Gov. John Bel Edwards recently issued Executive Order #2022-19, which aims to increase access to BIL-funded projects for businesses that are small-, minority-, women-, and veteran-owned, and disadvantaged. It also seeks to increase access to BIL funding for local and tribal governments, nonprofits, and other community organizations.
“One year in, Louisiana is just beginning to feel the tremendous positive impact of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” Edwards said. “This legislation is enabling us to make the transformative infrastructure investments that have been long overdue in our state — investments in roads and bridges, ports, rail, broadband, water systems, orphaned wells, electric vehicles, and more."
Among the already announced projects, Louisiana was the first state in the country to be awarded broadband expansion funding from BIL. Governor Edwards recently announced that $320 million in BIL funds had been awarded to two Louisiana companies to expand manufacturing of electric vehicle battery components, creating hundreds of jobs. BIL funding will also provide $270 million to local governments to repair locally-owned bridges. And BIL dollars for water infrastructure will complement Louisiana’s ongoing effort to use federal American Rescue Plan dollars to improve rural water systems.
“The BIL has paved the way for DOTD to make progress on much-needed projects across the state that otherwise would not have advanced due to funding constraints,” said Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) Secretary Shawn D. Wilson, Ph.D. “Investments like this are what will push our nation and economy forward, especially in Louisiana with our aging infrastructure.”
More than $4 billion have been announced for over 120 projects in Louisiana from November 2021 to November 2022.
- Roads and Bridges - $2.4 billion
- Internet - Total TBA, at least $100 million
- Water - $101 million
- Public Transit & Clean Buses - $142 million
- Electric Vehicle Charging - $27 million
- Clean Energy & Power - $370 million
- Airports & Ports - $588 million
- Resilience - $367 million
- Legacy Pollution Cleanup - $52 million
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