway. The never-completed project divides several historically Black communities on the city’s west side.

A complete list of projects that have received awards can be viewed on the Department of Transportation’s website. The Inflation Reduction Act also established a new, $3 billion program called the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program that can fund projects to reconnect communities. The Department of Transportation anticipates that program will later in the spring, according to the statement.