USDOT Take RAISE Grant Applications

The U.S. Department of Transportation is taking applications for the next found of Rebuilding American Infrastructure With Sustainability and Equity grants.

The agency said it will disburse $1.5 billion in RAISE grants in federal fiscal year 2023.

Applications will be accepted through Feb. 28. In FY 2022, RAISE grants were awarded to help pay for 166 projects nationwide.

The program is designed to provide funding for freight and passenger transportation infrastructure projects that are harder to support through other USDOT grant programs.

Award winners will be announced by June 28.

Michigan Rail Project Gets RAISE Grant

A Michigan rail project is among 23 freight and passenger rail projects in 17 states that have received a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant.

The U.S. Department of Transportation named the grant recipients this week that will share the $2.2 billion in funding being awarded in federal fiscal year 2022.

Altogether USDOT awarded grants for 166 projects, which were evaluated for how they met the objectives of safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness and opportunity, partnership and collaboration, innovation, state of good repair, and mobility and community connectivity.

The Northern Michigan Rail Planning Phase II Study and Service development plan received a $1.3 million grant.

The funding is to be used to develop a plan that considers new train services through 15 counties between southeast Michigan and northern lower Michigan.

USDOT Taking RAISE Grant Applications

The U.S. Department of Transportation is taking applications for Rebuilding American Infrastructure With Sustainability and Equity grants.

The agency said $1.5 billion is available in RAISE grants for federal fiscal year 2022.

Funding is available for projects involving rail, transit, road and port infrastructure projects.

The application deadline is April 14 with grant winner to be announced no later than Aug. 12.

The RAISE program is the first discretionary funding program to accept applications as directed by the infrastructure program approved by Congress last year.

In a news release, USDOT said the funding for RAISE grants is 50 percent higher than it was for FY 2021.

At least $75 million will be awarded to planning projects and at least $15 million in funding is guaranteed for projects located in areas of persistent poverty or historically disadvantaged communities.

USDOT Grants Given New Name

First there was TIGER then BUILD and now RAISE. Those are the acronyms given to U.S. Department of Transportation capital spending grants.

The names tend to change when the occupant of the White House changes.

This week USDOT said it is taking applications for Rebuilding American Infrastructure With Sustainability and Equity grants.

The agency has a pot of $1 billion to award in federal fiscal year 2021.

For this round of RAISE grants, the maximum grant award is $25 million and no more than $100 million will be awarded to a single state.

Up to $30 million will be awarded to planning grants. USDOT will award an equitable amount, not to exceed half of funding, to projects located in urban and rural areas respectively.

Maximum awards are capped at $25 million with no more than $100 million being awarded to a single state.

Up to $30 million will be awarded to planning grants with an equitable amount, not to exceed half of funding, to projects located in urban and rural areas respectively.

Applications will be evaluated based on merit criteria that include safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness, state of good repair, innovation and partnership.

DOT said that it will give preference to projects that can demonstrate improvements to racial equity, reduce the effects of climate change and create good-paying jobs.

The RAISE program was formerly known as Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development and before that as Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program.

The two programs have awarded more than $8.9 billion in grants since 2009.