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Recovery Act

Welcome to Throwback Thursday

How often do blog readers go back and browse through the archives? Not very often, but some of those oldies (and not-so-oldies) still continue to resonate powerfully a year or more later.

So today, we introduce a new feature in the Fast Lane: Throwback Thursdays.

We're starting with a post from November 2013, celebrating the opening of the fourth bore of California's Caldecott Tunnel. We hope you'll see that investing in congestion-relieving, time-saving projects like this produces a wealth of benefits that continue to make lives easier and our economy more vibrant long after the ribbons are cut.

That's why Transportation Secretary Foxx has been criss-crossing America calling on Congress to support the Administration's GROW AMERICA Act, a long-term plan that will support millions of jobs, improve our transportation system, and strengthen our economic outlook.

4th bore partnership helps Caldecott Tunnel turn a corner

Posted by
Anthony Foxx

With the opening Friday of a fourth tube in the Caldecott Tunnel, commuters in the Bay Area will turn the page on a new chapter in transportation.

Yes, we did: the 5-Year Anniversary of the Recovery Act

On February 17, 2009--five years ago--President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In office less than a month, he took a huge step forward in leading this nation out of its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. At the U.S. Department of Transportation, we knew the important role transportation could play in getting the economy back on its feet and when given the opportunity to help through Recovery Act funds, we said, "Yes, we can."

Five years later, DOT is proud to say, "Yes, we did."

Close-up photo of pavement work

U.S. Transportation Secretary Foxx Visits I-95 Express Lanes

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. – U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today visited the I-95 Express Lanes in Fort Lauderdale, a project that reflects how transportation can help create the type of economic opportunities President Obama discussed in his State of the Union address this week.  The $112 million project used $105 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds from the Department of Transportation.  Secretary Foxx was joined by U.S. Representatives Alcee Hastings, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Lois Frankel, along with state and local officials.

FHWA celebrates re-connected San Bernardino

In 1959, if you happened to be driving in San Bernardino, California, a new freeway there could have provided you with a modern transportation route. Unfortunately, it also kept one part of town separated from the other.

But not anymore.

Last week, I traveled to California and joined officials from Caltrans, the San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG)  and the City of San Bernardino at a ribbon-cutting for the I-215 widening project. This was a big undertaking and a special endeavor for a lot of reasons.

Photo of ribbon cutting for I-215

New tower at Oakland International offers improved safety, green innovation

If you're traveling through the Oakland International Airport this holiday season, you can be thankful for an innovative combination of improved safety and environmental protection. Thanks to the Recovery Act, I’m pleased to announce the dedication of a new, 236-foot-tall air traffic control tower at Oakland International.

President Obama is committed to investing in our aviation infrastructure in order to create good-paying jobs and keep our nation competitive in today’s global economy, and our new Oakland tower is a gleaming example of that. An American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant of $33.2 million from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) helped pay for construction of the tower, as well as a 14,000-square-foot base building.

Photo of Oakland Control Tower

The state-of-the-art tower at Oakland gives controllers dramatically better views of the airfields--enhancing safety--and it consolidates the controllers who had been using two separate towers for more than 40 years.

4th bore partnership helps Caldecott Tunnel turn a corner

With the opening Friday of a fourth tube in the Caldecott Tunnel, commuters in the Bay Area will turn the page on a new chapter in transportation.

It’s a chapter about the effectiveness of partnership, a partnership of dedicated workers, a 130-ton rock-cutting drill, the state of California, and –I’m proud to say– the U.S. Department of Transportation. How effective? As the Contra Costa Times reported, the new lanes opened ahead of schedule and under budget.

Photot of workers putting finishing touches on Caldecott Tunnel tube
Workers put finishing touches on new Caldecott bore; all photos courtesy Caltrans.

Buy America

The Department of Transportation is committed to maximizing the economic benefits of the Obama Administration’s historic infrastructure investments through Buy America provisions that keep American companies healthy and families working.

Buy America provisions ensure that transportation infrastructure projects are built with American-made products. That means that Department of Transportation investments are able to support an entire supply chain of American companies and their employees.

U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood Launches “Voices of the Recovery Act” Web Feature

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today unveiled a new interactive “Voices of the Recovery Act” web feature to share the stories of workers on Recovery Act projects around the country.  Through the online map, visitors can click on videos of construction workers around the country employed on Recovery Act-funded construction projects.  Using their own words, workers across America talk about what the Recovery Act has meant to them in tough economic times for the construction industry. Workers employed by a transportation funded Recovery project can submit their own videos by posting their story on YouTube.

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