On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was in South Carolina to announce $2.26 billion in grants for 162 infrastructure projects in each of the 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The projects were selected through an application process that allowed local communities to pitch the federal government on where dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act passed last year should be spent. 

“Wherever you live, chances are in some way or another we have supported or soon will support work that's going to make your community safer, cleaner, fairer,” Buttigeig told reporters on a briefing call on Tuesday.

Buttigieg said the projects are split evenly between rural and urban areas of the country, with roughly 70% going towards “underserved communities and areas of persistent poverty."

"We are acting to reverse decades of underinvestment and exclusion in America's transportation systems," he said from Orangeburg, S.C. on Wednesday morning. "That isn't easy. But we are moving forward by reckoning with the past and preparing for a better future."

The projects include rebuilding bridges and developing new ones, renovating train stations and implementing new bus systems, and fixing roads and overhauling highways to reconnect communities divided by their initial construction.

"We are replacing nine outdated bridges in rural Iowa strengthening the supply chains there. We're building new sidewalks, storm drains and shared use paths in Bryant, Ark. to save lives there," Buttigeig said on Wednesday. "We're investing in a project in Kentucky that, in addition to creating a great transportation and trail asset, is going to help them ward off floods that have been devastating in the community."

In Orangeburg, Buttigeig announced a $23 million grant to build a pedestrian bridge over highways and railroad tracks, as well as a transit hub that will include a public transit stop, public parking and chargers for electric bicycles and cars.

"We didn't think of any of these projects at the U.S. [Department of Transportation] headquarters in Washington. The whole idea of this is that the great ideas for projects aren't gonna come from Washington, but more that the funding should," Buttigieg said alongside local leaders. "This is a great example of a vision that the community has had for some time that would have been reality but for the funding and now we're able to bring the funding."

At the event, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, a top Democrat in Congress and a key ally of President Joe Biden, praised the grant program and Buttigieg's work.

The Orangeburg proposal "was meritorious, but just because the proposal is meritorious doesn't mean it's gonna get funded. I've seen a lot that were meritorious and didn't get funded," Clyburn said, adding to laughs he initially doubted the $23 million project could get funded. "I must admit that when I first saw the budget and they showed me this and told me what it's gonna cost, I told them, 'I'll see what I can do.' Mr. Secretary, thank you for making me look like I know what I'm doing."

Ultimately, applicants asked for $15 billion and projects had to be narrowed down to the $2.26 billion available during the latest round of funding through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE, program, Buttigeig said. New rounds of funding will be made available to applicants soon, he added.

"This is a very competitive round of applications. So we're glad to have had a historically large amount of funding to work with but still, we had to say no even to very good projects, so that there would be room for the very, very, very good projects that we were able to say yes to," Buttigieg said. "We're looking for ones that brought together a number of the different things that we've been so focused on in this administration: jobs, economic development, environmental benefit, less pollution, safety... equity and making sure that people who were in communities and neighborhoods that were excluded in the past are included in the future."

Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans who now serves as Biden’s senior adviser and infrastructure coordinator, said on the Tuesday press call that more than $200 million of the funding will go to Tribal communities in an effort to equitably distribute resources to the oft-forgotten Native American reservations.

“The Biden-Harris administration believes the promise of a nation is that every American has an equal chance to get ahead,” Landrieu said. “This program is a great step towards delivering the transportation systems that communities need to stay safe and tap into opportunities to build generational wealth.”

A central aspect considered by the Biden administration as they evaluated applications was environmental sustainability, as required by the infrastructure law, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy Christopher Coes said on Tuesday.

Regardless of the law, however, Coes said officials were seeing an increased demand from local governments to tackle dilemmas facing their communities impacted by climate change and other environmental factors.

“We are seeing, increasingly, local governments, state [Departments of Transportation] who are really dealing with the challenges of ‘well, there's rising sea levels’ or how to protect ports and ships,” Coes said. “Many communities are trying to get ahead of the impacts of climate and making sure that their infrastructure weathers, ensuring that everyday citizens have access to health care, to make sure that our supply chains are more resilient.”

Coes estimated 30% of applicants could start construction within the next nine months to a year and another 30% who needed roughly 18 months to get started.

"We are all reckoning with our inheritance, with decisions that the generations now living did not make, but the generations to come are going to be living with and what we can control is the next step," Buttigeig said on Wednesday. "We do so mindful of what it will mean for those who come after us, our children and grandchildren and their children. The youngest people visiting this event right now... will be using the infrastructure that we're preparing to create today for the rest of their lives."