US DOT Picks Winners for $1.8B RAISE Grants

US DOT Picks Winners for $1.8B in RAISE Grants

Latest round of RAISE grants was funded mostly by $1.5 billion from the IIJA.

Illustration by Scott Hilling/ENR, original elements by Getty Images

With a big funding lift from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation has awarded $1.8 billion for a range of key infrastructure projects in highway, pedestrian-bike paths, rail and other modes of transportation.

In all, the competitively awarded grants, which DOT announced on June 26, went to 148 projects under the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Program.

Natalie Quillian, White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters in a June 25 preview briefing that the grants went to projects in all states, as well as the District of Columbia and four territories.

Local or Regional Impact

DOT said that for the RAISE competition, it was seeking projects "that will have a significant local or regional impact" and also follow Biden administration priorities, including safety, equity, climate and sustainability.

RAISE capital and planning grants were capped at $25 million. DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in the briefing, "Some of these projects are not the multi-billion-dollar projects that drive national headlines, but every one of them is essential for the community where it's happening."

Buttigieg added, "And we're seeing more and more of the projects from our prior rounds of funding get into construction and toward completion, from Alaska to San Francisco."

Some Projects Hit $25 Million Cap

Among the entries winning $25-million grants in the new RAISE round are: a grade-separation project in Santa Ana, Calif.; constructing about 50 miles of sidewalk in Topeka, Kan. that now does not comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act; and constructing a new multimodal transportation center in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina.

Buttigieg also said that about 57% of the grant awards went to roadway projects, 22% to bicycle-pedestrian projects and the rest to transit and maritime, except for "a couple of rail and aviation projects."

This round draws on $1.5 billion in authorizations from the IIJA, supplemented by funds from DOT’s regular appropriations.

As with previous RAISE award rounds, demand for funds exceeded the dollars available. Buttigieg said in the media briefing that the department received about $13 billion in requests, far more than what it had available to award.

Besides the $25-million grant ceiling, RAISE has several other restrictions. For example, no state could receive total BUILD dollars exceeding more than $225 million—or 15% of the round's IIJA-authorized funds.

Moreover, no more than 50% of the $1.5 billion could go to projects located in rural areas or in urban areas.

RAISE traces its history to the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It later was named the TIGER, for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, program.

In the Trump administration, it was renamed BUILD, for Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, and subsequently renamed RAISE under the Biden Administration.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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