Freight and supply chain industry leaders from across the nation gathered today for the Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors (CAGTC) annual meeting with a goal of highlighting goods movement infrastructure needs. Two years into implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), CAGTC surveyed its membership on their experiences seeking and receiving funding through the landmark bill. Notably, an impressive two-thirds of CAGTC member respondents received funding through BIL grant programs. The results released at the meeting showed that, despite challenges in the process, 100 percent of respondents will continue to seek federal funding through competitive grants. Underscoring this, CAGTC also released the fourth edition of its Freight Can’t Wait booklet, which contains 60 significant freight projects from across the country that would benefit from federal grant funding.

“While the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided historic funding for freight infrastructure projects, our work is far from over,” said Paul Anderson, CAGTC Board of Directors Chairman and President and CEO, Port Tampa Bay. “We are seeking to maximize these opportunities by understanding how the programs are serving freight infrastructure developers across the country to determine what is working and what could be improved. As demonstrated in CAGTC’s Freight Can’t Wait book, our nation’s freight investment needs are immense, and this level of federal partnership must be sustained well into the future.”

From the strategic planning phase, to developing a grant application, and the culmination of an award, CAGTC’s survey explored the process that state and local agencies undertake when seeking federal assistance for infrastructure development. According to respondents, the greatest challenges in preparing grant applications include time and expertise to develop a proposal, changes in selection criteria, and inconsistency across modal agencies, among others. Nevertheless, competitive grants are seen as very promising and essential tools for funding complex freight projects.

“Our in-depth survey revealed a number of valuable insights that we look forward to sharing with the Administration as it continues to roll out unprecedented levels of grant funding,” said CAGTC Executive Director Elaine Nessle. “We encourage the Administration to continue supporting freight projects. Investment in the country’s freight network through competitive grant programs is necessary to ensuring that freight infrastructure can meet the demands of tomorrow.”

Working with its membership, the Coalition developed the fourth edition of Freight Can’t Wait, a book containing infrastructure projects from across the U.S. standing to benefit from federal partnership and investment. Projects included in Freight Can’t Wait illustrate the importance of federal investment to incentivize state, local, and private dollars that, together, will push infrastructure projects over the finish line.