New funding opportunities for the seaport and transportation industries, as of June 2019
Port Infrastructure Development Program
The bill provides a total of $92,730,000, to remain available until expended, for the port infrastructure development program authorized under 50302 of title 46, United States Code. MARAD is directed to provide grants for infrastructure improvement projects for the 15 coastal seaports that handled the greatest number of loaded twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of foreign and domestic containerized cargo in 2016. Of the 15 coastal ports eligible for the $92,730,000 set aside, three of them are in Florida: Jacksonville, Miami, and Port Everglades.
The minimum Port Infrastructure Development Program award size is $10 million. Except as limited by the amount of available funding, there is no maximum award size.
The Maritime Administration has announced the availability of $7 million in federal grant funds for Marine Highway Projects. America’s Marine Highway Program, a U.S. Department of Transportation-led and AAPA-supported program, was designed to integrate marine highway services and ports into the nation’s surface transportation system.
Application deadline is incorrect on the Federal Register, but will be updated in the next few days.
Per the FY2019 appropriations law, $900 million is available to be awarded for investments in surface transportation infrastructure. There should be a 50-50 split between rural and urban grants. The maximum grant size is $25 million. For a project in a rural area, the minimum grant award is $1 million; in non-rural areas the minimum grant award is $5 million. There is no minimum award size for planning grants. Selection criteria encompass safety, economic competitiveness, quality of life, state of good repair, innovation and partnerships with a broad range of stakeholders.
