infrastructure projects promoting funding partnerships announced by the department of transportation

 Just over two dozen infrastructure projects nationally are in line to receive a cumulative total of  $1.5 billion in funding through the federal Department of Transportation.

That money is coming out of the department’s Infrastructure for Rebuilding America discretionary grant program, which was announced last summer and is intended to provide backing in a collaborative fashion with local and tribal governments, as well as port authorities and federal land management agencies, for infrastructure projects.

Such grants, said Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in announcing the specifically funded projects, “empower states and communities to make significant longterm infrastructure improvements that will shape transportation and mobility for decades to come.”

A large portion of the grant-funded projects this year are located in the Midwest and South, but two are in Colorado: the widening of an 18-mile segment of Interstate 25, and the addition of a 12-mile shoulder lane on Interstate 70.

An Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant of $65 million will help pay for the building of new express I-25 lanes going in each direction. The project, upon completion, will have a price tag of around $350 million, funded by a variety of sources.

The new lanes will be built between the north to south route connecting the cities of Castle Rock and Monument. Transportation officials in Colorado have said that the new lanes are needed to help accommodate an increased number of vehicles in recent decades, reflecting the area’s explosive population growth.

The 12-mile shoulder lane project going through Idaho Springs, some 30 miles to the west of Denver, is receiving $25 million in federal funding for a project whose total costs will exceed $80 million.

By Garry Boulard