The larger of the two new types of grants comes from the National Infrastructure Project Assistance program, which DOT has dubbed “Mega” grants.

Speaking at a March 23 press conference in Washington, D.C., with White House infrastructure implementation director Mitch Landrieu, DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the Mega grants will provide about $1 billion this year for “major projects of national or regional significance.”  

He also noted that the projects are “often too large or complex for other funding streams.”

[View YouTube video of briefing here.]

Mega projects also may involve multiple states or multiple modes of transportation. Examples could include bridges or tunnels that each link two states, or projects involving rail, port and highway elements.

Buttigieg said the Mega funding can be used to “build the cathedrals of our transportation infrastructure in this country—whether it’s existing infrastructure that needs major modernization or new projects that are going to make a difference for  a whole region.”

Of the $1 billion available for Mega, half will go for projects valued at more than $500 million and half to projects of more than $100 million but less than $500 million. DOT will fund 80% of a project’s total cost.

The second new program is for rural surface transportation grants, funded at $300 million for 2022.

The pre-IIJA program covered by the new announcement is the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grants, launched in the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act.

The INFRA program is focused mainly on highway and freight-related projects. It will have about $1.64 billion for 2022, which represents about a 50% increase over the 2021 level.

Speaking at a briefing site that had the Potomac River and Arlington Memorial Bridge as a backdrop, Buttigieg noted that the bridge received a grant in  2016 under the INFRA program. At the time the program was named FASTLANE, for Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies.

AASHTO's Comments

Susan Howard, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials director of policy and government relations, said in an interview that state officials generally prefer most federal highway and transit funding to be distributed by formulas. She added, "But there's a place for discretionary grant programs in that mix."

State DOTs have experience in applying for U.S. DOT discretionary grants programs, one of which goes back more than a decade. But Howard noted that AASHTO's biggest concern with the IIJA discretionary programs is their "sheer volume." An AASHTO summary of the infrastructure act lists seven new discretionary grant programs for the Federal Highway Administration alone.

That excludes the Mega program, which falls under the purview of the DOT Secretary's office.

Howard said, "I think states are going to kind of look at the whole menu and figure out what's worth applying for, what matches up with a need we know we have, and where do we want to approach it from multiple angles."

The Common Application

In a move to make the grant-seeking process easier for states, cities, localities and other entities, DOT is allowing them to use a single form to apply for one or more of the three grant categories.

Buttigieg compared the new DOT form to the "common application" now used by many U.S. colleges.

Howard noted that DOT's Federal Transit Administration recently issued combined applications for some of their grant programs. She said that U.S. DOT officials are "certainly making an effort to, where they can, combine the application process for some of these grant programs, and I think that will be a net positive."

Applications for each of the three programs are due by May 23. Buttigieg said the grants should be awarded by the end of calendar 2022.

Story updated on 3/24/2022 with comments from AASHTO, also include corrections in names of two grant programs.