USDOT allocates $1.6B to repair storm-damaged roads in 34 states

The Department of Transportation released $1.6 billion from the FHWA emergency relief program to 34 states to fix roads and bridges damaged by storms, heavy rain, and other weather events. The announcement came on Oct. 19.

North Carolina receives the largest allocation at $873 million. Hurricane Helene in 2024 left 9,000 damaged sites and forced more than 1,400 road closures. The state had already drawn $1.15 billion under the same program in 2025.

For carriers running the I-40 corridor, the timeline matters. The $2.8 billion rebuild of the Pigeon River Gorge section is not expected to finish until 2029. One lane in each direction reopened at the Tennessee-North Carolina border in early 2025. Before the storm, roughly 30,000 vehicles used that stretch every day.

Hawaii receives $81 million to address storm damage from March, which the governor put at $463.6 million. Texas gets $52 million to replace bridges lost to flooding in 2025.

Trucking companies on affected routes face costly detours, congestion, and degraded pavement. The Texas Freight Plan noted that after events like Hurricane Harvey in 2017, moving food, medical supplies, and building materials was essential to keeping communities alive.

A 2024 congressional report on the program found that billion-dollar disasters have become far more common. The average was five per year from 1980 to 2010, but rose to 16 per year from 2011 to 2023. In 2023 alone, there were 28.

Source: Transport Topics — https://www.ttnews.com/articles/usdot-disaster-repair-34-states