Infrastructure

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US infrastructure splurge extends to remote New Mexico farms

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new $40 million round of grants to extend high-speed internet to extremely remote farms, homes and businesses in New Mexico, including counties where the population density is less than one person per square mile (2.5 square kilometers).

https://apnews.com/article/rural-internet-fiberoptic-vilsack-biden-93123e7e848893dbee9d4a7c7c0d9621

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Biden admin celebrates new bridges as campaign season nears

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is awarding nearly $300 million to help repair or replace more than a dozen bridges across the country, closing out a three-week tour to highlight the benefits of infrastructure investments in local communities.

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-infrastructure-election-kamala-harris-bridges-9a0e098703fbfee6a26247ae0fdd6e8b

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After voting against infrastructure, Lauren Boebert dimly wonders why we don't spend more on it

We know Rep. Lauren Boebert has a brain. The drool patterns on her blouse are prima facie evidence of intelligent design, rather than random chance. They were analyzed by the same Oxford University forensics team that declared the Shroud of Turin a modern-day forgery after finding an uneaten Toblerone in one of its inside coat pockets. So we know that’s legit.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/2/2178883/-After-voting-against-infrastructure-Lauren-Boebert-dimly-wonders-why-we-don-t-spend-more-on-it?

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Dark Brandon takes on Kevin McCarthy

President Joe Biden called it back at the State of the Union address in February: Republicans who voted against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would soon be claiming credit when the funding arrived. As he said then, “I promised I’d be a president for all Americans. We’ll fund these projects. And I’ll see you at the groundbreaking.” He’s had cause to use that line more than once since, taunting the Republicans who did just as he predicted—most recently, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/24/2189327/-Biden-mocks-McCarthy-for-trying-to-take-credit-for-investments-he-opposed?

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Biden administration announces $1.4 billion to improve rail safety and boost capacity in 35 states

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Monday that it has awarded more than $1.4 billion to projects that improve railway safety and boost capacity, with roughly $1 billion of the money coming from the 2021 infrastructure law.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-rail-safety-infrastructure-buttigieg-9a7ff416e41d531dfb996d332a1ba146?

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Biden administration to send $7 billion for clean hydrogen hubs in 16 states

The Biden administration is directing $7 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law to build seven regional hydrogen power hubs in 16 states, the White House announced Friday.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/10/13/biden-administration-to-send-7-billion-for-clean-hydrogen-hubs-in-16-states-by-jacob-fischler/?

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Biden administration pledges $6 billion to a pair of high-speed electric rail routes in the US West

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Biden administration on Tuesday said it will give more than $6 billion to a pair of high-speed electric rail routes in the U.S. West, injecting new life into long-stalled projects hailed by supporters as the future of public transportation but bemoaned by critics for their high price tags and lengthy construction times.

https://apnews.com/article/bullet-train-vegas-los-angeles-brightline-funding-8ee203c4acc17a1f320f534418532725?

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White House unveils $1 billion for electric and low-emission school buses

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced Monday $1 billion in funding for more than 2,700 electric and low-emission school buses across 37 states.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/01/09/white-house-unveils-1-billion-for-electric-and-low-emission-school-buses/?

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A new program could connect trails across the US so you can walk and pedal from coast-to-coast The Biden administration was set to open applications Tuesday for a new grant program that, for the first time, prioritizes not just building trails but connecting the existing ones like in the proposed Great American Rail-Trail — a continuous network of walking and biking routes spanning from Washington state to Washington, D.C. Read more.

Why this matters: The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law allowed for as much as $1 billion over five years for the program, but Congress has authorized less than $45 million so far. Still, trail activists say the commitment is almost as key as the dollar figure.   Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt said active transportation options provide health benefits and are as important as electric vehicles in limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Amanda Cooley, one of the leaders of an initiative to close western Montana’s trail gaps, said residents often don’t understand the importance of such projects until they’re complete.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Use this tool to find out how your carbon footprint compares to everyone else’s in America   Millions ditched cars for bikes during the pandemic. These cities want the habit to stick   It’s called ‘cozy cardio.’ In a world seeking comfort, some see a happier mode of exercise

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Biden-Harris Administration Announces Nearly $45 Million in Available Funds to Improve Bicyclist and Pedestrian Connectivity and Safety

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced today that it has opened applications for up to $44.5 million in funding for projects that will strengthen safety and improve bicycling, walking and access to public transit in communities across the country. FHWA’s new Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program (ATIIP), made possible by the President’s Investing in America Agenda, is a competitive grant program that will focus on building networks of connected bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure improvements, including to better connect trail networks between communities.

https://informedinfrastructure.com/93306/biden-harris-administration-announces-nearly-45-million-in-available-funds-to-improve-bicyclist-and-pedestrian-connectivity-and-safety/

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How investors can harness U.S. infrastructure momentum

Nearly $1 trillion has been allocated to fund critical infrastructure projects through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS and Science Act. PAVE, the Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF, invests in companies leading this trend. Learn more.

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Biden's half-trillion-dollar edge

Data: The White House. (Projects with announced totals, excluding projects in tribes or their subdivisions, or projects that span multiple states.) Map: Axios Visuals President Biden's infrastructure and clean-energy bills are pumping a half-trillion dollars into projects nationwide — half of that to Republican and swing states, Axios' Hans Nichols writes. Why it matters: The funding lets Biden and his cabinet regularly announce job-creating goodies — winning voters town by town, trip by trip. The swing-state largesse includes $10 billion in grants and investments in both Michigan and North Carolina — and a combined $46 billion in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia. Those are the seven swing states in the presidential race. As of early March, the White House had announced a total of $478 billion in projects from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. That's only about half the funds available for direct investments. So expect continuing Air Force One (and Two) sorties to battleground states to announce more billion-dollar grants and loans. ? The intrigue: In a second term, former President Trump would try to unwind Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which passed Congress with no GOP support. But the scale of investments in red states will make that hard. "I hate to acknowledge this, as a former governor of Michigan. But we know that all these battery investments are going to red states," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told Axios last week. And as much as some Republicans have criticized Biden's economic programs, "those governors aren't going to want to see the investment — the Inflation Reduction Act — reversed," Granholm added. In a 24-hour blitz through Michigan last week, Granholm announced a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to restart a nuclear facility and visited a Heinz-Kraft relish factory that received a $13 million grant. ? What's next: Biden is starting to dole out grants and loans from his third signature bill, the Chips and Science Act — which includes $39 billion in grants, plus loans and loan guarantees valued at $75 billion. Last month, he traveled to Arizona — one of his top November targets — to announce $20 billion in federal funding for an Intel semiconductor facility. Keep reading.

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? Surprise! Bridges are getting safer

Data: USDOT National Bridge Inventory. Chart: Will Chase/Axios America's bridge infrastructure — long seen as dysfunctional — has been steadily improving for the past 20 years, Axios' Will Chase writes. Why it matters: The share of bridges rated poor by the federal government fell from 15% in 2000 to 6.8% in 2023. ? By the numbers: Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan collectively house 40% of neglected bridges. One factor is the bridges' age. Pennsylvania, which tops the list of neglected bridges, has 2,000 bridges built 100+ years ago. Texas, with a single neglected bridge, has just 311 century-old bridges. Explore the data.

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Public input wanted for water fund

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

Texans have a week to tell the state how they want it to spend the $1 billion water infrastructure fund approved by voters in November. Why it matters: People are flocking to Texas. The population is estimated to grow from about 30 million to 51 million by 2070. Meanwhile, the water supply is projected to decrease 18% by then. State of play: Proposition 6 earmarked $1 billion to create the Texas Water Fund for water loss and conservation projects, with a focus on rural communities. It's the state's largest investment in water infrastructure since 2013, but proponents say it still won't meet the enormous demand. Zoom in: Dallas-Fort Worth will be the driving force behind the water demand, per a 2023 state report. Demand in North Texas will increase by nearly 68% in the next 50 years, more than any other region in the state. How it works: The Texas Water Development Board will determine how to distribute the money. At least $250 million must be allocated to projects that create new water sources. Threat level: Texas water systems are losing at least 572,000 acre-feet of water per year because of the deteriorating infrastructure or breaks caused by shifting ground from droughts. That's enough to meet the total 2020 annual municipal needs of the cities of Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, Laredo and Lubbock, per a 2022 study. What's next: Public comment closes at the end of the month. The board will finalize the fund guidelines and rules by the fall.

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? Trillion-dollar spending struggle

Data: Morning Consult/Politico. Chart: Axios Visuals Spending President Biden's trillion dollars on U.S. projects before November is turning out to be a nearly impossible task, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Why it matters: It's one thing to pass the biggest spending bills in American history. It's another to find, fund and start projects to spend it all — especially with former President Trump salivating at the chance to erase Biden's legacy. A months-long Politico review of Biden's four signature laws, "Biden's Billions," found that out of $1.1 trillion for direct investments in energy and infrastructure, less than 17% of the funds have been spent. The Biden administration has announced or obligated (meaning a formal agreement was reached) $583 billion of the total funds. In addition, private companies have pledged $866 billion in planned investments spurred by the president's policies. But there's no guarantee of when that money will start flowing — or when voters will start noticing real-world effects of Biden's historic spending spree. ? Between the lines: $331 billion of the total $1.1 trillion can't be spent until future fiscal years. That could leave the door open for Trump to eviscerate Biden's agenda by halting project approvals, repealing the laws with a Republican Congress, and potentially freezing funding. ? Zoom out: The more urgent and alarming issue for Biden is that a significant percentage of voters aren't giving him credit for the benefits of the spending laws — if they even know the programs exist. 40% of voters said Biden has done more than Trump to "promote infrastructure improvements and job creation," according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll. 37% gave the edge to Trump, whose widely-mocked "Infrastructure Week" initiatives became a symbol of policy pipe dreams. Keep reading ... Politico takeaways.

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?️ Part 2: New Deal dreams

President Biden speaks at the under-construction Intel campus designed to manufacture chips in Chandler, Ariz., in March. Photo: Rebecca Noble/Getty Images President Biden's small but growing AI team is focused most acutely on domestic chip production, with his CHIPS and Science Act pouring billions into semiconductor factories from Arizona to Upstate New York. Behind the scenes: Jack Clark — co-founder and head of policy at Anthropic, a fierce competitor to OpenAI, where Clark used to work — told us the U.S. is "looking at running into power limitations in the Western Hemisphere toward the back half of this decade." Clark added that the shortage of qualified people is more of an issue in the U.S. than in other advanced countries: "Our immigration systems means that we bring in the world's smartest minds, we give them a great education, and then we send lots of them home." ?️ The big picture: "Infrastructure is destiny," says Chris Lehane, who started in April as OpenAI's vice president of public works, after advising since last year. Lehane points to the role that public works projects of FDR's New Deal played in a past wave of American prosperity: "Our focus is building in the U.S. as a key to democratizing access in the U.S." ? Reality check: Every boom has these bottlenecks, notes Axios managing editor for tech Scott Rosenberg, who has been writing about the web for 30 years. Back in the '90s, you couldn't get your hands on Cisco routers: They were back-ordered for months, because every company was trying to connect to the internet at the same time. But the crisis faded. ? What's next: Vipul Ved Prakash, founder and CEO of Together.ai — a cloud platform for building with open-source generative AI models — is part of a wave of entrepreneurs who see opportunity in alleviating these problems. Prakash told us this is the "era of hyper-utilization ... pushing the intelligence frontier will require more and more efficient systems." The bottom line: If you don't have sufficient talent, sufficient data and compute power, and sufficient energy you don't have a real company — or sufficient hope.

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White House announces actions to modernize America’s electrical grid, paving the way for clean energy and fewer outages

The White House on Tuesday announced steps to modernize a major roadblock to the clean energy transformation: America’s aging electrical infrastructure.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/28/climate/energy-grid-modernization-biden/index.html?

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21 states join Biden administration in bid to modernize nation’s aging grid

Twenty-one states are joining a push by the Biden administration to modernize America’s aging electric grid, which is under pressure from growing demand, a changing power generation mix that includes lots of wind and solar, and severe weather.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/05/31/21-states-join-biden-administration-in-bid-to-modernize-nations-aging-grid/?

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Federal infrastructure funding is fueling a push to remove dams and restore river habitat

BOONE, N.C. (AP) — On the whooshing Watauga River, excavators claw at the remains of Shulls Mill Dam, pulling concrete apart piece by piece and gradually opening a waterway kept in check for nearly two centuries.

https://apnews.com/article/dam-removals-infrastructure-law-president-biden-693e52c29c7196c0814889fda2001670?

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Bridges

Transportation safety officials said 68 bridges in 19 states should be assessed for risk of collapse if hit by a ship. The Golden Gate Bridge in California; the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, George Washington and Verrazzano-Narrows bridges in New York City and the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan all made the list of structures with higher than acceptable risk ratings. The recommendation was issued nearly one year after a container ship lost power and struck a pillar of the Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse. Six construction workers who were working on the bridge fell into the Patapsco River and died.

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Aging U.S. railroad bridges are self-inspected and their findings are kept secret

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — The fire burned for about nine hours, billowing smoke and scorching the wooden trestles of a nearly 75-year-old railroad bridge that spans the Marys River in Corvallis, home to Oregon State University. Long after the flames died out, Michelle Emmons, a local environmental advocate, could still smell the noxious stench of charred creosote — a chemical preservative used to treat outdoor wooden structures.

https://apnews.com/article/old-railroad-bridges-inspections-db4e419750ac9f5981ba3f00fa24e805?