Federal transportation officials have awarded a $15 million grant to help create a pedestrian and bicycle boardwalk along the Harahan Rail Bridge across the Mississippi River.

The funding comes through the TIGER – Transportation Investment Generation Economic Recovery – program of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Word of the grant came Tuesday, June 19, from the office of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen.

The city’s TIGER grant proposal for the Harahan Bridge project was revamped in March to emphasize the boardwalk on the north side of the bridge as part of a connection between Main Street Memphis and Broadway Avenue on the other side of the river in West Memphis, that town’s “Main Street.”

TIGER grants, which are in their fourth round, are aimed at projects like Main Street renovations and corridors being open to multimodal transportation, including mass transit as well as pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

The Center City Revenue Finance Corp. approved $2 million in funding toward the Harahan effort in March contingent on the city winning the federal funding.

The Main Street to Broadway plan has an estimated cost of $30 million, which includes a combination of public and private funding.