Transportation department opens applications for more than $3B in funding to reconnect communities

Applications are now open for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program. The initiative combines two different programs created in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to make it easier for communities to receive funding for projects intended to reconnect neighborhoods that were divided by past infrastructure projects like train tracks or highways.

“Transportation should never divide communities—its purpose is to connect people to jobs, schools, housing, groceries, family, places of worship, and more. That’s what the Reconnecting Communities program and the Neighborhood Access and Equity program are designed to ensure,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement about the initiative. “By combining these two grant programs into a single application, we are making it easier for communities to seek and receive the funding they need to build better, safer, inclusive infrastructure for the future.”

Communities are able to apply for a combined total of $3.353 billion in funding. Of that, $3.155 I from the Neighborhood Access and Equity Program, of which the U.S. Department of Transportation expects to award about $135 million for planning purposes, $2.57 billion for construction costs, and $450 million to regional partnerships that are designed to incentivize regions to collaborate. The remaining $198 million comes through the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program—with $148 million slated for Capital Construction Grants and $50 million for Community Planning Grants.

The Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program was established under Pres. Joe Biden’s infrastructure law specifically to help fund community-led projects that mitigate physical barriers to mobility and access, such as train tracks or highways, according to the statement. The Inflation Reduction Act established the Neighborhood Access and Equity Program that similarly funds projects that remove physical barriers as well as projects to improve walkability, safety, and affordable transportation access, particularly in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

This latest announcement of grants builds on a previous round that distributed $185 million to 45 communities as part of the Reconnecting Communities Program—six grants were for construction purposes 39 were to fund planning efforts. Projects included capping interstates with parks, filling sunken highways to reclaim land for housing, converting inhospitable transportation facilities to tree-lined streets, and creating new crossings through public transportation, bridges, tunnels and trails.

Later this summer, the transportation department will launch a new Reconnecting Communities Institute to provide communities and potential applicants with technical assistance.

Coinciding with announcement, the statement notes the transportation department has “entered into a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to coordinate technical assistance efforts to plan and build infrastructure that reconnects and improves access, especially for marginalized communities. Working with philanthropic organizations like RWJF leverages additional resources and enables support to more communities and organizations that are working to provide people with better mobility options to facilitate community revitalization, catalyze equitable development and create access to more economic opportunities.”