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TIGER Discretionary Grants and TIGER TIFIA Payments

Congress authorized $1.5 billion for the awarding of discretionary surface transportation grants to be given out by the Secretary of Transportation to state and local governments or transit agencies on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant impact on the nation, a metropolitan region or a region.

This new program is multimodal. The Secretary can select projects for highways, bridges, mass transit, passenger or freight rail, and port infrastructure, or some combination thereof, at a federal cost share of 100 percent. The law also directs the Secretary to make geographically diverse selections and to give preference to projects that can be completed within three years of the bill’s enactment.

This program is geared towards larger projects; there is a minimum grant size of $20 million, which is waivable by the Secretary, and a maximum grant size of $300 million, together with a limitation on the total funding going to any one state being no more than 20 percent of the total appropriation (also $300 million). To leverage larger amounts of funding, the Secretary may use up to $200 million of the $1.5 billion for credit assistance as under the TIFIA innovative finance program (subtitle VI of title 23 U.S.C.)

Because this is a new program, it was necessary for the U.S. DOT to develop rules that announce the availability of funding, project selection criteria, application requirements, and the deadline for submitting applications. Those rules were published in the Federal Register on May 18, 2009.

TIGER Discretionary Grants

Under this program, referred to by the U.S. DOT as Grants for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery or TIGER Discretionary Grants, funds will be awarded to state and local governments who submit applications for projects that include, but are not limited to, capital investments in highway or bridge projects, public transportation projects, passenger and freight rail, and port infrastructure investments.

Selection criteria
TIGER Discretionary Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis based on the following selection criteria, which incorporate the criteria specified in the Recovery Act:

    (a) Long-term outcomes : The U.S. DOT will give priority to projects that have a significant impact on desirable long-term outcomes for the nation, a metropolitan area or a region. The following types of long-term outcomes will be given priority:
      (i) State of good repair : Improving the condition of existing transportation facilities and systems, with particular emphasis on projects that minimize life-cycle costs.
      (ii) Economic competitiveness : Contributing to the economic competitiveness of the United States over the medium- to long-term.
      (iii) Livability : Improving the quality of living and working environments and the experience for people in communities across the United States.
      (iv) Sustainability : Improving energy efficiency, reducing dependence on oil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and benefitting the environment.
      (v) Safety : Improving the safety of U.S. transportation facilities and systems.
    (b) Job creation and economic stimulus : Consistent with the purposes of the Recovery Act, the U.S. DOT will give priority to projects that are expected to quickly create and preserve jobs and stimulate rapid increases in economic activity, particularly jobs and activity that benefit economically distressed areas.
    (c) Innovation: The U.S. DOT will give priority to projects that use innovative strategies to pursue the long-term outcomes outlined above.
    (d) Partnership: The U.S. 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.

The Federal Register notice provides additional guidance on the selection criteria. The U.S. DOT will give more weight to the “long-term outcomes” and “jobs creation and economic stimulus” criteria than to the “innovation and partnership” criteria. Projects that are unable to demonstrate a likelihood of significant long-term benefits in any of the five long-term outcomes will not proceed in the evaluation process. For the “jobs creation and economic stimulus” criterion, a project that is not ready to proceed quickly is less likely to be successful.

Program-specific criteria
The U.S. DOT will use certain program-specific criteria to help differentiate between similar projects (for example, New Starts projects or bridge replacements). To the extent two or more similar projects have similar ratings based on the selection criteria, the program-specific criteria will be used to assign priority among these projects.

Distribution of funds
The Recovery Act prohibits the award of more than 20 percent of the funds made available under this program to projects in any one state. The Recovery Act also requires that the U.S. DOT take measures to ensure an equitable geographic distribution of funds and an appropriate balance in addressing the needs of urban and rural communities.

TIGER TIFIA Payments

The Recovery Act also allows for up to $200 million of the $1.5 billion to be used to pay the subsidy and administrative costs of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 1998 (TIFIA) program, a federal credit assistance program, if it would further the purposes of the TIGER Discretionary Grants program. The U.S. DOT refers to these payments as TIGER TIFIA Payments. The U.S. DOT estimates that $200 million of TIGER TIFIA Payments could support approximately $2 billion in TIFIA credit assistance.

Application
Applicants seeking TIGER TIFIA Payments must apply in accordance with all of the criteria and guidance specified for TIGER Discretionary Grant and will be evaluated concurrently with all other applications. Applicants must also submit a separate TIFIA loan application.

Iowa Applications

Applications for this program are due Sept. 15, 2009. The U.S. DOT will evaluate all applications received and announce the projects that have been selected to receive grant funds as soon as possible after the application deadline, but no later than Feb. 17, 2010.

The Iowa DOT has currently identified the following projects for which it will be submitting applications. Other multimodal projects may be selected prior to the submittal deadline. Any new selections or additional application documents will be added to the table as the information becomes available.  [Note: Information regarding applications submitted directly to the U.S. DOT by local governments or transit agencies in Iowa must be obtained from the respective agencies. The Iowa DOT does not collect that information.]

Project Description
(will include link to application when it becomes available)

Project Type

Federal Funding Requested

I-29 interstate reconstruction, Segment 3 in Sioux City, Woodbury County

Highway

$34 million

I-74 Mississippi River bridge, Scott County

Highway

$126 million (joint application between Iowa and Illinois)

I-80/Iowa 945 to Iowa 1, Johnson County

Highway

$41.1 million

U.S. 6 (Broadway Viaduct), Pottawattamie County

Highway

$26.4 million

U.S. 30 Tama/Toledo bypass

Highway

$23.8 million

U.S. 34 Missouri River Connector, Mills County

Highway

$143.4 million (joint application between Iowa and Nebraska)

U.S. 61 Fort Madison bypass, Lee County

Highway

$45.5 million
BNSF Burlington Bridge Rail $25 million
CRANDIC Interchange Project Rail $7 million
IANR Bridge/Rail Rehabilitation Rail $19,859,268
UP Clinton Bridge Rail $33 million

UP Wind Belt Project

Rail $24 million