PROTECT Discretionary Grant Program
Program Overview
The Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost- Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Discretionary Grant Program is a competitive grant program created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to plan for and strengthen surface transportation to be more resilient to current and future weather events, natural disasters, and changing conditions, such as severe storms, flooding, drought, levee and dam failures, wildfire, rockslides, mudslides, sea level rise, extreme weather, including extreme temperature, and earthquakesnatural. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides over $1.4 billion over five years through this program to fund projects that improve the resilience of the surface transportation system, including highways, public transportation, ports, and intercity passenger rail.
Grant Types
There are four types of PROTECT grants:
- Planning
- Resilience Improvement
- Community Resilience and Evacuation Route
- At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure
Who is Eligible to Apply?
Eligible applicants for Planning, Resilience Improvement, and Community Resilience and Evacuation Route Grants:
- States (including D.C. and Puerto Rico) or political subdivision of a State
- Metropolitan planning organizations
- Units of local governments
- Special purpose districts or public authorities with a transportation function, including a port authority or a public transit agency
- Indian Tribes
- Federal land management agencies that apply jointly with a State or group of States
- A multi-State or multi-jurisdictional group of entities consisting of any eligible entities listed above
Eligible applicants for At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure Grants:
- States (including D.C., Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the North Mariana Islands) in, or bordering on, the Atlantic, Pacific, or Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, Long Island Sound, or one or more of the Great Lakes
- Political subdivisions of a State described above
- Metropolitan planning organizations in a State described above
- Units of local governments in a State described above
- Special purpose districts or public authorities with a transportation function, including a port authority or a public transit agency, in a State described above
- Indian Tribes in a State described above
- Federal land management agencies that applies jointly with a State or group of States described above
- A multi-State or multijurisdictional group of eligible entities listed above
Previous Selections
For information about past grant award recipients and NOFOs, see below:
PROTECT Metrics
Under 23 U.S.C. 176(f), FHWA is directed to establish metrics for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness and impacts of PROTECT Discretionary Grant Program-funded projects and procedures for monitoring and evaluating projects based on those metrics. The FHWA will select a representative sample of projects to evaluate using these metrics.
