No TIGER Grants for St. Louis City

TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery)is a program of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Cities across the country submitted proposals to the $1.5 billion program. Competition was stiff, and St. Louis's projects did not make the final cut (with the exception of a small Metro East grant).

The final TIGER grant awardees list is here.

Midwestern TIGER recipients include (not exhaustive): Detroit (for construction of light rail on Woodward); Chicago (for a freight train congestion reduction program); Indianapolis (a bicycle and pedestrian network downtown); and Kansas City (to help fund the "Green Impact Zone" that I blogged on recently).

Among St. Louis projects passed over were:

• The Loop Trolley.
• Rebuilding the 22nd Street Interchange downtown (as part of McKee's NorthSide development).
• Unnamed "improvements" in the Chouteau Lake and Greenway project.
• Truck-only lanes for I-70
• A Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) at DeBaliviere and Forest Park Parkway.

Read more at Building Blocks Blog. The Loop Trolley, DeBaliviere TOD, and 22nd Street interchange rebuild will likely go on without these helpful TIGER grants; I am unsure of the status of the Chouteau Lake project. I believe a truck-only lane on I-70 is a heap of wasted money.

Better luck next economic crisis, St. Louis?

UPDATE: Building Blocks Blog has posted a tally of the rejected TIGER projects including their costs here.