FHWA Announces First Round of Applications for $250 Million to Reduce Traffic in Urban Areas

The Congestion Relief Program is accepting applications for the first round through a Notice of Funding Opportunity, which provides $150 million in grants for fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The grants are available to states, metropolitan planning organizations, cities, and municipalities for projects in urban areas with a population of at least one million. 

The Congestion Relief Program provides funding to reduce highway congestion and the economic and environmental costs associated with congestion, including pollution from transportation emissions. The program also optimizes existing highway capacity and transit systems, improves coordination with transit, and encourages other modes of travel.

Eligible projects include the deployment and operation of integrated congestion management systems; certain transit and mobility services; and incentive programs encouraging travelers to carpool, use transit, or travel during nonpeak periods.

The agency will give priority to projects that advance innovative, multimodal solutions to traffic congestion in urban areas that are experiencing a high degree of recurrent congestion.