The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is making $500 million available for the seventh round of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) competitive grant program.
"The TIGER program has funded innovative projects, sparked new partnerships, created intermodal connections and enabled hard-to-fund projects that are changing the face of communities all across the country," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "
TIGER 2015 discretionary grants will fund capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure and will be awarded on a competitive basis to projects that will have a significant impact on the nation, a region or metropolitan area.
Since 2009, the TIGER grant program has provided a combined $4.1 billion to 342 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. USDOT says demand has been overwhelming, and during the previous six rounds, the department received more than 6,000 applications requesting more than $124 billion for transportation projects across the country.
"The consistent number of high quality projects we're unable to fund through TIGER every year demonstrates the need for Congress to act to give more communities access to this vital lifeline," Secretary Foxx said. "That is why we proposed doubling TIGER in the GROW AMERICA Act."
Last week, USDOT reintroduced a six-year, $478-billion surface transportation reauthorization bill, the GROW AMERICA Act. The bill would provide $7.5 billion in funding over six years for the TIGER grant program.
Current TIGER funding is provided in the FY 2015 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act. Pre-Applications are due on May 4, 2015. Final applications are due June 5, 2015.