Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation Program (PROTECT)
General Grant Program Information
The PROTECT Competitive Grant Program provides funding to plan for and 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 temperatures, and earthquakes.
The PROTECT Competitive Grant Program has the following categories of funding:
- Planning Grants (Title 23 United States Code (U.S.C.) § 176(d)(3)).
- Resilience Grants, including:
- Resilience Improvement Grants (23 U.S.C. § 176(d)(4)(A)).
- Community Resilience and Evacuation Route Grants (23 U.S.C. § 176(d)(4)(B)).
- At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure Grants (23 U.S.C. § 176(d)(4)(C)).
Eligibility Information
Eligible Applicants
Eligible applicants are States, metropolitan planning organizations (MPO), local governments, federally recognized Indian Tribes, public transportation agencies, port authorities, and Federal Land Managing Agencies (FLMA) when applying jointly with a State or group of States. Specific to At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure Grants, eligibility also includes U.S. territories, plus the same entities eligible for the broader program, but limited to coastal States and other specified entities within such States (see 23 U.S.C. § 176(d)(4)(C)(i)).
Eligible Applicants
The PROTECT Competitive Grant Program funds projects that improve the resilience of the surface transportation system, including highways, public transportation, ports, and intercity passenger rail. Program goals include protecting: surface transportation assets by making them more resilient; communities through resilience improvements and strategies that allow for the continued operation or rapid recovery of surface transportation systems; coastal infrastructure; and natural infrastructure that protects and enhances surface transportation assets.
Funding Information
Up to $79 million is available for Planning Grants; up to $551 million is available for Resilience Improvement Grants; up to $79 million is available for Community Resilience and Evacuation Route Grants; and up to $79 million is available for At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure Grants. FHWA may elect to also distribute any remaining and available prior FY PROTECT Competitive Grant Program funds in awards under this funding opportunity.
There is no minimum or maximum award size.
A minimum non-Federal cost-share of 20 percent is required for all applicants, except for: federally recognized Indian Tribes who may request zero costshare; Planning Grants, which do not require a cost-share; projects in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which do not require a cost-share (23 U.S.C. § 120(g)); and projects covered by an applicable Resilience Improvement Plan (RIP), which could reduce the required minimum cost-share to 17 percent, 13 percent, or 10 percent.
Contact Information
Disclaimer:
The Dashboard provides users with a high-level overview of relevant Federal discretionary grant programs. The information in the Dashboard is maintained as a secondary resource and may not be updated with the most recent changes to each program's primary guidance materials. Accordingly, please refer to the Federal grant-making agency for the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on a grant opportunity in the Dashboard.