Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, officials are deciding what to do with incoming federal infrastructure funding.
According to transportation officials cited by the Lehigh Valley Morning Call, the area needs more than $4 billion to fund improvements to its roads and bridges over the next 25 years.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the $1 trillion bill President Joe Biden signed into law in November, is expected to generate $550 billion over the next five years for America’s infrastructure projects.
This means about $380 million for the Lehigh Valley, according to Becky Bradley, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.
“There are so many cool things that are going to be important to managing congestion, making the community safer and making more accessible paths for bikes, pedestrians, and the mobility-impaired,” she said.
The money would flow through the Lehigh Valley Transportation Study, the Planning Commission’s sister agency, the Morning Call said.
After Biden signed the bill, PennDOT and regional planning agencies, such as the LVTS, developed strategies for infrastructure projects, Bradley said.
“We went into hours and hours of meetings right after Thanksgiving to figure out what projects in the Lehigh Valley would continue and where new projects could be added to this new cycle of federal funding,” Bradley said.
You can read the full report here.
Source: Lehigh Valley Morning Call
