Grant Insights: Reconnecting Communities Pilot Grant Program

1. Community Planning Grants 
2. Capital Construction Grants 

Community Planning: 80% RCP funds and 20% local match 
Capital Construction: 50% RCP funds and 50% local match. Other Federal funds may be used to bring the total Federal share up to a maximum of 80%. 

Community Planning: to fund the study of removing, retrofitting, or mitigating an existing facility to restore community connectivity; conduct public engagement, and other transportation planning activities and costs, including but not limited to:

1. Public engagement activities for public input and meaningful involvement into project plans; 
   
2. Feasibility studies to assess traffic patterns, alternative roadway designs, or the project’s anticipated community impacts; 
   
3. Conceptual preliminary engineering, or design and planning studies that support the environmental review for a construction project; or 
   
4. Associated needs such as locally driven land use and zoning reform, transit-oriented development, or climate resilience and sustainability. 

Capital Construction: to remove, retrofit, mitigate, or replace an existing eligible facility with a new facility that reconnects communities; activities include, but are not limited to:

• Preliminary and detailed design activities and associated environmental studies; preconstruction; construction; permitting activities; completion of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process; meaningful public involvement throughout the project delivery process; delivering community benefits and the mitigation of impacts identified through the NEPA process or other planning and project development for the project. 

Community Planning Grants:

• State; Unit of Local Government; Tribal Government; Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO); or Non-Profit Organization 

Capital Construction Grants:

• Owner(s) of the eligible facility proposed in the project for which all necessary feasibility studies and other planning activities have been completed; or owner(s) of an eligible facility may submit a joint application with an eligible Community Planning Grant applicant. 

The agency will prioritize projects that benefit disadvantaged communities; improve access to jobs, education, healthcare, food, nature, and recreation; foster equitable development and restoration; and reconnect communities by removing, retrofitting, or mitigating barriers to connectivity and mobility. 
DOT encourages joint applications from place-based partnerships headed by a lead applicant. A lead applicant may submit no more than three applications. Unrelated project components (spatially or functionally unrelated) should not be bundled in a single application for the purpose of adhering to the limit. If a lead applicant submits more applications, only the last three received will be reviewed. 

Eligible Facilities – Community Planning Grants and Capital Construction Grants

• Defined as a highway or other surface transportation facility that creates a barrier to community connectivity—including barriers to mobility, access, or economic development—due to high speeds, grade separations, or other design factors. Eligible facilities may include limited access highways, viaducts, any other principal arterial facilities, and other facilities such as transit lines and rail lines. 

Technical Assistance: 
Potential applicants who are interested in pursuing a “reconnecting project,” but are not prepared to apply, can submit a request for technical assistance. These potential applicants are encouraged to submit a request for technical assistance through the Reconnecting Communities Institute (RCI). An RCI technical assistance opportunity is to participate in a “Reconnecting Communities Community of Practice,” which provides an interactive training opportunity to advance the planning and delivery of projects intended to reconnect communities. 

Merit Citeria:

1. Equity and Justice40 Initiative 
   
2. Access 
   
3. Facility Suitability 
   
4. Community Engagement and Community-Based Stewardship, Management, and Partnerships 
   
5. Equitable Development 
   
6. Climate Change Mitigation and/or Adaptation and Resilience 
   
7. Workforce Development and Economic Opportunity 
   
8. Planning Integration 

Name/Email: RCP Grant Program Staff - ReconnectingCommunities@dot.gov 
Name/Email: Andrew Emanuele - andrew.emanuele@dot.gov 
Name/Email: Program FAQs - https://www.transportation.gov/reconnecting