DOT announces availability of $500 million for TIGER grants

Program is designed to fund projects at local and cross-jurisdictional levels that are normally bypassed by the traditional process for highway and transit aid.    The U.S. Department of Transportation has opened the competition for $500 million in 2015 TIGER grants. 
   In six previous rounds, the department has provided more than $4 billion to support multi-modal and multi-jurisdictional projects around the nation. The program is extremely popular among states, regional planning organizations, transportation advocates and the freight industry because many of the projects would otherwise not qualify for federal support under formula-based rules for distributing aid under the highway program. Since the Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program began in 2009 as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, there have been more than 6,000 applicants requesting more than $124 billion for projects.
   Broad categories of projects receiving money include roads, transit, bicycle and pedestrian, ports, rail, and planning.
   The Obama administration’s six-year GROW America plan to reauthorize the surface transportation program would more than double TIGER appropriations to $1.25 billion per year.
   Criteria for selecting TIGER projects include safety, environmental sustainability, bringing facilities into a state of good repair, livable communities that rely less on cars, project readiness and the ability to leverage non-federal dollars from other public and private partners. The TIGER program earns plaudits from governance experts for attempting to make infrastructure investment decisions based on economic returns, as well as hard data on expected safety and environmental outcomes, but some question whether decisions are politically motivated given that a portion of funds goes toward parochial projects that have a limited relative impact.
   Eligible project sponsors include municipalities, counties, port authorities, metropolitan planning organizations and others, in contrast to traditional federal programs, which provide funding to state departments of transportation and transit agencies. Sponsors can partner with other government entities or even the private sector on projects.
   The pre-application deadline is May 4 and final applications are due June 5. 
   More information is available at www.dot.gov/tiger.