FTA awards grants for BRT projects in Fla., N.Y.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced a $26.9 million grant to Albany, N.Y.’s Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) for the River Corridor Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, as well as a $16.6 million grant to the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) for the First Coast Flyer Southwest Corridor BRT project.

The River Corridor/Blue Line BRT project is a new 16-mile BRT line along the Hudson River connecting Waterford to Downtown Albany. The total project cost is $42.5 million with $26.9 million in funding requested through FTA’s Capital Investment Grants (CIG) Program.

Meanwhile, the First Coast Flyer Southwest Corridor BRT project is a 12.9-mile BRT line from the Convention Center in downtown Jacksonville, via Florida State College-Jacksonville (Kent Campus), to the Orange Park Mall in Clay County. The total project cost is $33.2 million with $16.6 million in funding requested through the CIG Program.

Funding for the two projects is provided by FTA’s CIG Program, which provides funding for major transit infrastructure projects nationwide. Projects accepted into the program must go through a multi-year, multi-step process according to requirements in law to be eligible for consideration to receive program funds.

Since January 20, 2017, FTA has advanced funding for 25 new CIG projects throughout the nation totaling approximately $7.63 billion in funding commitments. With these most recent funding announcements, this Administration has executed 22 CIG funding agreements totaling more than $4.55 billion in CIG funding.