By Todd DeFeo
(The Center Square) – The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is looking to allocate $30.1 million in grants to help communities statewide improve roads and bridges with heavy truck traffic.
The grants are part of the fiscal 2022 Local Freight Impact Fund (LFIF) program, created in October 2016 by the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) reauthorization.
The money ostensibly helps local governments pay for projects that improve safety, rebuild old infrastructure, “promote economic development” and “support new transportation opportunities.” NJDOT officials will evaluate projects based on various criteria such as traffic volume, the percentage of large trucks that use a road or bridge and its connectivity to freight nodes.
“Our state and regional economies require an integrated transportation network that depends on safe truck routes to efficiently move goods to and from New Jersey’s seaports, airports, and rail yards,” NJDOT Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti said in an announcement. “The Local Freight Impact Fund provides grants to municipalities and counties to make improvements to local roads and bridges that carry commercial truck traffic to ensure our infrastructure can meet current and future demands.”
The grants are open to projects that fall into four categories: pavement preservation, bridge preservation, new construction and truck safety and mobility. The state will accept applications for the program through Nov. 26.
Earlier this year, the state awarded $30.1 million in grants for 33 projects to help counties and municipalities across New Jersey facilitate large trucks’ safe movement.
