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INVESTING IN AMERICA: Biden-Harris Administration Announces $544 Million for Locally-Driven Projects to Reconnect Communities

Friday, January 10, 2025

More than 81 communities in 31 states will receive funding focused to restore access to employment, education, healthcare, recreation, and foster equitable development 

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced $544 million in grant awards for 81 projects through the Reconnecting Communities Pilot discretionary grant program, part of the Department’s larger announcement today of nearly $5 billion in awards to modernize America’s infrastructure thanks to the President’s Investing in America agenda. 

The Reconnecting Communities program awards announced today are designed to re-establish routes between communities in urban, rural, and tribal areas that were cut off by transportation infrastructure decades ago, leaving entire neighborhoods without easy access to opportunities, employment and key resources like schools, medical offices, and places of worship. 

“The fundamental purpose of transportation is to connect people and communities to one another, but many past infrastructure choices divided communities instead--and so the Biden-Harris Administration is acting to change that,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Today we’re announcing more than $500 million in funding, made possible through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, that will bridge divides and bring people closer to schools, jobs, housing, and each other.” 

Learn more about the significance of projects to reconnect communities through a video about Philadelphia’s Chinatown neighborhood and a new virtual story map spotlighting awarded communities here. 

In this round of funding for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot program, the Department is awarding 66 Planning Grants and 15 Capital Construction grants. Awarded projects include: 

  • CALIFORNIA: $26,640,566 for a capital construction grant to the Housing Authority for the City of Los Angeles for the Resolving Inequitable Pedestrian Infrastructure and Safety in the Watts Neighborhood. This project includes three related elements that mitigate transportation-related disadvantages and challenges by removing barriers to daily destinations and creating a cohesive network of safe and accessible pathways and facilities for all users. The projects address burdens caused by the Metro A Line, create safe and accessible pathways via new Complete Streets, retrofit existing streets to improve active transportation connectivity, improve a heat island impacted area to increase resilience to climate change, and spur affordable housing and economic development activities for residents of Watts. 
  • ILLINOIS: $10,000,411 capital construction grant for the Reconnecting Independence Boulevard: I-290 Land Cap project in Chicago: The I-290 expressway construction severed connectivity along Independence Boulevard and is a barrier in the Chicago Park Boulevard System, a 26-mile continuous stretch of 8 parks, 19 boulevards, and 6 squares. The Reconnecting Independence Boulevard project will construct a land cap to reconnect disinvested communities on either side of I-290 by filling the gap between northbound and southbound Independence Boulevard with more inviting, safe, and accessible bicycle and pedestrian facilities. 
  • KENTUCKY: $8,245,000 capital construction grant for the Frankfort Holmes Street Corridor Complete Street Reconnection project, Phase Two in Frankfort: The Holmes Street Corridor has high-speed traffic, uncontrolled access, a lack of bike lanes, poor bus transit accommodations, and missing or obstructed sidewalks creating an unsafe and inefficient living, work, and travel environment. The City of Frankfort will complete the reconstruction of the Holmes Street Corridor and improve pedestrian and bicyclist infrastructure, enhance public transportation connections, reconfigure roadways to boost safety, construct stormwater infrastructure to mitigate flooding and support upgrades that accelerate economic reinvestment along the corridor. 
  • MARYLAND: $85,511,803 capital construction grant for the West Baltimore United Construction Phase 1 in Baltimore: The project will develop a single-block cap over US 40, remove existing highway ramps, and incorporate Complete Streets and safety improvements at key locations and intersections to improve mobility and accessibility within West Baltimore neighborhoods. Together, these investments will remove barriers to mobility, access, and economic development, and reconnect historically disadvantaged communities within West Baltimore and to the City’s Central Business District. The City of Baltimore intends to use a Project Labor Agreement (PLA), creating good-paying, union jobs. 
  • MINNESOTA: $2,000,000 for a planning grant for the Rondo African American Cultural Enterprise District and Community Land Bridge project in Saint Paul: The project centers around a land bridge to be built over a half mile of I-94 in the Rondo neighborhood in Saint Paul. The development on top of the land bridge includes new multi-modal routes, affordable and market-rate housing, commercial and small business space, community landmarks, parks and greenspace. 
  • OKLAHOMA: $416,451 for a planning grant for the US-62 Sidewalk and Pedestrian Crossing project to the Cherokee Nation: The US-62 Sidewalk and Pedestrian Crossing project will include the design of an underpass at the Wilma Mankiller Memorial Park, as well as a 3.5-mile sidewalk from the southwest corner of US-62 and Southridge Road to the Cherokee Nation Immersion School. Reconnecting Communities funding will be used to remove the barrier of US-62 by creating a sidewalk and pedestrian underpass to connect communities on the north and south sides of the highway. 

The full list of awards can be viewed here. 

The Reconnecting Communities Pilot and Neighborhood Access and Equity discretionary grant programs received $1 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and an additional $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, key components of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. 

For more program information, click here. 

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