Imagine a railroad intersection where ten freight and passenger rail lines cross paths, carrying more than 100 trains a day. That is Tower 55, in Ft. Worth, Texas, and it is one of the busiest rail intersections in America.
Unfortunately, the high volume at Tower 55 causes terrible delays, for freight and passenger rail as well as cars and trucks on area roadways. And if we want to get our economy back on track, this nation needs to be able to get goods to markets and get people where they need to go.
So, yesterday in Ft. Worth, it was with great pleasure that I committed $34 million in TIGER II money to fund major rail improvements on the Tower 55 project and reduce traffic delays there by 100,000 hours per year. Once complete, rail capacity will increase by more than 30 percent, making it more efficient for rail freight shippers and improving commuter rail reliability and performance.
As U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison--who fought hard to make this project happen--said, “Tower 55 is a crossroads of the North American continent. This project will allow the Tower to go from a legacy chokepoint to the model of a freight and passenger checkpoint, a facility featuring efficiency, safety, and convenience.”
In the short-term alone, we'll be creating 900 jobs installing new signaling, bridge upgrades, a third track line, and improved street and pedestrian crossings. And that is welcome news for construction workers.
Talking with construction workers, photo courtesy City of Ft. Worth
That's right--through our robust public-private partnership with state, local, and industry partners, we’re adding 900 jobs, eliminating a longstanding bottleneck for freight rail, creating capacity to handle future rail demand as our population grows, and strengthening the foundation for economic development across the region.
This is exactly the kind of project President Obama had in mind on Wednesday when he said, "It's time to put construction workers back on the job doing the work that America needs now."
Yesterday, we also announced a $15 million high-speed rail grant for Texas to jump-start engineering and environmental work on a high-speed rail corridor linking two of the largest metro areas in America, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston. The State of Texas is one of 32 states across the country currently laying the foundation for future high-speed rail service that will connect Americans more quickly, efficiently and safely than ever before.
Both of these awards demonstrate the President's bold vision for investing in projects that will create jobs now and grow our economy over the long-term. At a time when interest rates are at historic lows, so many construction workers are looking for jobs, and so much work is needed--this is the moment to repair crumbling roads, bridges and transit systems. This is the moment to build the safest, fastest, most efficient ways of moving people and products.
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