Valley Metro to receive $17.4M for Tempe Streetcar project
Jun 13, 2021, 6:30 AM
Valley Metro CEO speaks during the unveiling of the first Tempe Streetcar to arrive in the Valley. (Twitter Photo/@valleymetro)
(Twitter Photo/@valleymetro)
PHOENIX — U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced Friday that the American Rescue Plan is allocating $17.4 million in funding to advance the Tempe Streetcar Project.
The three-mile streetcar with 14 stations and six vehicles will connect downtown Tempe, Arizona State University and the employment corridor of Rio Salado Parkway.
“Public transit opens new opportunities for people, and delivers environmental and economic benefits to communities,” Buttigieg said in a statement.
“We are delighted to provide support for these projects, which will help communities recover from the pandemic and bring public transit to more people in the months and years to come.”
The American Rescue Plan of 2021 specified that $240 million could be distributed to projects in the Capital Investment Grants program that previously received funding or that are in the development phase of the program.
Twenty-two transit projects in the CIG program will receive funds provided by the rescue plan signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11.
The federal funding allocations aim to help communities across the country preserve the jobs of workers involved in constructing transit projects and ensuring advancement of those pieces of infrastructure, despite impacts of COVID-19.
The transit infrastructure projects are located in 13 states: Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
