Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded nearly $1 billion in grants under the Safe Streets and Roads for All program in fiscal year 2025.
- The program, created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, makes $5 billion available over five years (fiscal years 2022-2026) for community-led projects to improve roadway safety. Approximately $1 billion will be available in the FY 2026 funding round.
- The Trump administration revised the program to eliminate environmental justice, diversity, equity and inclusion requirements.
Dive Insight:
The SS4A program offers planning and demonstration grants to help recipients prepare comprehensive safety action plans, which then can be funded through its implementation grants. A minimum of 30% of funding must go to planning and demonstration grants, down from 40%, per changes made by Congress.
Applications that include plans reducing lane capacity for vehicles “would be viewed less favorably by the Department,” the DOT stated in its notice of funding opportunity for the FY 2025 program.
In 2025, the program funded 521 projects across 48 states, 18 tribes and Puerto Rico. The grants awarded in this round include:
- $24 million to Phoenix for safety upgrades at six high-injury intersections and two highway corridors.
- $12.5 million to the city of Omaha, Nebraska, to construct three roundabouts.
- $60,000 to the town of North Kingston, Rhode Island, to install stop-arm cameras on all of the town’s 33 school buses.
- $15 million to Henrico County, Virginia, to install lidar pedestrian-detection sensors at 80 high-injury network intersections.
Experts from the Federal Highway Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Transit Administration collaborate on award selections, the DOT said in a news release.
