The Federal Highway Administration is awarding $1.4 billion in emergency relief or ER funds to help 42 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to make repairs to roads and bridges damaged by a variety of storms, floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters.
[Above photo by the Louisiana DOTD]
FHWA’s ER Program provides funding reimbursement to states, territories, federal land management agencies and tribal governments for the reconstruction, restoration, and repair of federal-aid and owned transportation facilities that suffered damage from natural disasters or catastrophic failure from external causes.
The allocation will help facilitate recovery from nearly 200 different emergency events, including Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico; storms and flooding in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, California, Alabama, and Kentucky; and many others.
The funds will help pay for the reconstruction or replacement of damaged highways and bridges along with the arrangement of detours and replacement of damaged safety devices, the agency said.
“Emergency relief funding is critical to restoring vital transportation links damaged by severe weather and other unexpected events that are heavily relied upon by communities for daily travel,” explained Stephanie Pollack, FHWA’s deputy administrator, in a statement.
She added that FHWA is updating its ER Manual for 2022 to spotlight the program’s impact on improvements to system resilience and the equity of infrastructure spending.
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