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Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grants (FY 2011)

The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced the availability of $527 million in TIGER Discretionary Grants; pre-applications are due by October 3, 2011. The TIGER program is aimed at public transportation projects and passenger and freight rail transportation projects.

Words or phrases in red are meant to highlight important keywords or essential program details. It is useful to employ this established vocabulary when writing your grant proposal.

Filing Date

Pre-applications must be submitted by October 3, 2011, at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Final applications must be submitted through www.grants.gov by October 31, 2011, at 5:00 p.m. EDT.

The DOT pre-application system will open on or before August 22, 2011 to allow prospective applicants to submit pre-applications. Access to the pre-application system will be made available through the TIGER website. Subsequently, the www.grants.gov “Apply” function will open on October 4, 2011, allowing applicants to submit final applications.

Eligibility

State, local, and tribal governments, including U.S. territories, transit agencies, port authorities, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), other political subdivisions of state or local governments, and multi-state or multi-jurisdictional groups applying through a single lead applicant (for multi-jurisdictional groups, each member of the group, including the lead applicant, must be an otherwise eligible applicant as described in this paragraph). Each applicant may submit no more than three applications for consideration; there is no limit on applications for which an applicant can be listed as a partnering agency

Complete instructions on how to register and submit applications can be found at www.grants.gov. To use the website for the first time, an eligible applicant must register; this process usually takes 2–4 weeks and must be completed before an application can be submitted.

Description

Projects eligible for TIGER Discretionary Grants include, but are not limited to “…public transportation projects eligible under Chapter 53 of title 49, United States Code [and] passenger and freight rail transportation projects…” The merit of proposed projects will be judged by the Primary and Secondary Selection Criteria listed below.

The Primary Selection Criteria for these projects include:

  • Long-Term Outcomes
    • State of Good Repair: Improving the condition of existing transportation facilities and systems, with particular emphasis on projects that minimize lifecycle costs.
    • Economic Competitiveness: Contributing to the economic competitiveness of the United States over the medium- to long-term.
    • Livability: Fostering livable communities through place-based policies and investments that increase transportation choices and access to transportation services for people in communities across the United States.
    • Environmental Sustainability: Improving energy efficiency, reducing dependence on oil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and benefitting the environment.
    • Safety: Improving the safety of U.S. transportation facilities and systems.
  • Job Creation & Near-Term Economic Activity

The Secondary Selection Criteria include:

  • Innovation
  • Partnership
    • The DOT will give priority to projects that demonstrate strong collaboration among a broad range of participants and/or integration of transportation with other public service efforts.

A pre-application must satisfy the following key threshold requirements:

  • The project is an eligible project
  • NEPA is complete or underway
  • The project is included in the relevant state, metropolitan, and local planning documents, or will be included, if applicable
  • The project expects to be ready to obligate all of the TIGER Discretionary Grant funds no later than June 30, 2013
  • Local matching funds to support 20 percent or more of the costs for the project are identified and committed

For example, the city of Niagara Falls, New York received $16.5 million in Tiger II Discretionary Grants (FY 2010) to complete the third and final phase of its International Railway Station and Intermodal Transportation Center Project. This phase will relocate Amtrak's passenger terminal from a site outside the city center to a more ideal downtown location. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certified passenger rail terminal will accommodate multimodal operations (bus/taxi/park and ride, etc.) and establish an intermodal transportation center for the city. The project will improve freight and passenger rail efficiency by eliminating conflict points and addressing passenger safety concerns such as speeding border crossings into Canada.

Financing

The FY 2011 Continuing Appropriations Act specifies that TIGER Discretionary Grants may be not less than $10 million (except in rural areas) and not greater than $200 million. For projects located in rural areas, the minimum TIGER Discretionary Grant size is $1 million.

TIGER Discretionary Grants may be used for up to 80 percent of the costs of a project, but priority must be given to projects for which federal funding is required to complete an overall financing package and projects can increase their competitiveness by demonstrating significant non-federal contributions. In rural areas, the DOT may fund up to 100 percent of the costs of a project.

Appropriation

$527 million (FY 2011)

For more information about the FY 2011 TIGER Discretionary Grants, see the detailed notice in the Federal Register.

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