U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced that the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program has received 585 applications from across the country totaling $9.3 billion in requested funding — over 18 times more than the $500 million that will be awarded.

Now in its eighth year, the TIGER program has continued to attract overwhelming demand from communities of all sizes, with 337 applications coming from urban areas and 248 from rural communities. The high level of interest underscores the continued need for transportation investment nationwide.

“Communities across the country know that if we want a strong, multimodal transportation system that will meet our needs in the future, we need to make meaningful investments today,” said Secretary Foxx. “As we have seen year after year, there are far more worthy projects than we can fund through TIGER, demonstrating the need for a serious, long-term investment in transportation funding."

Like the first seven rounds, 2016 TIGER discretionary grants will fund capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure and will be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant impact on the nation, a metropolitan area or a region. The 2016 TIGER grant program focuses on capital projects that generate economic development and improve access to reliable, safe and affordable transportation for communities, both urban and rural. As in previous rounds, the TIGER program supports projects that promote safety, economic competitiveness, quality of life, environmental sustainability and state of good repair. The program also prioritizes innovation, partnership and ladders of opportunity.

The highly competitive TIGER program, which began as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, offers federal funding possibilities for large, transformative multi-modal projects. Since 2009, TIGER has provided nearly $4.6 billion to 381 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, including 134 projects to support rural and tribal communities. Overall, the U.S. DOT has received more than 6,700 applications requesting more than $134 billion for transportation projects across the country.

The TIGER grant program supports innovative projects, including multi-modal and multi-jurisdictional projects. These federal funds leverage money from private sector partners, states, local, and tribal governments, metropolitan planning organizations, ports and transit agencies. The 2015 TIGER round alone has enabled communities to leverage $500 million in federal investment to support $1.4 billion in overall transportation investments.