The City of Tuscaloosa has been awarded $15 million in federal Department of Transportation funds to improve access to the city’s Riverwalk.
Funds come from the Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development, or BUILD, program designed to improve infrastructure. A second grant from the same fund is providing $450,000 to the Wiregrass region to perform feasibility studies on transportation projects.
Sen. Richard Shelby announced the funding awards last week.
“Both BUILD grants will provide important federal resources that will improve infrastructure and promote increased economic development opportunities in Alabama,” Shelby said.
Tuscaloosa’s funding will pay for better access to the Riverwalk area along the Black Warrior River by improving barge mooring so that the abandoned lock structure can be used for a pathway, as well as adding a bicycle and pedestrian path and completing a pedestrian bridge over Jack Warner Parkway.
The Wiregrass funding will look at two potential road-widening projects — one on State Route 167 near the state line and one on State Route 52 between Geneva and Dothan.
