N.E. to get $69m for transportation infrastructure
Aim is to shore up roads, bridges, culverts against climate change
Several coastal New England states will soon receive grants from the federal government to protect transportation infrastructure from climate change, the Federal Highway Administration announced.
The discretionary grants, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Congress passed in 2021, aim to strengthen transportation systems — highways, bridges, roads, and culverts — against the worsening impacts of climate change.
The law includes $8.7 billion to be spent by 2026 to make transportation more resilient to natural hazards. New England is expected to eventually receive more than $330 million to protect transportation corridors from the impacts of climate change, with Massachusetts getting $106 million, plus any additional case-by-case grant funding.
The Northeast has been hit harder by extreme precipitation than any other region of the United States, scientists have found: The number of days when rain or snowfall totals have substantially exceeded what is normal has increased by 60 percent since the 1950s, according to the National Climate Assessment. At the same time, the Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on the planet, and sea levels along its coast are rising a few inches each decade, a rate that’s expected to accelerate as climate change worsens.
Both the increasing intensity of rainfall and the rising sea levels put transportation infrastructure at risk of closures — when flooded — and damage, such as erosion.
“Extreme weather, made worse by climate change, is damaging America’s transportation infrastructure, cutting people off from getting to where they need to go, and threatening to raise the cost of goods by disrupting supply chains,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement.
On Thursday, the Biden administration announced nearly $830 million for projects across 39 states and territories in this first round of grant funding.
Massachusetts will receive $3.7 million of that federal money to upgrade drainage systems and reduce flooding on Route 20 near Worcester
at Flint Pond, which the Massachusetts government says will limit road closures during storm events.
When tropical storm Fred brought torrential rain to Massachusetts in 2021, streets were impassable in Worcester and other areas, and cars were submerged by multiple feet of water. A heavy rainfall event last September devastated Leominster; the city is still figuring out how to pay for the tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure repairs.
Governor Maura Healey called the grant a “game-changer” for Worcester and Shrewsbury.
“We need to act now on critical transportation infrastructure projects like this, which will provide urgently needed relief for communities impacted by flooding,” Healey said in a statement Thursday.
Rhode Island was awarded three grants totaling about $44 million. A $26 million grant will be used to increase drainage capacity and increase green spaces in watershed areas at almost 100 locations across the state; a $17 million grant will be used to install a dehumidification system on the cables and anchors of the Mount Hope suspension bridge along R.I. Route 114; and a $750,000 grant will be used to develop a coastal management plan that allows the Town of Warren to move further inland.
New Hampshire will receive $20 million to reconstruct protections from coastal erosion along three miles of Route 1A between North Hampton and Rye, and Connecticut will receive $1.2 million to develop an extreme weather plan for transportation infrastructure in northern regions of the state.
Combined, New England states will receive $69 million in the new grant funding.