USDOT to award $1.8B in RAISE grants

The U.S. Department of Transportation today announced $1.8 billion in awards for 148 projects across the country from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program.

The competitive RAISE program supports a diverse slate of communities with projects of local and regional significance. Funding is split equally between urban and rural areas, and a large percentage of grants support regions defined as historically disadvantaged or areas of persistent poverty.

Eligibility requirements of RAISE allow project sponsors — including state and local governments, counties, Tribal governments, transit agencies and port authorities — to pursue multimodal and multijurisdictional projects that are more difficult to fund through other grant programs, USDOT officials said in a press release.

 RAISE grant awards announced today for rail-related projects include:
• $25 million for the Santa Ana Boulevard grade-separation project in Santa Ana, California. The project calls for reconstruction of an existing rail crossing with the Southern California Regional Rail Authority Orange Line double tracks at Santa Ana Boulevard, adjacent to the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center, with a new multimodal grade- separated underpass;
• $15 million for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's project to prepare a corridor profile planning assessment for the proposed Interborough Express light-rail transit link that would provide a direct public transit connection between Brooklyn and Queens in New York City;
• $10.2 million for North County Transit District's project to fund preliminary engineering and environmental improvements to the Sprinter rail corridor between Palomar College Station and the Escondido Transit Center in California; and
• $1.1 million to plan and design safety improvements for grade crossings in downtown Rapid City, South Dakota.

A full list of grant awards can be read here.