(Seattle, WA) – Today, U.S.
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), chairman of the Senate Transportation
Appropriations Committee, announced that through a program that she created in
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) the effort to rebuild the
South Park Bridge in Seattle will receive $34 million to complete financing
plans. The funding is part of the Transportation Investments Generating
Economic Recovery (TIGER II) program that Senator Murray created to invest in
major transportation projects that create jobs and bolster regional economies.
“This is a huge victory for
a community that deserves an economic jolt,” said Senator Murray.”A rebuilt
South Park Bridge will get workers back on the job, customers back into
businesses, and ease congestion through South Seattle,” said Senator Murray. “At a time when every job
counts, this project will create private sector employment and will help small
businesses and customers connect. These are the types of projects I fight to
support in our state. The South Park community came together to support this
effort, state and local leaders came up with a funding plan but they needed
federal support to get to the finish line. I’m proud to have established the
TIGER program to fund projects like these that create jobs through large-scale
construction projects and have a lasting economic impact on communities.”
The $34 million that Senator
Murray helped secure for this project will provide all the federal funding needed
to complete financing plans to rebuild the bridge.
This project will replace the
81-year old South Park Bridge, closed in June of 2010 by King County for safety
reasons. Before its closure, this structure connected a large
manufacturing and industrial area to downtown Seattle, the Port of Seattle and
Sea-Tac airport, carrying nearly 10 million tons of cargo annually. The
closure of the structure has forced freight traffic onto already congested
routes serving the South Seattle area. Additionally, the South Park
neighborhood is home to 3,700 residents and 115 businesses whose lives and
livelihoods are seriously disrupted without a safe, functioning bridge.
This already economically distressed area has seen an increased downturn since
the bridge’s closure.
Senator Murray created the
TIGER grant program in 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act (ARRA). As head of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Committee,
Murray believed that the bill needed to include a program that would invest in
transportation projects of regional significance.
In September, Senator Murray
directed U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood to visit the site of the
bridge during a trip to announce transportation investments. Senator Murray
also sent a letter of support for the project to Secretary LaHood.
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