The U.S. Department of Transportation announced today that the Biden-Harris Administration has awarded $25 million from the new Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program (Rural) to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for their ferry design and construction project in Plaquemines and Cameron parishes.

The project will design and construct two ferry boats. One ferry boat will provide continued access across the Mississippi River between La. 23 and La. 39 at Pointe a la Hache, and between Belle Chasse and Scarsdale in Plaquemines Parish. The other ferry boat will provide continued access across the Calcasieu Ship Channel in Cameron Parish.

The new ferries will improve upon existing ferry services, benefiting the communities with reduced down time, lower operations and maintenance costs, reduced environmental impacts, improved safety, and time savings. Additionally, the project will improve economic opportunity in these communities by providing consistent and reliable ferry service.

Due to decades of disinvestment, around 13% of rural roads and 10% of off-system bridges, most of which are in rural areas, are in poor condition. The fatality rate on rural roads is also two times greater than on urban roads. Facing these sobering figures, the Biden Administration made supporting Americans living in rural areas a top priority. And with a total of $44 billion available through the infrastructure law to help rural communities repair and improve their roads, bridges, airports, ports, and transit systems, USDOT is leading the charge to help rebuild rural transportation systems to benefit residents for decades to come.

“Infrastructure investments haven’t always reached rural America, leaving far too many roads, bridges and other parts of the transportation system across our country in disrepair,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Today’s announcement is one of many ways this administration is delivering the investments that rural communities have gone without for far too long, modernizing transportation, creating economic opportunity and making life better for millions of people.”

The program will invest a total of approximately $2 billion through 2026 for projects that improve highways, bridges, and tunnels, address highway safety, increase access to agricultural, commercial, energy, or freight facilities that support the economy, and bring flexible transit services to rural and Tribal areas. The Department received applications requesting approximately $10 billion in funding, far exceeding the nearly $300 million in 2022 funding available.

In Louisiana, over the next five years Biden’s infrastructure law will invest $5.9 billion in roads and bridges, $479 million for public transportation, $73 million for electric vehicle charging, and $179 million for airports.