The U.S. Department of Transportation recently issued $172 million in grants via its Safe Streets and Roads for All or SS4A program; the third and final round of 2024 awards from this project, which was created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA.
[Above photo by USDOT]
The agency said in a statement that funding will go directly to 257 local, regional, and tribal communities across the United States to support planning and demonstration projects that aim to help prevent deaths and serious injuries on America’s rural and urban roads.
Since its launch in 2022, the USDOT said the SS4A project has funded projects in more than 1,600 communities across the country, of which almost half are in rural areas.
State departments of transportation are also working with communities in their respective regions to support a variety of local transportation projects.
For example, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation recently awarded more than $4.5 million to 11 municipalities as part of the first round of fiscal year 2025 grants via its Complete Streets Funding Program.
The agency said that those grants will fund local multimodal infrastructure projects that improve travel for pedestrians, public transit users, bicyclists and people using other forms of transportation.
MassDOT added that its Complete Streets Funding Program – launched in 2016 – provides technical assistance and construction funding to eligible municipalities to plan and implement Complete Streets. Prior to this round of disbursements, the program had awarded 278 construction project grants across the state worth more than $100 million in total.
The Ohio Department of Transportation also recently issued $63 million to projects aimed at improving roadway safety at the local level across 14 counties, along with more than $12 million to help fix or replace several local bridges.
That $63 million, issued from Ohio DOT’s Highway Safety Improvement Program, will support 19 safety projects, including the construction of a dozen roundabouts and the installation of several cable barriers.
And in October, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) awarded $3.1 million in state funding to cities and counties statewide to support various road and bridge projects; funding that comes from the Rebuild Alabama Act passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor in 2019.
The Rebuild Alabama Act required the Alabama Department of Transportation to establish an annual road funding grant program that sets aside a minimum of $10 million off the top of the state’s share of new fuel tax revenue for local projects.
Of the awarded projects, cities and counties also contributed $1.4 million in local matching funds. The Alabama DOT noted that all projects receiving grants through the Rebuild Alabama Act are required to move forward within one year of the awarding of funds.
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