Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) Program | DOT RCP FY24 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for DOT RCP FY24 01

The Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) Program is a discretionary grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), issued through a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). The program is designed to help communities that were cut off or harmed by past transportation investments, especially major highways and other large facilities that created physical barriers. A central focus is improving connectivity and access for disadvantaged communities so residents can more easily reach everyday destinations such as jobs, schools, healthcare, grocery stores, and recreation. In practical terms, the program supports projects that stitch neighborhoods back together and remove or reduce transportation-related obstacles that limit mobility, opportunity, and local economic development.

Funding under this NOFO covers fiscal years 2024, 2025, and 2026 and is awarded on a competitive basis. USDOT is looking to fund both planning and construction work that directly advances reconnection. Eligible project approaches include removing, retrofitting, mitigating, or replacing highways, roadways, or other infrastructure that functions as a barrier. This can include efforts that physically reconnect street networks, improve safe crossings, redesign corridors to reduce divisive impacts, or otherwise restore access between places that were separated by past infrastructure decisions.

The program includes two main grant types with statutory size parameters from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Community Planning Grants are intended to help applicants develop plans, designs, analyses, community engagement processes, and project development work that lead to future capital investments; the maximum award for a Community Planning Grant funded with RCP dollars is $2 million. Capital Construction Grants support on-the-ground construction activities, and the minimum award for a Capital Construction Grant funded with RCP dollars is $5 million. The NOFO lists an award ceiling of up to $100,000,000, and USDOT anticipates making around 100 awards, indicating the program can range from smaller planning efforts to large, transformational construction projects depending on the application and category.

Eligible applicants include a broad set of public and mission-driven entities: state governments, counties, cities or townships, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, federally recognized Tribal governments, other Native American tribal organizations, and nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (excluding higher education institutions in that nonprofit category). The administering office is within USDOT under the Office of the Under Secretary for Policy (Agency code 69A345). The assistance listing (CFDA) number associated with this opportunity is 20.940.

Applications are not submitted through Grants.gov for this opportunity. Instead, USDOT is directing applicants to submit through Valid Eval, using separate portals for the Capital Construction application and the Community Planning application. At the time of the notice, the signup links were not yet active, with USDOT indicating a brief delay. Prospective applicants are instructed to monitor the "How to Apply" page on the Reconnecting Communities website and to subscribe to email updates so they can access the portals as soon as the links go live.

The deadline is firm: applications must be submitted by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Monday, September 30, 2024. Late applications will not be accepted, so applicants should plan for internal approvals, required attachments, and submission steps well in advance. The opportunity number for this solicitation is DOT RCP FY24 01, and it was created on July 3, 2024.

• The 69A345 Office of the Under Secretary for Policy in the iij sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 20.940.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-07-03.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-09-30. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $100,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 100 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.

Apply for DOT RCP FY24 01

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