FRA issues notice for state of good repair grant funding

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday issued a notice of funding opportunity for the Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair Grant Program.

The notice includes $198 million in grant funding to repair and rehabilitate qualified intercity passenger railroad infrastructure and assets.

"The partnership program will make targeted investments to improve and modernize rail assets used in intercity passenger-rail service," said FRA Deputy Administrator Amit Bose in a press release.

The fiscal-year 2021 partnership program will fund capital projects that reduce the state-of-good-repair backlog and improve intercity passenger-rail performance on publicly or Amtrak-owned or -controlled infrastructure.

Eligible applicants may seek to replace existing assets in-kind or with new ones that increase capacity or provide a higher level of service; ensure that service can be maintained while existing assets are brought to a state of good repair; and bring existing assets to a state of good repair, FRA officials said.

The notice also makes some incidental capital project expenses eligible for funding, including designing, engineering, location surveying, mapping, environmental studies and acquiring rights-of-way.

The federal share of a project’s total cost must not exceed 80%, and the required 20% non-federal share may be composed of public sector or private sector funding, or both.

Selection preference will be given to applications that propose a 50% or less federal share of total project costs.