Previously known as Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants, the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) program began back in 2009 and supported innovative projects — including multimodal and multijurisdictional ones, which are difficult to fund through traditional federal programs. Successful BUILD projects are ones that leverage resources, encourage partnership, catalyze investment and growth, and fill a critical void in a community’s transportation system.
This April, Secretary Buttigieg announced a reimagining of the BUILD program to focus on sustainability and equity and gave the program a new name: Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE). Through RAISE grants, DOT is providing $1 billion dollars in discretionary grant funding with maximum awards of $25M and up to $30M in planning grants, including at least $10M to areas of persistent poverty. Capital grants must be minimum of $5M for urban areas and $1M for rural areas. There is no minimum grant specified for planning grants.
As Secretary Buttigieg is focused on transportation plans and projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and target inequality, RAISE grant applicants will need to think about how their project reduces the use of single occupancy vehicles, converts to electric power sources, and expands access to jobs. Planning for and implementation of innovative transit technologies such as microtransit can support these goals in large infrastructure projects by designing for shared or active modes, reducing parking requirements, incentivizing transit usage, and more. Below we’ve outlined a few examples of RAISE grant projects that Via could support through our TransitTech and operations solutions:
- A station or other multi-modal hub improvement project that considers street design to improve access, first-and-last mile connectivity, or electrification infrastructure.
- A traditional highway improvement project that includes congestion mitigation or road use charging.
- A transit-oriented development project that includes microtransit in an area of persistent poverty or in a community of color.
- Electrification of a microtransit service.
If you’re working on a similar project to the ones listed above and thinking of applying for a RAISE grant, please reach out to our team at partnerships@ridewithvia.org. We can work with you to incorporate on-demand transit into your application.
To learn more about the RAISE grants, please see the Notice of Funding , press release, and webinar schedule.
Applications are due on July 12, 2020. See more alerts here and click the button below to receive our newsletter, with new funding alerts included every month.
