U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced that the Biden-Harris Administration has awarded more than $2.2 billion from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program to help urban and rural communities move forward on projects that modernize roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports and more. This year’s allocations will help more than 160 combines, more than ever before, due to the passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act. The law provides an additional $7.5 billion over five years for the RAISE program to help more projects get moving across the country.
“We are proud to support so many outstanding infrastructure projects in communities large and small, modernizing America’s transportation systems to make them safer, more affordable, more accessible, and more sustainable,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Using funds from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this year we are supporting more projects than ever before.”
Today, we announced the biggest investment in communities in the history of the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program. https://t.co/Rrhe9S1iPp #RAISEGrants pic.twitter.com/H1b7UaBhyH
— TransportationGov (@USDOT) August 11, 2022
Projects were evaluated on several criteria, including safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness and opportunity, partnership and collaboration, innovation, state of good repair, and mobility and community connectivity. Within these areas, the Department considered how projects will improve accessibility for all travelers, bolster supply chain efficiency, and support racial equity and economic growth – especially in historically disadvantaged communities and areas of persistent poverty.
Additional background:
- 2022 RAISE grants are for planning and capital investments that support roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports, or intermodal transportation.
- 50% of funding is designated for projects in rural areas, and 50% of the funding is designated for projects in urban areas.
- Nearly two-thirds of projects are located in areas of persistent poverty or historically disadvantaged communities.
- The largest grant award is $25 million. Per statute, no more than $341.25 million could be awarded to a single state in this round of funding.
- Among this year’s selected projects, 11 included a local hire provision.
- Several projects include workforce development aspects including four projects that have project labor agreements, eight projects that have registered apprenticeship programs and an additional eight projects with other workforce development provisions.
Projects in some key midterm battleground states are among those the administration chose to highlight in their release. On the day of the announcement, Secretary Buttigieg traveled to Tucson and Phoenix where he is visiting two projects that are receiving RAISE awards. Later this month the Secretary and other senior USDOT officials will fan out across the country to visit additional sites that are receiving RAISE awards to highlight the ways that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is helping invest in communities and get important infrastructure projects moving in communities large and small.
