The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) published a Notice of
Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to apply for $1 billion in fiscal year (FY)
2021 discretionary grant funding through the Rebuilding American
Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grants. RAISE,
formerly known as BUILD and TIGER, has awarded over $8.935 billion in
grants to projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto
Rico since 2009.
“In communities across the country, there is
tremendous need for transportation projects that create high-quality
jobs, improve safety, protect our environment, and generate equitable
economic opportunity for all Americans,” said U.S. Secretary of
Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “With RAISE grants, we are making those
needed investments in our communities' future.”
Projects for RAISE
funding will be evaluated based on merit criteria that include safety,
environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness,
state of good repair, innovation, and partnership. Within these
criteria, the Department will prioritize projects that can demonstrate
improvements to racial equity, reduce impacts of climate change and
create good-paying jobs.
For this round of RAISE grants, the
maximum grant award is $25 million, and no more than $100 million can be
awarded to a single State, as specified in the appropriations act. Up
to $30 million will be awarded to planning grants, including at least
$10 million to Areas of Persistent Poverty, which could provide unique
opportunities for landscape architects to work with underserved
communities on much-needed equitable transportation projects.
To
ensure that the benefits of infrastructure investments benefit
communities large and small the Department will award an equitable
amount, not to exceed half of funding, to projects located in urban and
rural areas respectively.
The program is highly competitive with
680 projects funded out of over 9700 applications. It is one of the few
DOT discretionary programs for which regional and local governments can
directly compete for multimodal transportation funding.
To provide
technical assistance to prospective applicants, DOT is hosting a series
of webinars during the FY 2021 RAISE grant application process.
Landscape architects are encouraged to register for the webinars to
learn more details about how to access RAISE funding for transportation
projects. To register for the webinars visit www.transportation.gov/RAISEgrants/outreach.
The deadline to submit an application is July 12, 2021 at 5pm Eastern.