Industry officials knew that competition would be keen for the Dept. of Transportation's $1.5 billion in Transportation Investment Geneating Economic Recovery (TIGER) discretionary grants, which are aimed at big-impact projects. DOT has just released its preliminary tally and the numbers are stunning. DOT reported Sept. 25 that it has received 1,381 applications, from all 50 states and other jurisdictions, seeking a total of $56.9 billion. That's about 38 times the amount the department has available to award. Check out the press release if you'd like.
Along with the numbers, DOT also provides a couple of graphs showing a breakdown of the applications by transportation mode. Highway projects make up the largest slice, with 771 applications (57% of the total received) and $32.2 billion requested, (56% of the dollars sought). Transit is second, with 220 applications totaling $10.7 billion, followed by rail, port and "other."
ENR had been surveying states to gauge their interest, and received responses from about half of the states. We were just a tad on the low side...with about $9.6 billion worth of reported grant requests. The department says it will post a list of all the TIGER applications during the week of Sept. 28. See earlier ENR Stimulus Watch blogs for a partial list.
DOT Secretary Ray LaHood has said the department will announce the winners in January. The economic-stimulus legislation limits these discretionary grants to $300 million per project. In addition, the ARRA statute says that no state can receive more than $300 million in total TIGER awards.
