Via its Emergency Relief Program, the Federal Highway Administration is providing $729.4 million to 34 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico to support repairs to roads and bridges due to natural disasters such as hurricanes, flooding and mudslides.
[Above photo by Caltrans]
The FHWA noted that, since January 2022, it has distributed over $1.3 billion in Emergency Relief Program funds to help states repair infrastructure damaged due to a range of extreme weather events.
“These funds will help restore critical transportation connections across the country as communities continue to repair and rebuild infrastructure damaged by extreme weather,” noted Pete Buttigieg, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, in a statement.
The FHWA said this round of emergency funding includes support for ongoing repairs to surface transportation infrastructure from flooding in and around Yellowstone Park in 2022; the impact from Hurricanes Ian, Fiona, and Nicole in 2022; the flooding and mudslides that struck Vermont in 2023; and other natural disasters that occurred across the country over the last two years.
[Editor’s note: At the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials 2022 Annual Meeting in Orlando, a panel of state department of transportation and FHWA leaders discussed some of the lessons learned from hurricane recovery efforts undertaken by Florida and Puerto Rico.] The agency noted that this emergency funding aims to support the reconstructing highways and bridges as well as protect the travelling public from further damages and allow for resiliency improvements as infrastructure damage is repaired.
