More federal grant funds to support transportation infrastructure were announced in late June. This represents the Trump Administration’s follow-on to the project funding program that has been known as FASTLANE previously under the Obama Administration.  The newly named program will be called INFRA and will focus on projects in which the local sponsor is significantly invested and where the project is positioned to proceed rapidly to construction.  USDoT is interested to participate in projects that are of national or regional economic significance.  INFRA funds can be used for a range of purposes, including: reconstruction, rehabilitation, property acquisition, environmental mitigation, construction contingencies, equipment acquisition, and operational improvements. Ultimately funded at $1.5B, this is a modest investment in terms of overall national infrastructure, but does represent some serious funding for specific projects.  Representing new emphasis, the DoT is increasingly interested projects that include private investment.  Some portion of the funding (25%) is set-aside for  projects in rural areas.  Applications for funding must be received within 120 days following publication, which was June 29, 2017.
GLDPartners’ experience is that projects that had success receiving funding from previous DoT funding programs were: 1) well-vetted, 2) had highly developed business plans, 3) were deliverable within 6 months, 4) could make a case that the project could either directly or indirectly impact the national transport and cargo movement system, and 5) had a meaningful private investment, either directly or parallel to the project.
We invite you to review your project with us.  We can provide insights regarding the project, its commercial competitiveness orientation and how to develop the project business strategy.  Ultimately, every year there are many worthy projects that do not receive funding from the US federal government, generally because the project and application didn’t recognize some of the fundamental elements that the federal selection committee was looking for.
GLDPartners is an international investment and advisory firm with offices in the US, Canada, Mexico and in the UK.  With an emphasis on supply chain evolution, market growth, revenue development, competitiveness analytics and risk mitigation, the firm works on projects at and around seaports, airports and other trade and logistics hubs. 

 

From the USDoT announcement about INFRA:  The Department of Transportation (DOT) is announcing the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) discretionary grant program through a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in the Federal Register on June 29. The INFRA program will make approximately $1.5 billion available to projects that are in line with the Administration’s principles to help rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure — a priority for this Administration.  In addition to providing direct federal funding, the INFRA program aims to increase the total investment by state, local, and private partners.INFRA advances a pre-existing grant program established in the FAST Act of 2015 and utilizes updated criteria to evaluate projects to align them with national and regional economic vitality goals and to leverage additional non-federal funding. The new program will increase the impact of projects by leveraging capital and allowing innovation in the project delivery and permitting processes, including public-private partnerships.

Additionally, the new program promotes innovative safety solutions that will improve our transportation system. INFRA will also target performance and accountability in project delivery and operations.

“The President and the Department are committed to revitalizing, repairing and rebuilding America’s aging infrastructure,” said Secretary Elaine L. Chao. “By ensuring the right incentives, projects selected under this program will be better able to make significant, long-term improvements to America’s transportation infrastructure.”

The Department will make awards under the INFRA program to both large and small projects.  For a large project, the INFRA grant must be at least $25 million.  For a small project, the grant must be at least $5 million. For each fiscal year of INFRA funds, 10% of available funds are reserved for small projects.

The INFRA grant program preserves the statutory requirement in the FAST Act to award at least 25% of funding for rural projects. The Administration understands that rural needs may well exceed this limit, and the Department will consider rural projects to the greatest extent possible.  For rural communities in need of funding for highway and multimodal freight projects with national or regional economic significance, INFRA is an opportunity to apply directly for financial assistance from the federal government. For these communities, DOT will consider an applicant’s resource constraints when assessing the leverage criterion.

INFRA grants may be used to fund a variety of components of an infrastructure project, however, the Department is specifically focused on projects in which the local sponsor is significantly invested and is positioned to proceed rapidly to construction. Eligible INFRA project costs may include: reconstruction, rehabilitation, acquisition of property (including land related to the project and improvements to the land), environmental mitigation, construction contingencies, equipment acquisition, and operational improvements directly related to system performance.

Applicants may resubmit their previous FASTLANE application, but must explain how the project competitively addresses the improved INFRA Grant criteria.  This NOFO will remain open for 120 days.

USDoT Website: USDoT Launches INFRA Grant Program