USDOT Awards $139M in High-Tech Transportation Grants
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The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded $139 million in Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation Program grants on Dec. 16 to 42 states for high-tech projects to improve efficiency and safety.
“We are investing in new technologies and approaches that can help communities across the country address their most pressing transportation challenges,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “The awards we’re announcing today will put funding in the hands of state, local and tribal governments to support their key priorities, which range from the delivery of medical supplies in rural areas to ensuring transportation system resilience in the face of natural disasters.”
The SMART Grants Program has two stages. The initial one is for planning and prototype grants, and Stage 2 is for implementing the grants. The program awards federal funds to public sector agencies for demonstration projects on smart community technologies and systems that bolster transportation efficiency and safety.
The Dec. 16 announcement included $54 million in grants for the 34 projects in 21 states in Stage 1. The other federal distribution was for $85 million to eight states in Stage 2 awards. The grants in this category demonstrate projects by integrating them through existing transportation systems for potential replication by other state transportation departments.
FY24 Stage 1 SMART Project List
Stage 1 grants fund projects with already developed systems and technologies that show potential public benefits but aren’t yet widely used. Most of the grants for this initial phase went to sensors (nine projects), smart traffic signals (eight), transit innovation (seven) and uncrewed aircraft systems (five). One grant each was awarded to a smart grid and work zone safety project.
In one Stage 1 sensor project, the Tennessee Department of Transportation will receive $1.98 million to deploy truck parking availability system technology to address a truck parking shortage in rural Smith County, where Interstate 40 traverses through the area.
FY24 Stage 2 SMART Project List
According to the 2023 Tennessee Statewide Multimodal Freight Plan, the state has 8,345 truck parking spaces. The truck parking areas along I-40 are mostly 75% full.
Another Stage 1 grant was awarded to Baltimore for $1.97 million to use smart traffic signals for mobility, safety and logistics problems linked to the recent Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.
• The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will receive a Stage 1 award of $1.32 million for a freight signal priority project involving connected vehicles. The project will deploy an implementation system to improve air quality and alleviate freight-related traffic congestion in several areas in the central part of the state.
TDOT 2023 StatewideMultimodalFreightPlan
• Alaska and California received a joint $12.4 million Stage 2 grant for uncrewed aircraft systems and drone dock technologies for infrastructure inspections, disaster responses and other applications.
• The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will receive $12.1 million to fully implement a QR code digital ticketing for county events “to create a seamless customer experience to ensure a transit-first 2028 Olympics and enhance public transit for all riders in the leadup and beyond,” DOT noted.
• The Washington Department of Transportation will receive $6.5 million for sensors to improve wait times at four U.S.-Canadian border crossings.
• The Utah Department of Transportation was awarded $2.88 million for a connected vehicles project. The funds will help pay for testing tools on connected vehicle technologies to validate intersections linked through safety applications on OEM projection vehicles in Utah, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Michigan and Ohio.
The New York State Thruway Authority was awarded $14.8 million for unmanned aerial systems and other technologies for a smart data collection system using automation and integrating data to improve infrastructure inspections.
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