Federal funding will aid truck parking projects in a dozen states, the Department of Transportation announced Wednesday.
The $200 million in annual funding comes through the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America for projects aimed to improvement safety, efficiency and the movement of goods.
“This nationwide investment will make America’s truckers safer, enhance our supply chains, and reduce freight costs,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a news release.
The projects cover thousands of parking spots for projects in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin, according to a program worksheet.
While projects can replace and enhance existing facilities, the investments will “create hundreds of new parking spaces along major freight corridors and at key freight facilities,” the American Trucking Associations noted.
Awards cover a variety of expansions, including projects in:
- Enfield, Connecticut, to build a facility with 260 truck parking spots on I-91
- Near Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee along I-40 and I-24 at five Pilot Travel Center locations for approximately 500 spots, accessible 24/7 for free
- Dodge County, Wisconsin, for two rest area projects to provide approximately 106 more truck parking spaces
Other projects involve a parking rest area in Crawford County, Arkansas; constructing a commercial parking facility in Needles, California; enhancing facilities in Monroe County, Georgia, at two I-75 rest areas; reconstructing and expanding in southern Illinois on I-57; creating a new rest area near Fergus Falls, Minnesota, on I-94; creating a new rest area on I-80 in Dawson County, Nebraska; and constructing parking spaces at a Fort Worth Pilot Travel Center.
Several awards also target improving infrastructure at ports. Those projects include providing truck parking spaces in North Carolina through a Port of Wilmington project; constructing a parking area in Garden City, Georgia, near the Port of Savannah; and facilitating access to a new parking site near the Los Indios Port of Entry in Cameron County, Texas
“Truck parking is not simply a matter of convenience,” ATA Chief Advocacy & Public Affairs Officer Henry Hanscom said in a statement. “It is a critical safety and supply chain issue that affects every truck driver and every motorist on our highways.”
