The Pollinator-Friendly Practices on Roadsides and Highway Rights-of-Way Program (also referred to as the Roadside Pollinator Program) is an annual competitive grant program that awards grants to eligible entities to … Read more
As of February 2025, this program is under review and has been removed from grants.gov. We will update this page if changes are made.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act established both the PROTECT Formula and Competitive Grant Programs. The PROTECT Competitive Grant Program funds projects to help make surface transportation more resilient to current and future weather events, natural disasters, and changing conditions, such as severe storms, flooding, drought, levee and dam failures, wildfire, rockslides, mudslides, sea level rise, extreme weather, including extreme temperature, and earthquakes through support of planning activities, resilience improvements, community resilience and evacuation routes, and at-risk coastal infrastructure.
Eligible Uses
There are four categories of funding under the PROTECT Competitive Grant Program.
- Planning Grants, including vulnerability assessments, technical capacity building, evacuation planning, and development of a Resilience Improvement Plan
- Resilience Improvement Grants to increase resilience of existing surface transportation infrastructure, including through natural infrastructure
- Community Resilience and Evacuation Route Grants that strengthen and protect evacuation routes that are essential for providing and supporting evacuations caused by emergency events
- At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure Grants will address the risks from a current or future weather event or natural disaster, including coastal flooding, coastal erosion, wave action, storm surge, or sea level change; and help reduce long-term infrastructure costs by avoiding larger future maintenance or rebuilding costs
Eligible Recipients
- For the competitive grant program, eligible recipients include state (including D.C. and Puerto Rico), local, and tribal governments, as well as metropolitan planning organizations, special purpose districts or public authorities with a transportation function (such as port authorities). A Federal land management agency may be eligible if the agency applies jointly with a State or group of States.
- For the At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure Grants, eligible recipients include the entities listed above, but must be in states (including the U.S. Territories Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) in, or bordering on, the Atlantic, Pacific, or Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, Long Island Sound, or one or more of the Great Lakes.
Approx Annual Funding Amount
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law designated $1.4 billion total for the PROTECT Competitive Grant Program through FY2026. The program includes set asides for rural communities and Indian Tribes.
Cost Share Requirements
- For Planning Grants, the Federal share is 100%.
- For the remaining three Resilience Grants, an 80% federal / 20 % non-federal cost share is required, except for instances where a 100% federal share is available for Tribes and Territories.
- Cost share requirements may be fulfilled through other Federal non-PROTECT Competitive Grant Program funds, though cost share requirements of those federal funds must still be met.
- Non-Federal cost share requirements may be reduced by up to 10 percentage points if states or MPOs have a Resilience Improvement Plan in place and if that plan is incorporated into the metropolitan or statewide long-range transportation plan.
Application Cycle
See PROTECT Competitive Grant Program website for application information: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/protect/competitive/
Contact
- Elizabeth Habic, elizabeth.habic@dot.gov
- PROTECTcompetitive@dot.gov
Other Info
- Applicants may use one application to submit the same project for multiple funding categories if the project meets the eligibility criteria for multiple categories.