arizona and colorado to receive federal project transportation dollars

One big transportation project in Arizona and three in Colorado are slated to receive crucial federal funding through an infrastructure grants program headed up by the Department of Transportation.

Construction of the 1.7-mile Verde Connect project in Arizona is receiving $15 million from the DOT’s Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development Transportation grants program.

The Verde Connect project will see the construction of a two-lane roadway on State Route 260 and a bridge running across the Verde River.

Upon completion, the roadway will connect with the northern edge of both the Yavapai-Apache Nation, as well as the Town of Camp Verde.

The South Midland Avenue Reconstruction and Rural Broadband Project in Glenwood Springs, Colorado is receiving just over $7 million in grant funding for new curbs, gutters, and intersection improvements.

The project will also see the installation of both rock fall mitigation technologies as, well as broadband infrastructure.

A 537-mile network making up vehicle-to-everything technology, in primarily rural environments in Colorado, is receiving $20 million from the DOT. That money will also be used to install just over 200 miles of new fiber optic lines.

Another $20 million is going to the Interstate 25 North improvements, which will include the rebuilding and widening of a dozen bridges, upgrading and expanding three interchanges, and adding a third lane between Colorado State Highway 56 and  State Highway 402, just south of the city of Loveland.

In total, grants with a dollar value of more than $1.5 billion, funding 91 projects nationally, are receiving discretionary DOT grant funding.

In a statement, Elaine Chao, the Department of Transportation Secretary, described the grants as “major investments in road, rail, transit, and port projects that serve as a down payment on this administration’s commitment to America’s infrastructure.”

By Garry Boulard

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