The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded 42 grants totaling more than $130 million for technology demonstration projects that will create safer, more efficient and more innovative transportation systems.
The grants, part of the Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants program provides $500 million over five years for state, local and tribal governments to fund projects that will accelerate the adoption of innovative technologies, the department said.
“Through the SMART Grants Program, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are investing in new technologies and approaches that can help communities across the country address their most pressing transportation challenges,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “The awards we’re announcing today will put funding in the hands of state, local, and Tribal governments to support their key priorities, which range from the delivery of medical supplies in rural areas to ensuring transportation system resilience in the face of natural disasters.”
The SMART Grants Program, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, operates in two stages – Stage One for planning and prototyping grants, and Stage Two for Implementation Grants. This is the third year of Stage One awards, and the first year for Stage Two deployment awards, the department said. The US DOT received more than 300 eligible grant applications for Stage One, and 28 applications for Stage Two grants from eligible Stage One recipients. In total, the department awarded 34 new Stage One grants in 21 states and eight Stage Two grants.
“The high demand for the SMART Grants Program over all three years demonstrates the need for purpose-driven technology solutions undertaken by State, local, and Tribal agencies. This first round of Stage Two awards will implement these solutions at scale, building on successes demonstrated in their first stage,” Dr. Robert C. Hampshire, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology and Chief Science Officer at the US DOT, said.
The Stage One grants include $1,9995,000 for the South Dakota Department of Transportation for a statewide SMART traffic signaling program, and $2 million for Intercity Transit in Olympia, Wash. for a project to install and use smart sensors that can identify where conflicts occur and how to manage traffic signals in order to reduce conflicts and improve transit reliability and performance. Stage Two grants included $14,849,730 for the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota to develop multi-faceted, open-source APIs to communicate policies and regulations on curb usage; and $11.7 million for Fort Collins, Colorado to develop a smart grid electric vehicle charge management solution for the city’s EV fleet.