CHICAGO — President Donald Trump‘s transportation department has been pulling back grants already announced for recreational trails and bicycle lanes, telling local officials their projects fail to promote road capacity or are “hostile to motor vehicles.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation recently sent letters to local governments in at least six states — Alabama, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Mexico — informing them it was withdrawing money awarded under the approximately $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by former President Joe Biden in 2021.

The reversals are among the clearest signals yet of the drastic shift from the Biden administration’s emphasis on alternative transportation, such as transit and bicyles, to the Trump administration’s focus on preserving and expanding lanes for cars and trucks.

While the new grants announced by the transportation department this year reflect that change, it’s practically unprecedented for an administration to claw back grants awarded by a predecessor without a compelling reason, such as potential environmental harms. However, the latest recalled projects didn’t have in place fully funded grant agreements, which would have made reversing them far trickier.

The transportation department’s press office didn’t respond to emails requesting comment.

Connecticut won a $5.7 million federal grant last summer to help design segments of a 44-mile recreational trail connecting several communities along the Naugatuck River.

Rick Dunne, executive director of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, said the grant’s final details were being negotiated when the U.S. Department of Transportation last month sent a letter to inform local officials that the project wouldn’t move forward. The agency wants “multimodal grant programs” to focus on “projects that promote vehicular travel,” the letter explained.

“They’re defining quality of life for Americans as enhancing automobile operations,” Dunne said.

The same reason was given in a letter sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico, pulling $11.5 million in funding for a leg of a rail trail cutting through the city’s core. It was among the first active transportation projects awarded under the infrastructure law, with funding announced in 2022, but it was still going through the approval process.

“We are going to stand up for Albuquerque and prevent the Trump administration from pulling money from a project the people of Albuquerque want,” Mayor Tim Keller stated in a press release. “We will see you in court.”

Kevin Mills, vice president of policy for the Rails to Trails Conservancy, called the cuts “an affront to the priorities set by Congress and Americans’ demands for safer, more convenient walking and biking routes.”

The transportation department also withdrew a $20 million grant awarded in 2022 to transform three streetscapes in Boston. The reversal was based in part on the project’s electric vehicle charging stations, which the administration said contradicted its preference for promoting “traditional forms of energy and natural resources,” the Boston Globe reported.

Some of the withdrawn projects were relatively small in dollars and scope but still targeted for reversal due to the department’s changing priorities.

One applied to just a single block in San Diego County, California, where the community wanted to test whether it could improve safety without disrupting traffic flow. It sought to employ “creative roadway features” such as roundabouts in place of traffic signals, with plans to expand the approach to other intersections if the model proved successful, said Donna Durckel, spokesperson for the county’s Land Use and Environment Group.

But Trump’s transportation officials flagged it as “hostile to motor vehicles” in a letter sent Sept. 9 because the project included a so-called road diet that would have reduced the stretch from four lanes to two.

On the same day, McLean County in central Illinois got a similar letter recalling federal funding awarded last year to help design a final 9-mile segment of a bicyclist and pedestrian trail along Route 66. The project wouldn’t affect motor vehicle travel but would promote safety by getting bicyclists and pedestrians off the road, county engineer Jerry Stokes said.

“We’re kind of at a standstill now until new funding sources become available,” he said.

The post U.S. DOT pulls bike and trail grants in funding shift appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Improvements to a key arterial in Tigard are in the works. A team is redesigning Southwest 72nd Avenue from Oregon Route 99W to Oregon Route 217, in the Tigard Triangle.

The current project will take the design to 30 percent completion for the north section of 72nd Avenue (from 99W to Dartmouth Street) and to 10 percent completion for the south section (from Dartmouth Street to 217). Kittelson & Associates was hired by the city through a qualifications-based solicitation to assist with the early design efforts.

The 72nd Avenue Corridor Study was completed in 2020, Tigard principal transportation planner Tiffany Gehrke said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. From that study, the city redeveloped the basic concept of the project based on community members’ feedback. They asked for safe walking and biking options, protected bicycle lanes, and on-street parking.

During the planning phase a new roadway design concept was identified for 72nd Avenue to transform the busy road into a multimodal street. Proposed design elements include a sidewalk, a protected bicycle lane, a landscaping buffer, one travel lane in each direction with a center turn lane, and on-street parking on both sides of the street. Proposed intersection improvements include a protected intersection, pedestrian crossings, future transit stops, curb extensions, green bike lane extensions, high visibility crosswalks, and lighting.

Future transit service by TriMet is proposed along 72nd Avenue/Dartmouth Street. Future transit stops would be designed per TriMet standards.

New pedestrian crossing locations would include the future Red Rock Creek Trail, future Atlanta Street, between Baylor Street and Clinton Street, and Elmhurst Street.

The project team anticipates completing 30 percent design plans of the north section, which will cost around $25 million. The team in February applied for a federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant to cover the cost of that work. The team expects to hear back by the end of June on the possible grant award.

In the project’s next phase, design will be completed, and a contractor will be selected, according to Courtney Furman, principal engineer for the city of Tigard. Currently, construction is not funded in Tigard’s Capital Improvement Plan. The schedule for the next phase will depend on whether the city secures grant funding.

The post Redesign in progress for 72nd Avenue in Tigard Triangle appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.