CONTACTS:
Tom Gerend, Asst. Transportation Director, 816/701-8303

Jody Ladd Craig, Public Affairs Director, jcraig@marc.org, 816/701-8241

Kansas City region applies for TIGER federal recovery funds for transportation projects

MARC recently partnered with local jurisdictions, transit providers and freight providers to pursue a funding opportunity through the federal recovery act's Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) discretionary grant program. The Kansas City Regional TIGER Application was submitted on Sept. 14, requesting $87,761,000 for capital improvements in transit, bicycle and pedestrian projects, Green Impact Zone projects, and freight corridor improvements. Grant awards will be announced by January 2010.

The TIGER program requires that projects be shovel ready, and be included in state, local or metropolitan planning efforts. Projects must be able to generate short- and long-term economic impacts, generate added outcomes of livability, promote safety, and involve innovative technology and financing.

Partners in the application included: MARC, the city of Kansas City, Mo.; Johnson County, Kan.; Kansas City Area Transportation Authority; Kansas City Terminal Railway; Port Authority of Kansas City, Mo.; and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan.

Projects include critical infrastructure in the Green Impact Zone such as streets and sidewalks, replacing the Troost Avenue Bridge over Brush Creek, and providing better access to regional opportunities through expanded transit and pedestrian facilities.

A $28.5 million section of the grant would target transit investments including replacing two aging transit centers in the State Avenue corridor in Kansas; rehabilitation of two park-and-ride lots; a new transit center in the Metcalf Avenue/Shawnee Mission Parkway corridor in Kansas; and approximately 80 bus-stop and related pedestrian improvements in the urban corridor network. These investments would also include transit improvements in the North Oak corridor and in a corridor from Kansas City to Independence, as well as design of a streetcar line in downtown Kansas City, Mo. 

Approximately $12 million would be allocated to improvements to bicycle and pedestrian facilities throughout the region.  The Kansas City Terminal Railway would use $18 million from the grant to relieve a north-south corridor freight bottleneck. The Port Authority would use $3.6 million to construct a new interchange to connect the Sen. Bond Bridge interchange on the east with the Grand Avenue/Gage Viaduct on the west allowing planned commercial and residential redevelopment to occur.

Application documents are available for review at www.marc.org/recovery/tiger.

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Mid-America Regional Council | 600 Broadway, Suite 200, Kansas City, Mo. 64105
Ph: 816/474-4240 | Fax: 816/421-7758 | www.marc.org