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DOT offers $848M for transportation resilience projects
The funding will pay for projects that make roads, transit and rail better able to withstand climate impacts such as flooding.
CLIMATEWIRE | The Department of Transportation has started soliciting applications for a new competitive grant program that will fund climate-resilient projects for highways, public transportation, ports and intercity passenger rail.
The department's Federal Highway Administration is making $848 million available for surface-transportation projects that will help facilities and infrastructure better withstand climate impacts and natural hazards such as flooding and wildfires. The grant program was created through the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021 and also funds planning projects and improvements to evacuation routes.
“Our thought process here is that an ounce of prevention will go a long way,” FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt told reporters in a recent news briefing. Projects funded by the grant program “will save money in the long run by minimizing the need for costly future maintenance and rebuilding.”
“Nothing on this large of a scale has existed from the federal government for infrastructure resilience,” said Kyle Funk, a senior researcher at the National League of Cities, an advocacy group representing municipal officials. The money ”allows cities, towns, and villages to be proactive in building resilient infrastructure with federal partnership before a natural disaster occurs or climate change [alters] the environment.”
The $848 million is in addition to $7.3 billion that the new grant program made available through a formula that guarantees funding for each state. States, municipalities and tribes can apply for a portion of the $848 million through Aug. 18.
The program encourages projects with “nature-based solutions" that involve conservation, restoration or the construction of natural features such as marshes, dunes and parks. The program is called Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-Saving Transportation, or PROTECT.
The program will enable states and municipalities to launch resilience projects that they might have not have undertaken if they had to use money that could be spent elsewhere.
"It's the fact that if you have the dedicated funding, you don't have to rob Peter to pay Paul," said Susan Binder, a principal at Cambridge Systematics transportation consultants. State and local officials often don't want to use federal transportation funds on "worthwhile but expensive" resilience projects if the funds can be spent on other transportation projects, Binder said.
