US DOT launches Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) Grant Program

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) discretionary grant program, which will make approximately US$1.5 billion available to projects that are in line with the Administration’s principles to help rebuild America’s infrastructure.
July 4, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) discretionary grant program, which will make approximately US$1.5 billion available to projects that are in line with the Administration’s principles to help rebuild America’s infrastructure.  In addition to providing direct federal funding, the INFRA program aims to increase the total investment by state, local, and private partners.

The new program aims to increase the impact of projects by leveraging capital and allowing innovation in the project delivery and permitting processes, including public-private partnerships.

Additionally, it promotes innovative safety solutions that will improve the transportation system. INFRA will also target performance and accountability in project delivery and operations.

The Department will make awards under the INFRA program to both large and small projects.  For a large project, the INFRA grant must be at least US$25 million.  For a small project, the grant must be at least US$5 million. For each fiscal year of INFRA funds, 10 per cent of available funds are reserved for small projects.

 “The President and the Department are committed to revitalising, repairing and rebuilding America’s aging infrastructure,” said Secretary Elaine L. Chao. “By ensuring the right incentives, projects selected under this program will be better able to make significant, long-term improvements to America’s transportation infrastructure.”

For rural communities in need of funding for highway and multimodal freight projects with national or regional economic significance, INFRA is an opportunity to apply directly for financial assistance from the federal government. For these communities, DOT will consider an applicant’s resource constraints when assessing the leverage criterion.

UTC

Related Content

  • January 24, 2012
    Improve and increase mass transit systems to minimise congestion
    Rather looking to solve congestion by spreading the load, perhaps we need to look at concentrating it. Michael L. Sena writes. We humans were made to walk and run at embarrassingly slow speeds by comparison with other, more fleet-footed organisms. The sea is not our natural habitat and we were definitely not designed to fly unaided. Nevertheless, humankind has evolved a method of living during the past century that is dependent on transporting its members over very long distances during relatively short per
    Read More
  • August 21, 2014
    Use tolling to help rebuild interstate highways
    Following the passage of the short-term Highway Trust Fund bill, Patrick Jones, CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, writing in Roll Call, writes that states should now be focused on capitalising on a key part of the Grow America Act, which will lift the ban on interstate tolling, allowing states to determine how to fund reconstruction of interstate highways. He says that now that Congress has ‘patched’ the Highway Trust Fund to save it from insolvency, it is time to get some
    Read More
  • March 17, 2015
    The weighty problem of truck routing enforcement
    The growing impact of heavy commercial vehicles on urban and interurban highway infrastructures around the world is driving the need for reliable route access restriction and monitoring. The support role of enforcement is proving fertile ground for ITS development. Bridges are especially vulnerable – and critical in terms of travel delays. The US state of Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) operates what it claims is one of the country’s most aggressive truck route restriction enforcement programme
    Read More
  • February 6, 2020
    US braces itself for congestion pain
    Mary Scott Nabers, author of Inside the Infrastructure Revolution: A Roadmap for Building America, looks at how different US states are embracing the need for public transport investment
    Read More

Highlighted Content