Port of Oakland to Receive Funding to Develop Marine Highway
For Immediate Release
February 17, 2010
Contact: Ricci Graham
510-763-0370
Announcement comes as the White House commemorates
one-year anniversary of this historic funding
Washington D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-Oakland) applauded the announcement by Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood that the U. S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is awarding a total of $1.5 billion to states, tribal governments, cities, counties and transit agencies across the country to fund 51 innovative transportation projects.
As part of this funding, the Port of Oakland, the Port of West Sacramento and the Port of Stockton will receive a combined $30 million to support the further development of an alternative marine highway system – or the Green Trade Corridor - to move cargo more efficiently through Northern and Central California.
“The Port of Oakland is working closely with the ports in Stockton and West Sacramento to develop more efficient and environmentally-friendly approaches in moving cargo throughout the region,” Congresswoman Lee said. “As a result of this funding, the ports will have the financial resources to move forward in this crucial endeavor.”
The funding for the projects is being made available through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grant Program. The program was included in the Recovery Act to spur a national competition for innovative, multi-modal and multi-jurisdictional transportation projects that will result in significant economic and environmental benefits to an entire metropolitan area, a region or the nation.
The announced funding comes as the nation commemorates the one-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009. After one year, it is clear that this historic legislation is working to stem the greatest economic crisis since Great Depression and lay a new foundation for national economic growth.
Nationwide, the Recovery Act is responsible for creating or sustaining an estimated 2.4 million jobs; it has also funded over 55,000 projects that are not only creating jobs upfront, but laying a long-term foundation for economic growth.
Locally, Congresswoman Lee has worked to direct an estimated $1.9 billion in ARRA funding for communities, agencies and institutions throughout the Ninth Congressional. District, funding that has been credited with creating or preserving an estimated 1,400 jobs.
To learn more about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, please visit
www.recovery.gov.
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