WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Dec. 21, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that the Biden-Harris Administration has awarded $25 million from the new Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for its ferry design and construction projects in Plaquemines Parish and Cameron Parish.
One ferry boat will provide continued access across the Mississippi River between Highway 23 and Highway 39 at Pointe a la Hache, and between Belle Chasse and Scarsdale in Plaquemines Parish. The other ferry boat will provide continued access across the Calcasieu Ship Channel in Cameron Parish.
Officials hope the new ferries will reduce down time, lower operations and maintenance costs, reduce environmental impacts and improve safety.
There is a total of $44 billion available through the infrastructure law to help rural communities repair and improve their roads, bridges, airports, ports, and transit systems.
“Infrastructure investments haven’t always reached rural America, leaving far too many roads, bridges and other parts of the transportation system across our country in disrepair,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a press release. “Today’s announcement is one of many ways this administration is delivering the investments that rural communities have gone without for far too long, modernizing transportation, creating economic opportunity and making life better for millions of people.”
The program will invest a total of approximately $2 billion through 2026 for projects that improve highways, bridges and tunnels; address highway safety; increase access to agricultural, commercial, energy, or freight facilities that support the economy; and bring flexible transit services to rural and Tribal areas.
