Key Takeaways
- The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for approximately $120 million in grants under its Advanced Transportation Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) program in late June.
- The ATTAIN program specifically funds the deployment, installation, and operation of advanced transportation technologies aimed at improving highway safety, mobility, efficiency, system performance, and intermodal connectivity.
- Eligible applicants include a broad range of public entities: states, local governments, transit agencies, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), publicly owned toll or port authorities, and multi-jurisdictional groups or consortiums involving research/academic institutions.
- This funding opportunity aligns with ongoing federal efforts to leverage technological innovation for modernizing the nation’s highway infrastructure, highlighted recently by a Senate Commerce Committee hearing focused on digital systems enhancing infrastructure capability and longevity.
- The grants represent a significant federal investment to accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge solutions that address critical transportation challenges across diverse jurisdictions and modes.
Overview of the ATTAIN Funding Opportunity
In late June, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) formally issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) seeking applications for approximately $120 million in grant funding. This financial support is administered through the agency’s Advanced Transportation Technology and Innovation program, commonly referred to by its acronym, ATTAIN. The announcement signals a continued federal commitment to fostering innovation within the surface transportation sector by providing direct financial assistance for projects that implement emerging technologies. The NOFO outlines the specific terms, eligibility criteria, application procedures, and selection process that interested parties must follow to compete for a share of this substantial funding pool aimed at modernizing America’s transportation infrastructure.
Program Objectives and Eligible Technologies
The core purpose of the ATTAIN program, as explicitly stated by FHWA, is to facilitate the real-world deployment, installation, and ongoing operation of advanced transportation technologies. The funded projects are expected to yield measurable improvements across several key performance areas critical to a functional and resilient transportation system. These primary objectives encompass enhancing highway safety (reducing crashes and fatalities), improving mobility (reducing congestion and travel time), increasing efficiency (optimizing resource use and traffic flow), boosting overall system performance, and strengthening intermodal connectivity (seamless links between different transportation modes like highways, transit, rail, and ports). While the NOFO notice itself does not enumerate every specific technology eligible for funding, the program’s focus inherently supports innovations such as connected vehicle infrastructure, adaptive signal control technologies, real-time traveler information systems, smart work zone applications, advanced traffic management systems, and technologies enabling better integration with transit, freight, and active transportation networks.
Eligible Applicants and Application Context
FHWA has defined a wide net of eligible entities designed to encourage collaboration and ensure funding reaches the governmental bodies closest to the infrastructure needs. The NOFO specifies that applications can be submitted by states, local governments (including cities and counties), transit agencies, and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), which are the federally mandated bodies responsible for transportation planning in urbanized areas. Eligibility further extends to other political subdivisions of state or local government, specifically citing publicly owned toll authorities and port authorities as examples. Recognizing that transportation challenges often cross jurisdictional boundaries, the program also explicitly allows multi-jurisdictional groups (such as coalitions of cities or counties spanning a corridor) and consortiums formed by research institutions or academic institutions (often partnering with public agencies) to apply. This inclusive eligibility structure aims to foster partnerships between implementers, planners, operators, and researchers to ensure projects are technically sound, contextually appropriate, and well-positioned for successful deployment and evaluation.
Connection to Broader Transportation Innovation Efforts
The timing and focus of this ATTAIN NOFO resonate strongly with concurrent national dialogues on modernizing infrastructure through technology. An editor’s note accompanying the original announcement highlights that just weeks prior, on June 9, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee convened a hearing specifically dedicated to examining technological advances driving innovation in the transportation sector. During that hearing, discussions centered on how “digital systems” are actively improving the capability, resilience, and longevity of the nation’s highway infrastructure. This legislative attention underscores a growing recognition at the federal level that strategic investment in technology is not merely supplementary but fundamental to addressing 21st-century transportation demands. The ATTAIN program funding represents a tangible mechanism through which the insights and priorities discussed in such forums — like leveraging data, connectivity, and automation for infrastructure management — can be translated into concrete projects on the ground, moving beyond theoretical discussion to practical implementation and testing.
Significance and Next Steps
The allocation of $120 million through the ATTAIN program constitutes a meaningful federal investment intended to catalyze innovation at the state, local, and regional levels. By providing grant funding — rather than loans — FHWA lowers the financial barrier for public entities to undertake pilot projects, scale promising technologies, or integrate advanced systems into existing operations that might otherwise be deemed too risky or costly under traditional budget constraints. This approach encourages experimentation and learning, allowing diverse jurisdictions to test solutions tailored to their specific challenges (whether urban congestion, rural safety concerns, freight bottlenecks, or multimodal integration gaps) and generate valuable data on effectiveness, cost-benefit, and scalability. Following the issuance of the NOFO, interested eligible entities will now prepare and submit their detailed applications according to the FHWA’s specified timeline and requirements. The agency will then review these proposals based on criteria outlined in the NOFO — such as alignment with program goals, technical merit, partnership strength, evaluation plan, and potential for widespread impact — before selecting the awardees who will receive the funds to bring their advanced transportation technology projects to fruition over the coming grant period. This process aims to ensure the federal investment yields maximum public benefit in advancing a safer, more efficient, and more connected national transportation system.