Six commercial seaports or projects, that directly aid the efficient movement of goods to and from America’s ports, have been awarded a total of USD 61.8 million in funding, American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) said.
The funding was awarded as part of the fiscal year 2016 Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants.
The six projects receiving awards in the eighth round of TIGER grants are the Port of Albany, Virgin Islands Port Authority, Port of Everett, Port Authority of Guam, Port of Portland and Little Rock Port Authority, Arkansas.
AAPA President and CEO Kurt Nagle said that direct funding for maritime infrastructure projects, including connections to ports, “will improve freight mobility which helps reduce transportation costs and makes U.S. exports more attractive to overseas buyers.”
In this round of grants, the ports received about 12.36 percent of the total funding of nearly USD 500 million.
In TIGER’s first round in fiscal 2009, port-related infrastructure projects received about 8.6 percent of the original USD 1.5 billion allocated.