The U.S. Department of Transportation recently awarded the Lehigh Valley International Airport with a $40.8 million Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highways Projects Grants program grant.
The airport will use the funding to construct the Northside Logistics and Cargo Complex, a consolidated cargo facility with connectivity to the National Highway System. It will create space to meet the growing demand of worldwide commerce and will help consolidate various supply-chain activities.
The project will include a cargo building, a direct truck to airport loading operations area, road and intersection improvements, and stormwater infrastructure enhancements.
The airport has processed record-breaking amounts of cargo for the last four years. Last year, 275.6 million pounds of air cargo were processed, a 15.8 percent increase from 2022.
“This funding is critical to helping the airport authority address an immediate need for additional air cargo capacity – which has seen approximately an 800% jump since 2014,” Tom Stoudt, Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority executive director, said. “With the airport located within the Critical Urban Freight Corridor, we anticipate our numbers will continue to trend upward as the airport is an important conduit to the movement of goods across Pennsylvania and the Northeast Region.”
The funding for the grant was through Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.