There will be a little more than 2,400 new truck parking spaces built over the next few years as a result of funding provided to various projects under the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects (INFRA) program.
“A targeted objective of this funding opportunity is to directly address the national shortage of commercial motor vehicle parking,” the Department of Transportation said in announcing the grants Wednesday. “By funding projects that expand safe, accessible public parking for commercial drivers, the Department aims to reduce fatigue-related accidents, improve supply chain fluidity, and provide essential infrastructure along the nation’s most critical freight corridors. To support these national freight and mobility goals, the Department intends to invest in projects that enhance or maintain the operational efficiency of the national transportation network.”
According to an FAQ document on INFRA, the funds for parking can only be provided to some sort of public entity or a public-private partnership. The list of acceptable entities to apply included potential applicants as big as a state or a group of them, down to an individual local government or a group of them.
But it also provides that any of the public applicants could have applied with a “private entity to fund development, capacity expansion, or operations and maintenance.”
There were 14 new parking projects approved by INFRA and announced by the Department of Transportation Wednesday. The precise total of new spots is 2,403.
Biggest project in the Volunteer State
The largest is a 500 spot project in Tennessee. That project is actually two separate projects, one near Nashville and the other near Knoxville.
The recipients of the grant of just under $24 million are three counties, joined together under the banner of the Greater Nashville Regional Council. The new parking spots will be built at five separate Pilot Travel Center locations, according to the fact sheet released by the DOT. They will be built along interstate 40 and interstate 24.
Border crossing parking
The dropoff to the next largest project is significant: 305 spots to be built in Los Indios, Texas, near the Brownsville border crossing with Mexico.
In that project, according to the DOT, work will need to be done to reconstruct about 0.35 miles of a local road that will provide access to a new parking area near the Los Indios Port of Entry. Cameron County was the entity granted the $9.2 million award.
The other projects from largest to smallest, along with their sponsors, are as follows:
- Port of Savannah, 275 spots, sponsored by the Georgia Ports Authority, near the port of Savannah, less than two miles from gate 4 of the port, $24.5 million.
- Enfield, Connecticut, 260 spots at a new parking facility, sponsored by the state’s Department of Transportation, on interstate 91 north of Hartford, $13.5 million.
- Rest Iowa sponsored by the state’s Department of Transportation, described as “rural,” 150 spots spread out over six existing rest areas on interstate 80, $24.5 million, sponsored by the state’s Department of Transportation.
- Port of Wilmington, North Carolina, 140 spots, $6 million, at the port, serving interstate 40, sponsored by the North Carolina State Ports Authority.
- Interstate 49 rest area, new project on the future interstate 49 in Crawford County, Arkansas, 137 spots, $23 million, Arkansas Department of Transportation is the sponsor.
- Nebraska interstate 80 rest stop, sponsored by the state’s Department of Transportation, 120 spots for $7.5 million, building a new facility between mile markers 247 and 254 in Dawson County.
- Monroe County, Georgia, 109 spots, $13.5 million, adding spots at existing sites at two Georgia-owned parking facilities, one a weigh station and one a rest area, sponsored by the state’s Department of Transportation.
- Wisconsin project on interstate 41 near Dodge County, sponsored by the state’s Department of Transportation, 106 spots for $15 million, adding to two existing areas.
- Fort Worth Alliance project at a Pilot Travel Center, 100 spots, $5 million, state highway 170 & interstate 35 west, sponsored by the city of Fort Worth.
- Needles truck parking area, 100 spots at a new 15-acre site, near the interstate 40 and California 95 interchange, $6.4 million, sponsored by the city of Needles.
- Fergus Falls rest area in Minnesota, 63 spots, $27.7 million, sponsored by the state’s Department of Transportation, located on interstate 94.
- Southern Illinois project, sponsored by the state’s Department of Transportation, 38 parking spots, reconstructing the southbound Green Creek and Post Oak rest areas on interstate 57.
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