Biden announces $60M grant for I-10 corridor in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s Department of Transportation has received a $60 million grant to make improvements to the Interstate 10 freight corridor in Diamondhead, President Joe Biden’s administration announced Tuesday.

The award is part of nearly $1.2 billion in funding made available from the National Infrastructure Project Assistance discretionary grant program, known as the Mega Grant program.

The I-10 freight corridor improvements project was one of nine selected for this first year of the Mega Grant program.

“From the Hoover Dam to the Golden Gate Bridge, some infrastructure projects are so large and complex that they defy traditional funding systems—and so significant that they become iconic parts of the American landscape,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement about the award.

I-10 will be widened from four to six lanes from just west of Diamondhead to just east of County Farm Road.

The goal is to improve access to locations across the Mississippi Gulf Coast and major southern cities including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Houston and Mobile, Alabama, the administration said. The project facilitates access to the nearby Hancock County Port Bienville and the State Port of Gulfport, which is a strategic port for military operations, the administration said.