U.S. government awards final stimulus transit grants

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Friday met its deadline for awarding all of the $7.5 billion allotted for public transportation grants in the stimulus plan passed last year.

Vice President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the final round of awards on Friday, the deadline, sending more than $600 million to 191 projects in 42 states and Puerto Rico.

"Investing in these transit upgrades not only puts construction workers on the job at project sites, but supports American manufacturing jobs all the way down the supply chain," Biden said in a statement.

California received $83.9 million in grants to build up public transportation primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Valley. Massachusetts received $72 million for four projects, with $54 million of the funds going to a commuter rail station.

So far, public transportation funding from the two-year, $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has supported purchasing nearly 12,000 buses, vans and rail vehicles, and constructing or renovating more than 850 transit facilities, the transportation department said.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert)