The U.S. Dept. of Transportation is revising a $4.5-billion grant program for highway and other freight-related projects. In the plan, announced on June 29, DOT changed some criteria for the grants and, most significantly, is delaying awards for most of the program’s fiscal 2017 funds, for which states and localities applied late last year.
The postponement disappointed applicants, an industry source says. But there is a silver lining. DOT is expected to include hundreds of millions of dollars reserved for the 2017 grants as part of its annual late-summer redistribution to states of unused highway obligation authority.