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 The Build America Bureau is U.S. DOT's “one-stop shop” for transportation infrastructure finance with low-interest, long-term loans. We also provide technical assistance and encourage innovative best practices in project planning, financing, delivery, and operation. If you are interested in using our financing tools or have any questions, contact us at BuildAmerica@dot.gov.
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By Morteza Farajian, Ph.D., Executive Director
The Bureau is here for project sponsors interested in financing transformative transportation projects. Whether you have used our financing tools in the past or not, it doesn’t matter. We have you covered. In addition to our loan programs, we are ramping up our technical assistance resources, providing new and existing grant programs that offer support to project sponsors.
One existing program is expanding: the Regional Infrastructure Accelerator program, or RIA, helps project sponsors create capacity at the local level to study and evaluate innovative financing and delivery solutions and better position themselves for federal financing and funding programs. So far, there have been two rounds of awards with $10 million awarded to 10 regional grantees. The third Notice of Funding Opportunity for $24 million was released on Thursday, April 27. View the video here. Hurry - applications are due May 30, 2023!
The Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program, created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), will make funding available to rural and tribal project sponsors for early-stage project development activities, like preliminary engineering or benefit-cost analysis studies. The $10 million program will be in place for five years as a pilot program.
- The first NOFO for this program will be released this spring and will make the first two years of funding ($3.4 million) available under one NOFO, with a very simple application process.
Also created by the BIL, is the forthcoming Innovative Finance and Asset Concession Program. It provides $100 million in grants over five years to enable recipients to develop and evaluate innovative financing and delivery solutions, including public-private partnerships.
The Bureau is also administering the Thriving Communities Program, which ensures that disadvantaged communities adversely or disproportionately affected by environmental, climate, and human health policy outcomes have the technical tools and organizational capacity to compete for Federal aid and deliver quality infrastructure projects that enable their communities and neighborhoods to thrive. The Secretary just announced the first grant awards and designated communities. Please read the update in the article below.
Academia is also helping us with technical assistance through the Build America Center (BAC), a cooperative agreement with the University of Maryland and four other prestigious universities. The BAC mobilizes the use of innovative finance, funding, and project delivery solutions to foster new approaches to transportation-infrastructure development projects for cutting-edge research, innovative training, and customized educational and training technical assistance to project sponsors. See the article below about the recent Infrastructure Investment forum BAC hosted at Stanford to provide opportunities for peers and practitioners to share real life experience, lessons learned and best practices to see better outcomes in upcoming projects.
Finally, we can utilize other tools to help communities with technical assistance. In some cases, an Emerging Projects Agreement may be appropriate for communities with billions in project needs, multiple regional partners and complicated portfolio of different improvements that are looking to move projects forward sooner to benefit communities earlier than without financing. Check out the article below on Austin’s EmPA.
The enhanced emphasis on technical assistance is part of an overall department-wide commitment to helping all communities benefit from the historic funding of BIL. We will work to help you gain access to the tools to help you build the infrastructure that your community needs to thrive. We are here to serve you; let us know how we can help. Contact us today at BuildAmerica@dot.gov to get started. Thank you.
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Click to hear Dr. Morteza Farajian's spring message!
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 The Sound Transit team and Executive Director Morteza Farajian recently toured projects financed in part through the Bureau.
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Build America Bureau Executive Director Morteza Farajian and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson signed an agreement at a ceremony at Austin’s City Hall, establishing a strategic partnership to facilitate innovative delivery and financing of infrastructure improvements. The Emerging Projects Agreement (EmPA) focuses on the City of Austin’s more than $22 billion “Mobility Program of Projects,” a network of projects designed to improve travel throughout the region.
Under the agreement, the Build America Bureau and City of Austin will explore opportunities for innovative project planning, procurement, financing, and delivery that could include using low-interest rate financing such as Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loans, Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF), Private Activity Bonds (PABs), and technical assistance grants.
The Bureau team traveled to Austin and held a workshop to develop the plan March 28-29. Meeting with Austin officials, the team engaged stakeholders, reviewed infrastructure needs, and helped identify potential innovative solutions.
 Austin’s Mike Trimble spoke at the Austin EmPA workshop in March. An Austin workshop partner offers comments during the session.
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The Build America Center recently convened leading experts for an US Infrastructure Investment Forum to share information, identify challenges and policy reforms, and foster collaboration to deliver on the potential of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Forum topics included the impact of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, federal permitting regulations, and key challenges to US infrastructure development.
The forum was hosted by the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and organized in collaboration with the Build America Center (BAC), the Build America Bureau, the National Governors Association (NGA), and the Global Infrastructure Investor Association (GIIA).
 Attendees at the BAC Infrastructure Investment Forum discuss the BIL implementation and innovative financing.
The Thriving Communities Program (TCP) will help 64 communities across the country access historic funding opportunities thanks to the BIL. The program provides two years of no-cost intensive technical assistance to under-resourced and disadvantaged communities to help identify, develop, and deliver transportation projects that strengthen communities. USDOT’s technical assistance is part of the Thriving Communities Network, an interagency initiative among the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture, as well as the General Services Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Thriving Communities Program is one of the USDOT programs covered under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative.
Click HERE for more information about the Thriving Communities Program and selected communities.
The Mega Grant Program supports large, complex projects that are difficult to fund by other means and likely to generate national or regional economic, mobility, or safety benefits. Recently USDOT announced the FY 2022 recipients and also identified 13 non-awarded projects that, if built, would significantly advance DOT's strategic goals though identified as exhibiting key strengths that align with Administration goals.
“Limited discretionary grant funds should not stop good projects from moving forward,” stated Executive Director Morteza Farajian. “That’s why the Bureau is assisting 13 projects in identifying alternative approaches which could include applying for other grants, receiving a TIFIA loan to finance 49 percent of project costs instead of traditional 33 percent cap, or utilizing innovative delivery options such as bundling, phasing or Public-Private Partnerships.”
The project sponsors are receiving project-specific targeted technical assistance from the Bureau to ensure they are best positioned to take advantage of a wide variety of Departmental programs in future years. This may include the opportunity to apply for a TIFIA loan of up to the maximum amount of 49 percent of eligible project costs, or utilizing innovative delivery options such as bundling, phasing, or public-private partnerships. Read more about USDOT's Strategic Goals here: https://lnkd.in/gbkHv_4B
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced an historic $185 million in grant awards for 45 projects through the new Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program. This is a first-of-its-kind initiative to reconnect communities cut off from opportunity and burdened by past transportation infrastructure decisions. The Reconnecting Communities Program provides technical assistance and funding for communities’ planning and construction projects that aim to connect neighborhoods back together by removing, retrofitting, or mitigating transportation barriers such as highways and railroad tracks. The team is planning a welcome webinar for awardees in mid-April.
The next funding opportunity is scheduled for release early summer and may be combined with the new Neighborhood Access & Equity program out of the Inflation Reduction Act. This NOFO will likely close sometime in October, so watch for another round of funding opportunities coming soon.
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The Bureau is the USDOT’s designated High Impact Service Provider, providing the Bureau team the opportunity to join other agencies in developing strategic performance measures and improvement efforts. Later this year, the Bureau will implement a customer survey on its website, designed to solicit input to improve the customer experience with this critical communication tool. Please be sure to fill out the survey when you visit our website, https://www.transportation.gov/buildamerica/. In the meantime, please email us at BuildAmerica@dot.gov if you have any feedback for improvements.
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The Bureau is always working with transportation agencies to identify projects that would benefit from a TIFIA or RRIF loan. Since its creation in 2016, the Bureau and its partners across DOT have worked to streamline the application process and expand its outreach efforts. The borrower below received TIFIA and RRIF loans since the previous newsletter.
Seattle’s Sound Transit secures $327 million in Loans for Enhancement to the Transit System in Washington State
Seattle area commuters will be pleased to know several critical projects on the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) system are moving forward. The Bureau recently closed three loans totaling $327 million for Sound Transit. The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) and Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing (RRIF) loans will finance three projects: the Hilltop Tacoma Link Extension (TIFIA loan for $93.3 million) to extend light rail line by 2.4 miles; the Elevated Light Rail Platform Along Lynnwood Link Extension (TIFIA loan for $79.3 million) to build a new light rail station in North Seattle; and Sounder Access Improvements (RRIF loan for $154.2 million) to improve access for hundreds more people at three stations.
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The Build America Bureau is open for business! If you are interested in exploring federal financing with the Build America Bureau, please contact us at BuildAmerica@dot.gov.
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