AASHTO Journal - USDOT Issues $1B in BUILD Grants

The U.S. Department of Transportation is providing $1 billion in infrastructure grants to fund 70 projects in 44 states through its Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development or BUILD program: noting that with this round of funding it has awarded nearly $4 billion in BUILD grants to support road, bridge, transit, rail, port or intermodal transportation projects since 2017.

The agency issued a notice of funding opportunity in February for that $1 billion pool of fiscal year 2020 BUILD grants. USDOT added in a statement that 50 percent of this round of BUILD grants are supporting projects located in rural areas that deliver “positive community benefits” consistent with the department’s R.O.U.T.E.S. initiative launched in October 2019.

The agency also note that for this round of BUILD grants, the maximum award is $25 million with no more than $100 million provided to a single state.

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, with no more than $150 million awarded to a single state.