Earlier this year, the U.S. DOT announced the award of more than $2.2 billion from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability & Equity (RAISE) program to help urban and rural communities move forward on projects that modernize roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports, and intermodal transportation and make our transportation systems safer, more accessible, more affordable, and more sustainable. The 2023 notice of funding opportunity can be found here.

This year’s allocation includes another $1.5 billion thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which funds an additional $7.5 billion over five years for the program to help get moving across the country. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg lauded the availability of new funding: “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.”

The RAISE program is a competitive grant program for investments in surface transportation infrastructure that will have a significant local or regional impact. RAISE Grant Funds were authorized under the Local & Regional Assistance Program of BIL. Where traditional federal programs provide funding only to very specific groups of applicants—such as State DOTs or transit agencies—RAISE grants are available to a much broader audience that includes municipalities, counties, port authorities, tribal governments, and MPOs, allowing local agencies/authorities to apply for grant funding directly from the federal government. The USDOT has published official criteria to classify a project pertaining to Areas of Persistent Poverty or Historically Disadvantaged Communities, which can be found here.

A total of $1.5 billion is available for the FY 2023 RAISE grant program. These funds will be awarded on a competitive basis, per statute, for surface transportation infrastructure projects that will improve:

• Safety
• Environmental Sustainability 
• Quality of Life
• Mobility & Community Connectivity 
• Economic Competitiveness & Opportunity Including Tourism
• State of Good Repair
• Partnership & Collaboration 
• Innovation

Eligible applicants for RAISE Transportation Discretionary Grants include:

• States and the District of Columbia 
• Any territory or possession of the United States 
• A unit of local government
• A public agency or publicly chartered authority
• A special purpose district or public transportation or port authority
• A federally recognized Indian tribe or tribal consortium
• A transit agency
• A multi-state or multijurisdictional group of entities

Each party in a joint application must be an Eligible Applicant. Joint applications must include a description of the roles and responsibilities of each project party and be supported in writing. 

The closing date for applications is February 28, 2023.