Rep. Peters Congratulates Port of San Diego on $10 million in Federal Grant Funding

SAN DIEGO – Today, U.S. Congressman Scott Peters (CA-52) released the following statement after the Department of Transportation announced that the Port of San Diego will receive $10 million from the TIGER Grant program for planned upgrades at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal:

“These upgrades have been important to the Port since I was myself a Port Commissioner,” said Rep. Peters. “The investment made possible in part by this grant funding will improve the efficiency of the Port’s operations and help increase work opportunities in both the short and long-term, benefiting our region’s economy. Funding for necessary infrastructure upgrades is scarce and the Port Commission and its dedicated staff deserve an immense amount of credit for their hard work throughout this competitive bidding process. I look forward to seeing first-hand the construction and completion of this needed project at 10th Avenue.”

Congressman Peters served on the San Diego Unified Port Commission from 2009 until 2012, including as Chairman in 2011.

“Transportation is always about the future. If we're just fixing today's problems, we'll fall further and further behind. We already know that a growing population and increasing freight traffic will require our system to do more,” said Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx. “In this round of TIGER, we selected projects that focus on where the country’s transportation infrastructure needs to be in the future;  ever safer, ever more innovative, and ever more targeted to open the floodgates of opportunity across America.”

To support the Port’s application for TIGER Grant funding, Congressman Peters sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx in May and called the Secretary last month to continue advocating. This year, $500 million worth of funding was awarded through the TIGER program after $10 billion in project applications were submitted, making it one of the most competitive grant processes in the federal government.

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