With the U.S. House of Representatives’ historic passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – the infrastructure portion of President Joe Biden‘s Build Back Better economic plan – Virginia stands to receive billions of dollars to invest in critical transportation, transit, sustainability, broadband, and other infrastructure. Here are highlights, to include what some of these investments could mean for Virginians specifically:
Transportation
- Roads, bridges, major projects: $110 billion (Virginia stands to receive $7 billion for federal-aid highway apportioned programs and $537 million for bridge replacement and repair)
- Passenger and freight rail: $66 billion
- Public transit: $39 billion (Virginia would expect to receive $1.2 billion over five years for sustainable rail and other transit services)
- Airports: $25 billion (Airports in Virginia would receive approximately $386 million for infrastructure development for airports over five years)
- Port infrastructure: $17 billion
- Transportation safety programs: $11 billion
- Electric vehicles: $7.5 billion (Virginia would expect to receive $106 million over five years to support the expansion of an EV charging network in the state)
- Zero and low-emission buses and ferries: $7.5 billion
- Revitalization of communities: $1 billion
Other Infrastructure
- Broadband internet: $65 billion (Virginia will receive a minimum allocation of $100 million to help provide broadband coverage across the Commonwealth, including access for the at least 473,000 Virginians who currently lack it. An estimated 1.9M people in Virginia–23%–will be eligible for the Affordability Connectivity Benefit, which will help low-income families afford internet access.)
- Power infrastructure: $73 billion (Virginia will expect to receive $15 million over five years to protect against wildfires and $21 million to protect against cyberattacks. Virginians will also benefit from the bill’s historic $3.5 billion national investment in weatherization which will reduce energy costs for families.)
- Clean drinking water: $55 billion (Virginia will expect to receive $738 million over five years to improve water infrastructure across the Commonwealth and ensure that clean, safe drinking water is a right in all communities.)
- Resilience and Western water storage: $50 billion
- Removal of pollution from water and soil: $21 billion
Thank you to our congressional delegation for their work on this, and to Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine for helping to get this through that chamber earlier this year. I look forward to working with my fellow Board members, County staff and state officials to optimize what this spending package can do for the people of Prince William County.
You can also read more in this article by NPR.