The design and repairs to the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore will include increasing its resilience to climate change, as well as safety, according to theannouncing the release of an initial $60 million in emergency relief funds to begin recovery and repairs.
“Another thing that has become more revolutionary, and this is a reason I'm so proud to be in the Biden administration, the focus on climate change. That is definitely a generational change in how we view transportation,” Trottenberg said. “As you say, transportation is the largest contributor of greenhouse gases and, therefore, something our secretary often says also potentially the largest solution.
is the largest 24 7 safety critical operation in the federal government,” according to Trottenberg, which they “oversee and manage directly.” It also includes rail through the Federal Rail Administration, and roads and bridges, including the FHWA, the Highway Safety Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, mass transit through the Federal Transit Administration, and the Maritime Administration, including running the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
Calling this time “a once in a generation opportunity with the bipartisan infrastructure law,” Trottenberg talked about the administration allocating “to invest in building up an electric vehicle charging network and giving cities and states dollars to spend on mass transit, on decarbonizing different parts of their system on fostering more walking and biking on passenger rail, on things that we have talked about a lot in American transportation policy.