AASHTO Journal - USDOT Issues ‘Safe Streets and Roads for All’ Grants

The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued $817 million in grants via a third round of funding from its “Safe Streets and Roads for All” or SS4A program. That includes 48 implementation grants focused on safety projects and strategies, along with another 337 grants supporting various project planning activities.

[Above photo by USDOT]

The agency noted in a statement that those SS4A funds seek to help communities develop road safety action plans and improve roadway corridors by implementing effective interventions. Additionally, those funds can be utilized to test out safety features such as separated bicycle lanes or curb extensions at intersections.

USDOT added that its SS4A program – created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA – sends grants directly to regional, local, and tribal communities for various local level projects aimed at improving roadway safety to help prevent deaths and serious injuries.

The department also pointed out that it aligns the SS4A program with its National Roadway Safety Strategy or NRSS, introduced in January 2022, as part of the agency’s “comprehensive effort” to reduce roadway fatalities by making roads and vehicles safer, along with improvements to post-crash care.

[Editor’s note: The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, along with two of its members – Washington State Department of Transportation and Missouri Department of Transportation – joined a group of “First Movers” back in February 2023 in support of the USDOT’s NRSS.]

The agency points out that it has issued $1.7 billion worth of SS4A grants to over 1,000 local communities over the course of three separate rounds of funding disbursements from that program in 2023.