Webinars and Additional Guidance
Application Resources
Special Topics Webinars
- How to Compete for TIGER Seminar (July 18th)
- "Talking Freight" (July 27th)
- TIGER and Rural America (August 3rd)
- Project Readiness/NEPA (August 22th)
- TIGER TIFIA Payments (August 24th)
- MARAD Port Outreach (August 30th)
- Lessons for Tribal Applicants (September 16th)
Benefit-Cost Analysis Assistance
- BCA Examples
- Benefit-Cost Analysis Practitioner's Workshop (2010)
- Benefit Cost Analysis (August 17th)
- TIGER and Rural America, Part 2 BCA Guidance (August 31st)
Frequently Asked Questions
How do/Where can I access the application and pre-application?
Similar to FY 2011 TIGER, applicants interested in applying for
the fourth round of TIGER grants must submit a pre-application
before February 20, 2012, at 5:00 p.m. EST. Pre-applications
enable DOT to contact those applicants with eligibility concerns
and recommend clarifications (e.g., project eligibility, schedule
concerns, etc.) before submission of a final application. The
pre-application will open on February 13th.
Final applications must be submitted through Grants.gov on or before March 19, 2012, at 5:00 p.m. EST. The Grants.gov “Apply” function will open on February 22, 2012, allowing applicants to submit final applications.
What if I am having technical issues with grants.gov?
Please refer to the following links for technical issues with
grants.gov:
http://www.grants.gov/assets/Applicant-User-Guide_110711.pdf
http://www.grants.gov/assets/OrgRegUserGuide.pdf
How do I determine if my project qualifies as being rural?
The TIGER Grant Program defines “rural area” as any area not
in an Urbanized Area, as the term is defined by the Census Bureau.
DOT considers a project to be in a rural area if all or a material
portion of a project is located in a rural area. Consult
this page for Census maps of Urbanized Areas to determine if
the project is located in urban or rural areas: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/maps/ua2kmaps.htm
What are the objectives of the TIGER Discretionary Grant Program?
The FY 2012 Appropriations Act appropriated $500 million,
available through September 30, 2013, for National Infrastructure
Investments. This
appropriation is similar, but not identical to the appropriation
for the “TIGER” program authorized and implemented pursuant
to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (The
Recovery Act). Because of the similarity in program structure,
DOT will continue to refer to the program as ‘‘TIGER Discretionary
Grants.’’ As with previous rounds of TIGER, funds for the FY
2012 TIGER program are to be awarded on a competitive basis
for projects that will have a significant impact on the Nation,
a metropolitan area or a region.
When are applications due?
The criteria for the TIGER Discretionary Grant program are announced
in the notice of funding availability in the Federal Register. The
notice requires that pre-applications must be submitted by February
20, 2012, at 5:00 p.m. EST. Final applications must be submitted
through Grants.gov by March 19, 2012, at 5:00 p.m. EST. The
DOT pre-application system will open on or before February 13,
2012 to allow prospective applicants to submit pre-applications. Access
to the pre-application system will be made available through
the TIGER website (www.dot.gov/tiger). Subsequently,
the Grants.gov “Apply” function will open on February 22, 2012,
allowing applicants to submit final applications.
Who can receive funds under the National Investments Discretionary
Grant?
"Eligible Applicants” for TIGER Discretionary
Grants are State, local, and tribal governments, including U.S.
territories, transit agencies, port authorities, metropolitan
planning organizations (MPOs), other political subdivisions of
State or local governments, and multi-State or multi-jurisdictional
groups applying through a single lead applicant (for multi-jurisdictional
groups, each member of the group, including the lead applicant,
must be an otherwise eligible applicant as described in this
paragraph).
What types of projects are eligible for TIGER Discretionary Grant
funding?
Projects that are eligible for TIGER Discretionary Grants under
- highway or bridge projects eligible under title 23, United States Code;
- public transportation projects eligible under chapter 53 of title 49, United States Code;
- freight rail projects;
- high speed and intercity passenger rail projects; and
- port infrastructure investments.
Federal wage rate requirements included in subchapter IV of chapter 31 of title 40, United States Code, apply to all projects receiving funds.
What criteria will be used to evaluate applications for TIGER
Discretionary Grants?
The TIGER Discretionary Grants Final Notice of Funding Availability
outlines the selection criteria in detail. Grants will be awarded
based on two categories of selection criteria, “Primary Selection
Criteria” and “Secondary Selection Criteria.”
The Primary Selection Criteria include:
Primary Selection Criteria:
Long-Outcomes: The
Department will give priority to projects that have a significant
impact on desirable long-term outcomes for the Nation, a metropolitan
area, or a region. The following
- State of Good Repair: Improving the condition of existing transportation facilities and systems, with particular emphasis on projects that minimize life-cycle costs.
- Economic Competitiveness: Contributing to the economic competitiveness of the United States over the medium- to long-term.
- Livability: Fostering livable communities through place-based policies and investments that increase transportation choices and access to transportation services for people in communities across the United States.
- Environmental Sustainability: Improving energy efficiency, reducing dependence on oil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and benefitting the environment.
- Safety: Improving the safety of U.S. transportation facilities and systems.
Job Creation and Economic Stimulus: While the TIGER Discretionary Grant program is not a Recovery Act program, job creation and economic stimulus remain a top priority of this Administration; therefore, DOT will give priority to projects that are expected to quickly create and preserve jobs and stimulate rapid increases in economic activity, particularly jobs and activity that benefit economically distressed areas.
Secondary Selection Criteria:
Innovation: DOT will give priority to projects that use innovative strategies to pursue the long-term outcomes outlined above.
Partnership: DOT will give priority to projects that demonstrate strong collaboration among a broad range of participants and/or integration of transportation with other public service efforts.
The Department will give more weight to the Long-Term Outcomes and Jobs Creation & Economic Stimulus criteria than to the Innovation and Partnership criteria. Projects that are unable to demonstrate a likelihood of significant long-term benefits in any of the five long-term outcomes will not proceed in the evaluation process. For the Jobs Creation & Economic Stimulus criterion, a project that is not ready to proceed quickly is less likely to be successful.
The notice published in the Federal Register provides additional guidance on how the Department will apply the selection criteria.
Is there a maximum and/or minimum grant size for TIGER Discretionary
Grants?
The FY 2012 Appropriations Act specifies that TIGER Discretionary
Grants may be not less than $10 million (except in rural
areas) and not greater than $200 million. Pursuant to the
FY 2012 Appropriations Act, no more than 25 percent of the funds
made available for TIGER Discretionary Grants (or $125 million)
may be awarded to projects in a single State.
Are there any other statutory requirements for the distribution
of TIGER Discretionary Grants?
FY 2012 Appropriations Act specifies the following additional
- The FY 2012 Appropriations Act directs that not less than $120 million of the funds provided for projects in rural areas.
- TIGER Discretionary Grants is to be used for projects located in rural areas. TIGER Discretionary Grants may be used for up to 80 percent of the costs of a project, but priority must be given to projects for which Federal funding is required to complete an overall financing package and projects can increase their competitiveness by demonstrating significant non-Federal contributions. DOT may increase the Federal share above 80 percent only for projects located in rural areas, in which case DOT may fund up to 100 percent of the costs of a project. Therefore, for projects located in urban areas, based on the statutory requirements of at least 20 percent non-Federal cost share and a minimum grant size of $10 million, the minimum total project size for an eligible project is $12.5 million (where the minimum $10 million TIGER Discretionary Grant request represents 80 percent of the total project cost). The minimum total project size for an eligible project in a rural area is $1million (where the entire project cost is funded with a TIGER Discretionary Grant). However, the statutory requirement to give priority to projects that use Federal funds to complete an overall financing package applies to project located in rural areas as well, and projects located in rural areas can increase their competitiveness for purposes of the TIGER program by demonstrating significant non-Federal financial contributions.
Questions Regarding NEPA
What deadlines are associated with NEPA decisions under TIGER?
An applicant should be able to show that they reasonably expect
the NEPA review and other pre-obligation activities, including
any other necessary approvals, to be complete no later than June
30, 2013. This ensures that DOT will be able to meet its September
30, 2013 statutory deadline for obligating funds, and that no
unexpected delays will put TIGER grant funds at risk of expiring
before they can be obligated.
Further discussion of this deadline can be found in Appendix C of the Final Notice of Funding Availability.
When providing completed NEPA documents or drafts, what is the
preferred format?
As indicated in the Final Notice of Funding Availability, web
links in applications are preferred; however, PDFs or Word documents
will be accepted through Grants.gov. Web links keep the
size of the application smaller and allow reviewers the ability
to perform directed reviews and not have to parse through extensive
documents for specific information.
What are lead agency implementing procedures and where are they
found?
The Council of Environmental Quality regulations require each
Federal agency to develop implementing procedures that explain
how they will apply NEPA to their individual programs. At DOT,
each Operating Administration has developed implementing procedures
specific to their program. These implementing procedures
can be found on the DOT TIGER Discretionary Grants website at www.dot.gov/tiger/application_resources/nepa.html
Are NEPA decision documents issued by other Federal agencies
sufficient for TIGER?
All projects selected under TIGER must have completed a NEPA
analysis of the transportation elements of the project and have
a decision document based on that analysis. If an applicant
has previously engaged another Federal agency and completed an
EA or EIS and received a FONSI or ROD from that Federal agency,
DOT will review the documents to determine whether the analysis
considered the transportation elements requesting funding under
TIGER. If the documents sufficiently considered the transportation
elements, then the DOT lead agency may be able to adopt the EA
or EIS to satisfy the required analysis under NEPA.
There have been frequent mentions of “independent utility” and
“segmentation” relating to projects. What do
those terms mean?
Segmentation and independent utility are two important concepts
for TIGER applicants, especially for those with large, complex
projects with multiple components. A NEPA review must
consider the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of a proposed
action. The requirement to consider cumulative impacts
ensures that agencies do not consider connected projects as “several
smaller actions, each of [which] might have an insignificant
environmental impact when considered in isolation, but that taken
as a whole have a substantial impact.” (Northwest Resource Info.
Ct., Inc. v. National Marine Fisheries Serv., 56 F.3d 1060, 1068
(9th Cir. 1995). This process of breaking out smaller actions
of a larger, comprehensive project is referred to as segmentation. Improper
segmentation may be avoided if each component of a larger project
can be demonstrated to have independent utility. A project
(or any of its components) has independent utility if it is usable
and a reasonable expenditure even if no additional transportation
improvements in the area are made, and it doesn’t restrict consideration
of alternatives for other reasonably foreseeable transportation
improvements. The TIGER Notice of Funding Availability (January
31, 2012) defines a project component as having independent utility
“if the component itself could qualify as an Eligible Project
and would provide benefits that satisfy the selection criteria
specified in [the] notice.”
Independent utility and segmentation are important concepts to understand in the context of TIGER. Because of the program’s popularity, DOT receives many more compelling applications than can be funded, and therefore, few projects are selected and funded at 100% of their requested levels. To make applications more competitive, complex projects with multiple components are encouraged to describe the comprehensive project as well as identifying smaller pieces of the larger overall project. When describing these components, each must have independent utility and satisfy the selection criteria of the TIGER program. When conducting the benefit-cost analysis (BCA), the Applicant should estimate and present the benefits and costs for each component, itemizing them within the comprehensive project BCA.
In general, when considering large, complex projects and the possibility of carving out smaller components, applicants should view smaller components through the same lens as they viewed the overall project, assess each component’s independent utility and the analysis required under NEPA. Applicants should also describe the costs and benefits associated with the smaller piece in the economic analysis of the project.
If an applicant has not yet started NEPA, what steps should they
take to initiate the NEPA process? What should an applicant include
in their application package to USDOT to provide assurance that
the NEPA process can be completed by the June 30, 2013 deadline?
If NEPA has not yet been initiated, the most important steps
an applicant can take include contacting affected resource agencies
to initiate consultation, and developing a preliminary assessment
of the impacts associated with the proposed project. Federal
and state agencies that have regulatory authority over such resources
as wetlands, historic properties, endangered species, surface
waters, and others should be contacted and preliminary discussions
about the project should be held. Any coordination should
be summarized and included in the TIGER application along with
any correspondence between the applicant and interested agencies.
The applicant should also review the implementing procedures of the appropriate mode to familiarize themselves with the requirements of the mode for the preparation of NEPA documents. These implementing procedures can be found at www.dot.gov/tiger/application_resources/nepa.html
Will an applicant be penalized if they have not yet initiated
NEPA?
Although applicants are not required to have completed NEPA at
the time of their submission, those projects that have already
completed the review process will be viewed more favorably under
the project readiness criterion.
If the NEPA process has not yet been initiated, an applicant must be able to demonstrate their reasonable expectation that it will be completed by June 30, 2013. An applicant should also provide a compelling justification for why the NEPA process has not yet begun, such as the applicant’s expectation of not receiving Federal funding outside of the TIGER Discretionary Grant funding.
Can TIGER funds be used to fund NEPA completion?
In limited circumstances, TIGER funds may be used to fund completion
of NEPA or other planning and engineering efforts. If NEPA
has not yet been initiated or completed and applicants are requesting
funding for NEPA completion as part of their application, they
should submit a compelling justification for why they have not
yet initiated NEPA and why funds for completion are required. Such
applications should describe in their budget how costs to complete
NEPA factor into the overall costs to complete construction of
the project and should include a reasonable schedule for completing
NEPA.
How does DOT determine the lead agency and the NEPA class of
action?
Many lead agency determinations are fairly straightforward. If
it is a highway project, FHWA is the lead agency, Transit – FTA,
etc. However, there are circumstances that may require
that the grant be administered by a different Operating Administration. Causes
for such determinations can be based on such things as available
resources within the mode or multiple project components that
fall under multiple modal jurisdictions. Class of action
decisions are ultimately made by whichever mode administers the
grant.
If NEPA has not yet been initiated at the time of selection, the mode charged with administering the grant will be the lead agency, and they will make the final determination on the NEPA class of action. Such determinations are made after a comprehensive review of the proposed project to determine if it qualifies for a Categorical Exclusion or if impacts are uncertain or likely.
If the project is selected and NEPA has been initiated and/or completed, whichever mode was the lead agency in the NEPA determination will likely be assigned administrative duties.
In the case of multi-modal projects, if NEPA has been completed on components of the proposal, the remaining components will still need to be analyzed by the Operating Administration with experience and expertise of those components.
Are state-level environmental reviews or “mini-NEPAs” sufficient
– and if not, will they facilitate a quicker NEPA review?
State-level environmental reviews are not sufficient substitutes
for a NEPA review, nor can they change the timeline and statutory
review periods associated with the NEPA process. However,
completion of a state environmental review may facilitate the
NEPA review, as much of the information required will be substantively
similar. Therefore a state-level environmental review may
reduce the amount of time required to collect relevant information,
but will not accelerate the NEPA review schedule.
What agencies should be contacted to illustrate appropriate coordination
for NEPA?
To make an informed determination on project readiness and the
likely ability of the applicant to complete NEPA by the June
30, 2013 deadline, applicants should provide evidence of coordination
with all agencies with regulatory authority over resources potentially
impacted by the proposed project. Below is a partial list
- United States Army Corps of Engineers
- United States Environmental Protection Agency
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service
- National Marine Fisheries Service
- Advisory Council on Historic Properties
- United States Coast Guard
In addition to the Federal agencies listed above, there are frequently state-level equivalents that should also be contacted.
Can a NEPA decision expire?
Technically speaking, NEPA decisions do not expire. However,
if significant time has passed, agencies are required to take
a fresh look at the document, the proposed action, and the affected
environment to ensure that the information contained in the analysis
and the resulting decision document is still current. The Operating
Administration may then prepare a reevaluation or a Supplemental
EA or EIS depending on its findings.
TIGER projects must be on the STIP/TIP; however, the STIP/TIP
requires fiscal constraint. How does a project that has had difficulty
being funded and therefore has not been placed on the STIP/TIP
compete for TIGER funding?
The TIGER program presents an opportunity to fund projects that
may not have previously had an easily identifiable funding stream,
as well as provide the last piece of a funding package to bring
a project to construction. DOT recognizes that because
of this, some applications will not be on the TIP/STIP at the
time of application. In those situations, it is recommended
that the applicant provide assurances that the project, if selected
for funding under TIGER, could be included in the TIP/STIP. An
example would be a letter of support from the MPO, the State
DOT, or other planning organization.
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