Five states received federal grants totaling $6 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation and Secretary Ray LaHood in June with the purpose of easing truck parking shortages on U.S. interstates.
Interstates that received the aid were I-15 in Utah, I-10 in Mississippi, I-5 in Oregon, I-40 in Tennessee, and I-87 in Pennsylvania. The grants came from the Truck Parking Facilities pilot program, provided for under 2005 SAFETEA-LU highway legislation.
LaHood said these funds would be used for increasing truck parking capacity and developing ways to provide information on space availability to drivers.
American Trucking Associations praised the grant as a “commitment to safe truck parking,” and took the opportunity to call for further funding of safe parking for commercial motor vehicles on highways through programs like “Jason’s Law,” which would allow the Secretary of Transportation to allocate funds for new safety rest areas.
“Professional truck drivers need to have access to safe, legal parking so they can get the rest they need to deliver the goods we rely on,” Dave Osiecki, ATA's senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs, said in a statement. “Without access to adequate parking at safety rest areas, drivers must often settle on less safe parking locations like a shoulder or a ramp.”
Pennsylvania and Mississippi received the largest shares of the grant, at $2.1 million each. Tennessee received $800,000; Utah, $545,000; and Oregon, $480,000.
