A federally dubbed “pro-trucker package” will give $180 million to add 917 truck parking spots along I-4 in Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced last month.
That’s the same amount of parking spots, money and area that the federal government previously announced for an Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant in a 2023-2024 program. Florida transportation officials said the two announcements are for the same work, which aims to expand limited truck parking along that corridor.
The money is part of over $275 million in truck parking funding the federal DOT announced last month. Florida’s addition of 917 spots is across four projects, which are all in the design phase, according to the state.
“These projects have been in the works for some time,” Florida DOT District 5 Communications Manager Tim Freed said. “It’s been a big priority for us to add them.”
The federal award was announced in January 2024 and “executed” on July 2, 2025, Freed said. That suggests the release of the money stagnated under the Biden administration, while the Trump administration claimed it was “highlighting new investments and commitments” with the recent funding announcement.
Local transportation planning officials previously noted only dozens of truck parking spots have been available in that area.
According to a federal spokesperson, the Federal Highway Administration administers the money at stake. The agency selects top applicants for limited money through a discretionary grant program called Infrastructure for Rebuilding America, also known as INFRA.
Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law from 2021, that program had approximately $8 billion allocated over a five-year period. Another round of funding for 2025-2026 didn’t list any I-4 parking projects.
For years, the Government Accountability Office has been calling on the DOT to better document its awards process. In 2016, the GAO made a priority recommendation that’s remained incomplete by the department for nearly a decade. The audit wrote that DOT “lacks clear department-wide requirements for what should be documented when evaluating discretionary grant awards.”
As of January 2025, DOT officials were working to address the recommendation by the end of the year, according to the GAO.
Other audit recommendations related to the INFRA program are listed as open and closed. Last year, the GAO commended the department’s work for revising conflicts-of-interest guidelines, but the audit also reported deficiencies for how DOT defined criteria for advancing “exemplary” projects.
