DOT 81-07
Friday, August 10, 2007
Contact: Sarah Echols
Phone: (202) 366-4570

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters Announces $50 Million in Immediate Emergency Relief for Minneapolis; $5 Million for Transit

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – During her third trip following the bridge collapse here, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters today announced she is making $50 million available immediately to help Minnesota move forward quickly with recovery efforts and plans for a new bridge over the Mississippi River.

Secretary Peters said today’s quick release of emergency money will ensure there is no delay in the recovery effort. On Monday, President Bush signed legislation authorizing an additional $250 million in relief for Minneapolis; however, those funds will have to be appropriated by Congress before the funding is available for Minnesota.

“While we’re waiting for these additional funds to be appropriated, we want to make sure the state has the resources it needs to move forward,” Secretary Peters said.

Secretary Peters said the state can use the $50 million being made available today to pay for clean-up and recovery work, including clearing debris and re-routing traffic, as well as for design work on a new bridge. These funds are in addition to the $5 million in emergency aid she released the morning after the bridge collapse.

Also today during a tour of a Metro Transit bus facility, Secretary Peters announced she is making an additional $5 million available to reimburse Minneapolis for increased transit operations to serve commuters in the wake of last week’s bridge collapse.

These funds, which will not require a local match, may be used to reimburse for transit costs going back to Aug. 1, to help pay for ramped up services like the extra buses the city has put on the ground and the free express bus service from Park and Ride lots to downtown. The funds are available through the Bus Discretionary Program funds already appropriated in the current federal fiscal year.

Secretary Peters has deployed a team to operate on-site in Minneapolis to coordinate the federal response, recovery and rebuilding effort. On Saturday, she joined President Bush for a tour of the incident site. A day after the incident, she requested the U.S. DOT’s Inspector General to conduct a rigorous assessment of the National Bridge Inspection Program, and called on all states to immediately inspect any steel deck truss bridges similar to the I-35 bridge that collapsed.