PROTECT Grants: $787M for Resilient Roads, FYs 2024–26

The Federal Highway Administration has reopened the PROTECT Competitive Grant Program with a single Notice of Funding Opportunity covering fiscal years 2024 through 2026 — up to $787 million to make surface transportation more resilient to storms, flooding, wildfire, landslides, sea level rise, extreme temperatures, and earthquakes. Applications opened August 27, 2026 and close October 9, 2026.

Who Can Apply

For Planning, Resilience Improvement, and Community Resilience and Evacuation Route Grants, eligible applicants are: states (including D.C. and Puerto Rico), MPOs, units of local government, special purpose districts or public authorities with a transportation function (including port authorities), federally recognized Tribes, Federal Land Management Agencies applying jointly with a state, and multi-jurisdictional groups of the above. At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure Grants are limited to coastal states (including the Great Lakes and Long Island Sound) and eligible entities within them, plus U.S. territories.

Joint applications are allowed and should identify a lead applicant as recipient and point of contact, describe each applicant's role, and be signed by every applicant. A special purpose district should include documentation that it was established in accordance with state law.

The Four Grant Types

1. Planning Grants (up to $79M — no match required)

Fund development of a Resilience Improvement Plan (RIP), resilience planning, predesign, design, or data tools to simulate disruption scenarios (including vulnerability assessments), technical capacity building, and evacuation planning and preparation. For a small city or county with no resilience program yet, this is the entry point: anticipated awards of $100K–$10M at 100% federal share, with no benefit-cost analysis required.

2. Resilience Improvement Grants (up to $551M)

Construction projects that improve an existing surface transportation asset's ability to withstand weather events and changing conditions. The NOFO lists 17 eligible activity types, including: resurfacing/reconstruction/realignment of Title 23-eligible facilities, natural infrastructure, floodwater intrusion mitigation, drainage and structural stormwater upgrades, relocating roadways out of base floodplains, slope stabilization and riprap, raising or lengthening bridges, scour protection and hydraulic countermeasures, seismic retrofits, and vegetation management in rights-of-way for wildfire and erosion control.

3. Community Resilience and Evacuation Route Grants (up to $79M)

Projects that strengthen and protect evacuation routes: restoring or replacing routes in poor condition, protecting routes from debris slides, expanding capacity (communications and ITS equipment, counterflow measures, shoulders) where existing routes are insufficient — with data-driven evidence — plus new or redundant routes, signage and traffic-incident equipment, and access to critical destinations like hospitals and utilities.

4. At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure Grants (up to $79M)

Projects that strengthen, stabilize, harden, elevate, or relocate coastal highway and non-rail infrastructure (bridges, roads, walkways, culverts, tide gates) threatened by coastal flooding, erosion, wave action, storm surge, or sea level rise. Instead of a BCA, applicants must demonstrate the project reduces long-term infrastructure costs by avoiding larger future maintenance or rebuilding.

Eligible facilities across all categories: Title 23-eligible highways, public transportation facilities (Chapter 53), intercity passenger rail facilities, and port facilities. Projects in a base floodplain must identify the floodplain and indicate whether the applicant will implement risk mitigation components under Section 322 of the Stafford Act.

Cost Share — and How a RIP Cuts It

Planning activities carry a 100 percent federal share. Resilience Grants carry a maximum 80 percent federal share, with two reductions available to the non-federal share (maximum combined reduction of 10 percent):

• Minus 7 percent if your state or MPO has developed an eligible RIP and prioritized the project on it before the application deadline (the RIP must accompany the application)
• Minus 3 percent if that RIP is incorporated, directly or by reference, into the metropolitan or statewide long-range transportation plan before the deadline

Both together take the required non-federal share from 20 percent down to 10 percent. Two more cost-share notes practitioners should not miss: other federal funds may be used to meet the non-federal share for PROTECT (unusual among DOT programs — the funds' own requirements must be met), and previously incurred costs cannot be counted toward match. Tribes may request up to 100 percent federal share, and projects in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and CNMI carry a 100 percent federal share. Where a match is required, applications that do not provide it will be ruled ineligible.

Set-Asides and Statutory Limits

• Rural set-aside: not less than 25 percent of each fiscal year's funding goes to projects outside urban areas with populations over 200,000 — a designated lane for smaller communities. A project split between urban and rural counts as rural if the majority of its footprint is rural
• Tribal set-aside: not less than 2 percent per fiscal year
• New capacity limit: no more than 40 percent of a Resilience Grant may fund construction of new capacity
• Development-phase limit: no more than 10 percent of a Resilience Grant may fund planning, feasibility, environmental review, preliminary engineering, and other preconstruction activities
• Intercity rail cap: no more than 25 percent of total funding per fiscal year
• Obligation deadlines: FY 2024 funds must be obligated by September 30, 2027; FY 2025 by September 30, 2028; FY 2026 by September 30, 2029. The NOFO notes FY 2024 funds may be prioritized for construction-ready projects because of that 2027 deadline

How Applications Are Scored

Planning Grants are rated on three merit criteria: program alignment, planning activity approach, and innovation. Resilience Grants are rated on four: vulnerability and risk, criticality to community, design elements, and innovation. Each criterion is rated Highly Responsive, Responsive, or Non-Responsive, rolled into an overall merit rating; only applications rated Medium or higher advance to a Project Readiness Assessment covering technical capacity, financial completeness, and permitting risk (NEPA status matters). The overall outcome is Highly Recommended, Recommended, or Not Recommended.

Two scoring details worth engineering your application around:

• Quantify your detour. Under the criticality criterion, projects on assets whose failure forces high (25–49 miles) or extreme (50+ miles) detours are considered Highly Responsive; 10–24 miles rates Responsive. If your bridge or corridor is a single point of failure, put the detour length in the application
• Readiness is a selection lever. DOT priority considerations include high readiness ratings and the ability to meet obligation deadlines — with FY 2024 funds (the largest tranche's earliest money) flagged for construction-ready projects. Complete NEPA, secured permits, and committed non-federal funding all move you up

After merit and readiness, statutory priorities favor projects whose benefits exceed costs, that address high-risk vulnerabilities, or that appear on a RIP — and DOT priority considerations include supporting critical infrastructure for industries of national interest, economic prosperity in rural and Tribal communities, condition and safety of existing infrastructure with high cost of failure, congestion reduction, and national security facility access.

The Benefit-Cost Analysis Requirement

BCA requirements vary by category: not required for Planning Grants; required for Resilience Improvement Grants unless the project is on a qualifying RIP; required for Community Resilience and Evacuation Route Grants; and not required for At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure Grants, which instead must demonstrate avoided future maintenance and rebuilding costs. Where required, applicants must submit a standalone BCA memo plus unlocked spreadsheets and technical memos detailed enough for FHWA evaluators to reproduce the calculations, using DOT's published discount-rate guidance and official hazard-probability sources such as FEMA flood data. Projects with a benefit-cost ratio of at least 2.0 earn the highest economic-analysis rating.

Application Package Mechanics

• Portal: Grants.gov only — no mail, fax, or email. Search opportunity number FHWA-PROT-26-001
• Forms: SF-424, the Grants.gov lobbying certification, and SF-LLL for all projects; SF-424A and SF-424B for non-construction projects; SF-424C and SF-424D for construction projects
• The required Application Template: new this round — complete either the Planning Grant Template or Resilience Grant Template and attach it to Item 15 of the SF-424. FHWA will review only the completed template and the supplemental documents it allows (budget, schedule, design plans). The project narrative may not exceed 25 pages, single-spaced, 12-point font
• Budget: must list amounts and percentages of federal and non-federal funds
• SAM.gov: active registration with valid UEI required before submitting — the NOFO warns registration takes several weeks
• Using state formula funds as match? A non-State-DOT applicant using federal-aid formula funds apportioned to the State DOT must include a letter from the State DOT agreeing to administer the project with the applicant as sub-recipient
• Multiple applications are allowed (one per project); indicate your priority order on the cover page. A single application may qualify under more than one category, and FHWA reserves discretion to award under a category you did not apply for

Post-Award Requirements

Awards are administered under FHWA's competitive grant terms plus 2 CFR Part 200 as adopted at 2 CFR Part 1201. Recipients submit semi-annual progress reports and Federal Financial Reports (SF-425), report performance measures per the grant agreement, and allow periodic project inspections. Buy America domestic-preference requirements apply to steel, iron, manufactured products, and construction materials. Selected applicants must also demonstrate, before signing the grant agreement, that they have considered physical and cybersecurity risks relevant to the project. Grants are administered on a reimbursement basis — and costs incurred before DOT obligates funds are ineligible for reimbursement and for cost share unless DOT authorizes them in writing after selections are announced.

Practical Guidance for the Next Four Weeks

• If you applied under the October 2024 NOFO, re-apply now. Your prior application will not be considered. Port your material into the new required template
• Check SAM.gov today — renewal takes weeks and the deadline is October 9
• Call your MPO or State DOT about the RIP. If an eligible RIP exists and your project can be prioritized on it before the deadline, your match drops by up to 10 points and Resilience Improvement projects skip the BCA
• Pick your category deliberately. No resilience program yet? A zero-match Planning Grant funds the vulnerability assessment that seeds future construction applications. Construction-ready? FY 2024 dollars are looking for you
• Quantify everything: detour miles, closure history, hazard probabilities from official sources, avoided costs. The merit criteria reward data over adjectives

How Avila Can Help

PROTECT is a four-category program with category-specific eligibility, merit criteria, BCA rules, and cost-share mathematics that depend on documents (the RIP, the long-range plan) held by other agencies — plus a required template, a 25-page cap, and a re-application trap for anyone who applied last round. That is a lot of moving parts between now and October 9.

Avila's AI-powered grant management platform helps cities, counties, MPOs, and transportation districts work PROTECT efficiently:

• Parsing the NOFO into a requirements checklist — category rules, merit criteria, and the new Application Template structure
• Drafting the 25-page narrative from your asset data, closure history, and hazard documentation, mapped to the vulnerability, criticality, design, and innovation criteria
• Building the SF-424 family package — including the SF-424C/D construction budget with federal and non-federal shares calculated under the correct RIP-adjusted match
• Tracking SAM.gov registration, State DOT support letters, RIP documentation, and BCA workpapers as a team checklist with the October 9 deadline in view
• Managing the award afterward — semi-annual SF-425s and progress reports, 2 CFR 200 expense screening, and Buy America documentation

Ready to explore how Avila can support your PROTECT application? Book a demo to learn more.

For related federal-grant guides, see our posts on Safe Streets and Roads for All, FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance, and BRIC. For registration prerequisites, see SAM.gov registration and Grants.gov registration.