DENVER (KDVR) — President Joe Biden signed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill Monday, loosening an amount of federal money for Colorado that dwarfs the state’s typical transportation budget.
The bill will allocate money to each U.S. state to deal with transportation, weather, internet and water infrastructure. Most of the money each state will receive is slated for highway and public transportation projects followed by water infrastructure.
According to White House projections, Colorado is not getting the same amount of money as its population would project. Colorado is the 21st most populous state, but it is only getting the 25th most money from the bill.
The funding brackets that bring down come from Colorado’s highway and bridge funding.
While it is the 21st most populous state and a major Interstate crossroads, Colorado is only getting $3.7 billion for highways – the 28th-ranked recipient for highway funding.
That highway funding is the largest slice of the state’s portion, with public transportation having the second largest amount at $916 million.
Water infrastructure is next-largest at $688 million, followed by airport funding at $432 million, bridges at $225 million, broadband at $100 million, electric vehicle charger infrastructure at $57 million, wildfire funding at $35 million and cyberattack prevention funding at $16 million.
All told, the infrastructure package will pour about $6.17 billion into the Colorado state government’s coffers.
Not everything in the bill is directly related to transportation, but the bulk of Colorado’s portion will be.
Colorado will get about four times the average annual Colorado Department of Transportation budget from the infrastructure bill.
On an average year, CDOT gets between $1.4 and $1.6 billion
