Under TIGER II, more than $140 million is reserved for projects in rural areas.

As a competitive program, TIGER II is able to fund the best projects from around the country.  Using merit-based evaluation criteria allows the Department of Transportation to address some of the nation’s most critical challenges like sustainability and economic competitiveness.

This marks the first time that the U.S. Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have joined together in awarding grants for localized planning activities that ultimately lead to projects that integrate transportation, housing and urban development.  Almost 700 applicants sought up to $35 million in TIGER II planning grants and up to $40 million in HUD Sustainable Community Challenge Grants.  HUD’s funds can be used for localized planning efforts, such as development around a transit stop and zone or building code updates and improvements.  The two Departments, along with assistance from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, participated in the evaluation of the planning grant applications.

To ensure the important investments made by the Recovery Act continue, President Obama recently announced a comprehensive infrastructure investment plan that would be front-loaded with $50 billion to expand and renew America’s roads, railways and runways. To learn more about President Obama’s infrastructure investment plan, click here.

TIGER II grants were awarded to projects that have a significant impact on the nation, a region or metropolitan area.  The projects chosen demonstrate their ability to contribute to the long-term economic competitiveness of the nation, improve the condition of existing transportation facilities and systems, increase energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improve the safety of U.S. transportation facilities and/or enhance the quality of living and working environments of communities through increased transportation choices and connections.  The Department also gave priority to projects that are expected to create and preserve jobs quickly and stimulate rapid increases in economic activity.

A complete list of capital grant recipients can be viewed at: http://www.dot.gov/docs/tiger2grantinfo.pdf

A complete list of planning grant recipients can be viewed at http://www.dot.gov/docs/tiger2planninggrantinfo.pdf