USDOT opens application process for $1 billion in road grants

The 2022 “Safe Streets and Roads for All” grants program is now open for applications from local communities of all sizes. The program is offering $1 billion in funding to local road projects.

According to the AASHTO Journal, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) noted the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provides the funding for the new “Safe Streets and Roads for All” or SS4A discretionary grant program. That program provides dedicated funding to regional, local, and tribal plans, as well as projects and strategies to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries.

The primary goal of SS4A grants is to improve roadway safety by supporting communities in developing comprehensive safety action plans based on a Safe System Approach, and implementing projects and strategies that significantly reduce or eliminate transportation-related fatalities and serious injuries involving pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation, commercial vehicle operators and motorists.

The SS4A program supports USDOT’s “comprehensive approach” to improving roadway safety, laid out in the agency’s National Roadway Safety Strategy introduced in January.

USDOT said SS4A funds would also support community members in having a voice in developing plans, projects and strategies.

Applications for SS4A grants may come from individual communities or groups of communities and can include Metropolitan Planning Organizations, counties, cities, towns, other special districts that are subdivisions of a state, certain transit agencies, federally recognized tribal governments, and multi-jurisdictional groups. The grants are due on or before September 15.