Like many, I will be watching the President’s State of the Union Address. While he will cover many topics that are indeed important to Atlantans, there are some that will probably not be mentioned that have a real impact on our daily lives. 

On a snowy January afternoon in Washington D.C., I joined a bi-partisan group of mayors from across the country for a meeting with President Joe Biden. A late add to my agenda was an invitation to the Oval Office for a one-on-one conversation with the President to discuss how the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has impacted Atlanta. 

With limited time, I used the expansion of Concourse D at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as an example. Atlanta received $40 million from BIL for that project, which will widen and modernize Concourse D and make it more accessible—especially ADA accessible. 

Using a model of a transport device and some photos, I showed the President how we are building the new concourse off-site, because we want to stay efficient and maintain operations at the old concourse while building the new one. As the region’s premier economic generator, providing around 63,000 jobs, it is critical that our employees are able to keep working. 

Additionally, when investments are made into the airport, minority and women-owned businesses benefit. The airport’s capital improvement program ATLNext is investing more than $12.1 billion to prepare for the next generation of air travel. Since its inception in 2016, ATL has spent $3.7 billion through ATLNext, of which $911 million was paid to small, minority and women-owned businesses—totaling over 300 small contractors. 

It felt great to showcase Atlanta…