Atlanta, Athens get $49.9 million in infrastructure grants

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced that the Biden-Harris Administration has awarded $49.9 million to support two projects in Georgia from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program to help move forward on projects that modernize roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports, and intermodal transportation and make transportation systems safer, more accessible, more affordable, and more sustainable.

This year’s total allocations nationwide include more than $2.2 billion, thanks to the president’s bipartisan infrastructure law, which provides an additional $7.5 billion over five years for the program to help meet the demand to help projects get moving across the country. 

“We are proud to support so many outstanding infrastructure projects in communities large and small, modernizing America’s transportation systems to make them safer, more affordable, more accessible and more sustainable,” Buttigieg said. “Using funds from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this year we are supporting more projects than ever before.” 

Projects were evaluated on several criteria, including safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness and opportunity, partnership and collaboration, innovation, state of good repair, and mobility and community connectivity. 

In Georgia, the following projects will benefit from RAISE awards:

Reimagine North Avenue – Athens-Clarke County will receive $24.9 million to make complete street improvements along North Avenue from downtown Athens, at the intersection of North Avenue and Willow Street, to just north of Georgia Highway10 at the intersection of Freeman Drive/Collins Industrial Boulevard. Ten bus stops along the corridor will be upgraded to accommodate sidewalks and transit stops. Throughout the corridor, traffic signals will be upgraded with pedestrian signals, and lighting and wayfinding will be installed. The road will be resurfaced with drainage improvements, and a shared use path will be constructed.

Five Points Transformation Phase 2 – The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) will receive $25 million to rehabilitate the above-ground portions of the Five Points MARTA station by removing the aged station canopy, improving the bus bays, and revitalizing the station plaza/public space. The project will complement other investments, including Phase 1 to make below-ground station improvements and Phase 3 to make transit-oriented improvements. The project will improve the experience of travelers at the station and make transfers easier.

Buttigieg was in Tucson and Phoenix Monday, where he was visiting two of the projects receiving RAISE awards. Later this month, the secretary and other senior USDOT officials will fan out across the country to visit additional sites that are receiving RAISE awards to highlight the ways that the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is helping invest in communities and get important infrastructure projects moving in communities large and small.