Applications Pour In For New DOT Rail Grants

Twenty-five states have filed 77 applications totaling more than $8.5 billion for the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's next round of high-speed-rail grants. Many applicants will be disappointed: DOT only has about $2.3 billion to distribute.

The department expects to announce the winners of the new round of grants "in early fall," says Rob Kulat, a spokesman with DOT's Federal Railroad Administration.

Odds of winning are long, but not as daunting as in FRA's initial high-speed-rail grant competition, when the agency was inundated with $57 billion in applications for $8 billion in grants.

DOT officials announced the winners of that first round in January. Funding was provided in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The second-round money comes from DOT's regular 2010 appropriations. Awards will be made in two categories. DOT has about $2.1 billion for rail corridor programs and $245 million for individual projects on which construction is ready to start.

For round two, 10 states filed 20 applications valued at a combined $7.8 billion for corridor grants. Eighteen states submitted 57 applications totaling $700 million for specific rail projects.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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