WASHINGTON, March 5 (UPI) -- More than $600 million in funding for 191 new economic stimulus transit projects in 42 states was announced Friday by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
The new projects mean the Federal Transit Administration met an aggressive deadline of awarding 100 percent of its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act transit dollars by Friday, Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a release.
Since the Recovery Act was signed in February 2009, the Transit Administration has awarded 881 grants totaling $7.5 billion, Biden and LaHood said. Once funds are obligated to a project, contracts can be let, workers hired, vehicles purchased and work begun on the nation's infrastructure while supporting thousands of jobs, they said.
"Investing in these transit upgrades not only puts construction workers on the job at project sites, but supports American manufacturing jobs all the way down the supply chain," Biden said.
So far, stimulus funds have supported the purchase of nearly 12,000 buses, vans and rail vehicles; construction or renovation of more than 850 transit facilities; and the performance of more than $620 million in preventive maintenance, LaHood said.
