The 2021 US Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides $1.2 trillion in investment funds to US states and federal authorities to enable recovery from the covid pandemic and modernise the country’s infrastructure and industry.

A key objective of the Act is to galvanise US industry, attract inward investment and address inequalities in society, health and critical infrastructure across the breadth of the United States. Funding is directed at a broad swath of electric grid, Healthcare, education, industry, social programmes, water, telecoms and broadband. The Act has the aim of stimulating US employment and addressing climate change as well as the modernisation of US infrastructure and social systems.

At the centre of the Act is transportation. The Act includes provisions for federal highway aid, transit, highway safety, motor carrier, transportation research, hazardous materials, and rail infrastructure modernisations.

The Act, as it finally passed congress, includes: $110 billion for roads, bridges and other major programmes; $11 billion for transportation safety programmes; $39 billion to modernise transit and improve accessibility; $66 billion for passenger and freight rail; and $7.5 billion to build a national network of electric vehicle chargers.

Apart from $73 billion for power infrastructure modernisation and $65 billion for broadband development, the transportation allocations are the largest separate spending provisions in the Act. The Act represents the largest federal investment in public transit in US history, far larger than the federal transportation programmes of the 1930s and 1950s.

The Act set goals for climate change mitigation through transportation modernisation, with $18 billion allocated for clean transport tech, and provisions for improving pedestrian and cyclist access in cities, as well as increased investment on public transport systems.

One of the largest features of the transportation aspect of the Act is rail. Of the $66 billion appropriated, $41 billion is going to Amtrak. In addition, the consolidated rail infrastructure and safety improvements programme will receive $10 billion.

The Act also mandates the development of smart technologies to increase safety on roads and protect wall road users. The Act requires the development of smart technology to detect and prevent drunk driving. The new technology will be rolled out in phases for retroactive fitting, and will be compulsory in all new vehicles from 2027. The technology is being developed by the NHTSA together with Swedish automobile safety developer Autoliv. It comprises in-car breath and touch-based sensors and associated software. Once developed, it will be open sourced to car manufacturers.

The US Department of Transportation has highlighted a number of department funded transport projects being carried forward in US states, tribal territories, US territories and local governments. They include bridges, pedestrian and cycling routes, freight routes, logistic hubs and docks, low and no-emission vehicle programmes, EV battery hubs, airport expansions, public transit centres, rail freight development, smart sidewalk developments, city street renewal programmes and motorway modernisation programmes.

In Detroit, the I-375 Communities Reconnection programme aims to reconstruct and repurpose the Interstate that divides two historic neighbourhoods. The employment of smart traffic technologies, the construction of smart sidewalks with protected and pedestrianised access, and modernisation of infrastructure aims to renew and revitalise neighbourhoods blighted socially and economically by the original construction of the motorway.

The port of Los Angeles is modernising its transport facilities with the creation of a four lane, rail–roadway grade separation that will boost both rail and road freight access to the port, which handles 35% of all container freight entering the US.

Tucson, Arizona, is reconstructing a significant junction of the Union Pacific railroad and SR-210. The reconstruction will improve pedestrian safety, remove a freight bottleneck, and improve freight, public transit and emergency services access by up to 30 minutes per trip. The project will create a new connection between the centre and underserved Communities, and will feature broadband conduits as part of the programme.

New Orleans is transforming its historic downtown with smart technologies and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure to make safety improvements at intersections with a history of pedestrian involved crashes.

The IIJA is now funding around 40,000 projects across the US. Between a quarter and a third of those projects involve transportation. The Act is not just the single largest transportation investment in US history, it is an effort to use transportation modernisation to strengthen the country’s industrial infrastructure and heal communities left blighted and isolated by the infrastructure projects of the 1960s and 1970s.