Persistence pays: On its third try, Mobile has landed a federal transportation grant that will pay for more than $14 million in improvements to Broad and Beauregard streets downtown.

Mobile has tried twice previously to win a TIGER grant from the Department of Transportation. The first two years, the application focused specifically on Broad Street, under the rubric "Bring Back Broad." This year, according to George Talbot, director of communications for Mayor Sandy Stimpson, the city broadened its plan to include Beauregard Street and filed it under the title "One Mobile," Stimpson's campaign slogan.

The Mobile City Council discussed the grant in April, when it passed a measure co-sponsored by Councilman Levon Manzie and Stimpson, authorizing Stimpson to apply for the grant. According to the measure approved by the council, the city would provide $3.32 million in matching funds. Word came Tuesday afternoon that Mobile would receive a grant for $14,465,044.

Stimpson, via Facebook, described this as "huge news." He said the money would "rebuild aging infrastructure, connect citizens to jobs and revitalize historic neighborhoods."

"This award is the result of a tremendous effort by our city staff in collaboration with our state and federal partners," Stimpson wrote. "This project will connect citizens from the transportation hub on Water Street to homes in neighborhoods to jobs at Brookley Aeroplex to recreation on the Three Mile Creek Greenway."

The impact of the money likely will be highly visible: Broad and Beauregard form two sections of the Hank Aaron Loop encircling downtown. Broad also serves as a major corridor into the Brookley Aeroplex, home to Airbus and a growing roster of aerospace companies.

U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne was among those celebrating the Tuesday announcement that Mobile had won the grant. "I am so pleased to report that the City of Mobile will be receiving a substantial grant to help support transportation needs in our area," Byrne said in a statement released to media. "This grant was made possible thanks to the new highway bill passed by Congress last year and our continued relationship building with the federal Department of Transportation."

According to the release from Byrne's office, the congressman "sent a letter of support for the 'One Mobile' project to Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx earlier this year. Secretary Foxx also visited Mobile last year at the invitation of Congressman Byrne."

According to information posted by the Department of Transportation, TIGER discretionary grants fund "capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure" and "focus on capital projects that generate economic development and improve access to reliable, safe and affordable transportation for communities." The name is an acronym meaning "Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery."