The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has made available $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2020 discretionary grant funding through the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) program. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 19.
Funding provided through the BUILD grant program can support roads, bridges, transit, rail ports or intermodal transportation. Projects will be evaluated based on merit criteria that include safety, economic competitiveness, quality of life, environmental sustainability, state of good repair, innovation and partnership.
“BUILD grants will upgrade infrastructure across America, making our transportation systems safer and more efficient,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.
Individual BUILD awards for this round of funding will not exceed $25 million; no more than $100 million will be awarded to a single state; and USDOT intends to award half of the available funds to projects that address the infrastructure needs of rural areas. While the funding caps are stipulated by appropriations legislation, the commitment to fund rural projects is in support of the USDOT’s ROUTES initiative that was launched in October 2019.
In FY18, transit projects were awarded $195 million in BUILD grants and in FY19, transit was awarded $154 million in BUILD grants.
To provide technical assistance to prospective applicants, USDOT is hosting a series of webinars during the FY20 BUILD grant application process. A webinar on how to compete for BUILD Transportation Grants for all applicants will be held on Feb. 25, 2020. Further details will be made available at https://www.transportation.gov/BUILDgrants. The deadline to submit an application is May 18, 2020.
