By Shelly Baskin
Paducah, KY – A Paducah rail company has received an $11.5 million Department of Transportation grant to replace two rail bridges built almost two hundred years ago. Paducah and Louisville Railway applied for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery or TIGER grant three times before finally being approved. P & L Railway president Tom Garrett says the grant was essential for the project's completion.
"The size of the project was of such a scope that we just didn't know exactly how we were gonna complete it unless we got a grant or some assistance," he says.
Garrett says the bridges, which are located near Fort Knox, are a vital to the trade of goods between Paducah and Louisville. He says construction on the first bridge has already started and it should be completed in July of next year. The P & L Bridge project was one of 46 transportation projects nationwide to receive funding through DOT TIGER grants.