“With this announcement, we are advancing projects so large, complex, and ambitious that they could not get funded under the infrastructure programs that existed prior to the Biden administration,” Buttigieg said. “Our INFRA and Mega programs are helping build the cathedrals of American infrastructure — truly transformative projects that will change entire regions and our entire country for the better.”
The Mega program, which was created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and provides $5 billion in funding through 2026, is focused on projects that are uniquely large, complex, and difficult to fund under traditional grant programs. For this round of funding, the Biden-Harris Administration is investing in 11 different projects that will generate national and regional economic, mobility, and safety benefits.
One of the major Mega projects in the New England Construction area is the Sagamore Bridge Project, which received $371 million. The project will restore and modernize the nearly 90-year-old Sagamore Bridge in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which is currently considered functionally obsolete and structurally deficient. The project includes the design and construction of the bridge and approaches, improvements to local roadway connections, and major utility relocation. Replacing the bridge will ensure the infrastructure meets modern structural design criteria, including consideration of climate change, seismic effects, and safety benefits.
The INFRA program, for which funding was increased more than 50 percent by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also funds large scale, transformational infrastructure projects. For this round of funding, the Biden-Harris Administration is investing in 28 projects that will improve the safety, efficiency, and reliability of the movement of freight and people in and across rural and urban areas. Over half of the projects being funded through the INFRA program are in rural communities.
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One of the major INFRA projects in the New England Construction area is the Completing the I-95 Missing Move and Ramps to Quonset Business Park in Kent and Washington Counties, Rhode Island. The project, which received $81 million, will complete gaps between Interstate 95 and RI-4 to create a direct freeway connection and remove traffic from local roads. The project will construct three ramps to service RI Route 403, expanding access to Quonset Business Park. These improvements will alleviate congested freight and non-freight traffic from local roads and provide direct access to major roadways, strengthening accessibility for rural communities.
As with last year’s awards, despite these historic increases in funding, these programs were significantly oversubscribed. The department received 117 applications requesting $24.7 billion in Mega funding and 190 applications requesting $24.8 billion from the INFRA program, far exceeding the amounts of funding available.
