The Tennessee Department of Transportation will distribute $27 million in federal grant money to local public agencies to reduce congestion and improve air quality, Commissioner John Schroer has announced.

The 31 grants will be distributed among 11 communities across the state. Areas are increasing the use of CNG vehicles. Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division is planning to spend $500,000 on Heavy Duty CNG Truck deployment. Sevier County Utility District is replacing five of its diesel trucks with CNG trucks. Blalock and Sons plans to convert one truck to dual diesel/CNG and trade out one diesel truck for a CNG truck.

The federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program targets counties where air quality fails to attain national health standards. The majority of the funding for CMAQ projects is provided by TDOT and the remaining is provided by the local project sponsor.

Some of projects that are taking a larger chunk of the funding are the TDOT HELP Truck Program which is receiving $4.4 million and the Cleaner Buses for Clarksville Transit System which will be getting $1.61 million.

The CMAQ Program includes on- and non-road vehicles.