Pacific Northwest Economic Region and Sound Transit were selected to be included in the Regional Infrastructure Accelerators Program
Senator Murray: “With the additional federal dollars I fought to secure for the Regional Infrastructure Accelerators, we can get to work on planning the expansion of the West Seattle and Ballard Link projects and support PNWER’s work to expand EV infrastructure across the region—helping families travel safely and moving us closer to a fully clean energy economy.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced $3.75 million in funding for two transportation projects in Washington state. The Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) was awarded $2 million and Sound Transit was awarded $1.75 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Regional Infrastructure Accelerators program (RIA). The RIA program helps communities get important transportation projects efficiently underway by funding and encouraging best practices in project planning, studies and analysis, preliminary engineering, and design. RIA is part of DOT’s Build America Bureau, which supports transportation projects across the country through technical assistance, project planning, financing, delivery, and monitoring. The RIA program was first created in 2015, and Senator Murray helped secure $24 million in funding for RIA through the spending packages Congress enacted in March and December of last year to support these projects and others across the country.
“With so many grants available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and in recent spending packages Congress has passed, I wanted to make sure organizations and businesses can apply for grants and work through their financing strategy in the most efficient way possible,” said Senator Murray. “Improving local transportation is always a top priority of mine, and making sure grant applicants are well-informed of the resources available to them is a huge step towards that goal. With the additional federal dollars I fought to secure for the Regional Infrastructure Accelerators, we can get to work on planning the expansion of the West Seattle and Ballard Link projects and support PNWER’s work to expand EV infrastructure across the region—helping families travel safely and moving us closer to a fully clean energy economy.”
PNWER is a non-profit collaboration among Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Washington, and Canadian provinces and territories to increase the economic well-being and quality of life in the region, while maintaining and enhancing the natural environment. PNWER will use this grant, which Senator Murray sent a letter of support for, to integrate fast EV charging stations for commercial vehicles along Northwest Interstates. PNWER will also use this funding to support their ongoing efforts to provide technical assistance to important regional projects seeking federal assistance, building off the successful $1.2 million PNWER previously received through the RIA program. The grant for Sound Transit will support accelerated planning for the West Seattle and Ballard Link extension projects.
Senator Murray was instrumental in securing a total of $34 million for the RIA program in appropriations packages over the past four years, and, as Chair, worked to include an additional $12 million for RIA in the draft fiscal year 2024 funding bill that passed out of the Appropriations Committee unanimously in July.
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