Explanation
1. BACKGROUND
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) has issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity for approximately $900 million in discretionary grant funding through the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant program. This is the second round of funding for the INFRA grant program.
The INFRA grant program provides federal financial assistance to highway and freight projects of national or regional significance. To maximize the value of FY 2019 INFRA funds for all Americans, USDOT is focusing the competition on transportation infrastructure projects that support four key objectives: (1) economic vitality at the national and regional level; (2) leveraging federal funding to attract non-federal sources of infrastructure investment; (3) deploying innovative technology, encouraging innovative approaches to project delivery, and incentivizing the use of innovative financing; and (4) holding grant recipients accountable for their performance.
The FAST Act authorizes the INFRA grant program at $4.5 billion for fiscal years (FY) 2016 through 2020, including up to $950 million for FY 2019, to be awarded by USDOT on a competitive basis to projects of national or regional significance that meet statutory requirements. For this round of INFRA grants, $5 million is the minimum grant award for a small project, and $25 million is the minimum award for a large project. The minimum project size for large projects is the lesser of $100 million; 30 percent (30%) of a state’s FY 2018 federal-aid apportionment if the project is located in one state; or 50 percent (50%) of the larger participating state’s FY 2018 apportionment for projects located in more than one state.
Eligible applicants for INFRA grants are: (1) a state or group of states; (2) a metropolitan planning organization that serves an Urbanized Area (as defined by the Bureau of the Census) with a population of more than 200,000 individuals; (3) a unit of local government or ...
Click here for full text