The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) recently awarded a second round of Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grants. The concept of discretionary transportation grants began under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) as a way for USDOT to award funding to states based on quantitative metrics for projects that advance specific transportation policy goals. At that time, most federal transportation funding was awarded as formula grants that largely lacked quantitative metrics or analysis of need.Â
RAISE grants follow in the footsteps of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) and the Better Utilizing Investments to