AASHTO Journal - USDOT Opens Up $1B Pool of BUILD Grants

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a notice of funding opportunity on February 19 for $1 billion worth of fiscal year 2020 funds offered through the agency’s Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development or BUILD discretionary grant program. The deadline to submit an application is May 18.

For this round of BUILD Transportation grants, the maximum grant award is $25 million and no more than $100 million can be awarded to a single state, USDOT said in a statement, with the agency intending to award 50 percent of that grant money to projects located in rural areas that deliver positive benefits for these communities – consistent with its R.O.U.T.E.S. initiative launched in late 2019.

USDOT added that BUILD Transportation grants are for planning and capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure – such as roads, bridges, transit, rail, port, and intermodal projects and are awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant local or regional impact.

In 2018, the BUILD program – which replaced the TIGER program in April 2018 – awarded $1.5 billion in funding to 91 projects in 49 states and the District of Columbia, with 62 out of the final 91 awards funding rural projects. That 2018 round of grant awards topped out at $25 million for a single project, while no more than $150 million could be awarded to a single state.