Biden-Harris Administration Announces $8.8 Million in Grants to Accelerate Innovation in Highway Projects as Part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda
$8.8 million in grants have been awarded for 10 projects to the AID Demonstration Program for eight States and the District of Columbia to encourage the use of tools that can improve safety on bridges and in work zones.
According to the Federal Highway Administration, the AID Demonstration Program, with funding provided under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provides incentive grants and other resources to offset the risk of implementing a transportation innovation. The incentive funding, distributed through a competitive discretionary grant process, allows Tribal Governments, State Departments of Transportation (DOTs), Federal land management agencies, and local governments to accelerate the implementation and adoption of innovation in highway transportation and demonstrate state-of-the-art technologies. Metropolitan planning organizations and local governments can also apply in partnership with State DOTs.
The program is housed within FHWA’s Technology and Innovation Deployment Program, supports the dissemination and deployment of proven transportation innovations through any phase of a highway transportation project including project planning and delivery and system operations. The AID grants build on FHWA’s efforts to collaborate with State, local and Tribal governments, as well as Federal land management agencies, to accelerate the use of innovations and reduce project delivery time.
Since the AID program was launched in February 2014, FHWA has awarded more than $95.7 million for 127 grants to help agencies speed up their use of innovative practices, tools and technologies, including those supported under FHWA’s Every Day Counts (EDC) program. EDC is a State-based program model that identifies and rapidly deploys proven yet underutilized innovations that will more quickly make the U.S. transportation system adaptable, sustainable, equitable, and safer for all.
The following grants, announced today, were solicited on a rolling basis through a multi-year Notice of Funding Opportunity that closed on September 28, 2021.