Skip to main content

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.

Related Content

  • June 29, 2017
    EU proposes to spend €2.7 billion for 152 transport projects
    The European Commission is proposing to invest US$3 billion (€2.7 billion) in 152 key transport projects that support competitive, clean and connected mobility in Europe.
  • April 25, 2013
    Diverse development of tolling business models
    A diversity of tolling business models offers a wider toolbox of highway finance options, as the IBTTA’s Patrick Jones explains. The business models for America’s tolled highways have gone through several different evolutions over the last 75 years, reflecting a succession of shifts in transportation policy and politics, financing and funding models, urban patterns, customer needs, and technology. And with more and more decision-makers expressing renewed interest in tolling, it’s that very diversity that ma
  • June 29, 2022
    How public transit improves quality of life
    There are various reasons why Mobility as a Service is catching on more in Europe than the US – but there are still other ways in which access to mobility can be improved across the states, finds Gordon Feller
  • June 25, 2018
    Cost benefit analysis ‘can’t be carried out with a cookbook’
    There is far more to working out the worth of a project than simply filling in a few headings on a spreadsheet. David Crawford surveys some recent thinking from the US and Canada. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) “can’t be carried out with a cookbook”, warns US analyst Professor Robert J Brent. “ You can’t just get out a spreadsheet and fill in the data for all the headings. Each transport CBA should have something that is distinctive, in terms of location (for example, for a rural area), types of user