Inflation Reduction Act includes $3B to improve roads

Abstract

Dive Brief: The Inflation Reduction Act contains $3 billion to fund Neighborhood Access and Equity Grants, a new program that aims to rework overbuilt arterial roads and make them safer and more accessible for various modes of transportation. "These grants will reconnect communities divided by existing infrastructure, mitigate negative impacts of transportation facilities or construction projects on communities and support equitable transportation planning," according to a White House press release. The new grants can be used to build connections across highways and railroads, and to redesign roads that are dangerous to cross. Dive Insight: The new grants supplement the $1 billion in funding from the Reconnecting Communities Program, created through last year's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Neighborhood Access and Equity Grants can be used, for example, to cover a highway or convert it into a boulevard, add bike lanes or sound barriers, provide better connections to transit, build "Green" stormwater infrastructure, add new safety features and more. Unlike IIJA money, the IRA funds cannot be used to build single-occupant car lanes. In addition to the access grants, the IRA includes other items of importance to the construction industry, such as significant expansions of tax incentives for energy efficiency improvements to buildings.