Prince William Board of County Supervisors Approves Several Transportation Grant Submissions

The U.S. Department of Transportation, or USDOT, has $3.1 billion that it is ready to allocate through its Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant program, for which Prince William County is eligible to submit an application.

The county will submit grant requests through the program, which includes three USDOT grants: the National Infrastructure Project Assistance Grant, Infrastructure for Rebuilding America and Rural Surface Transportation Grant.

During their meeting on Sept. 12, 2023, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors authorized the county’s Department of Transportation to apply for the USDOT grants.

The programs prioritize infrastructure projects that have significant national or regional economic benefits, improve safety, reduce congestion and improve quality of life, with an emphasis on equity and climate change resiliency.

The county’s Transportation Department, which pursues all available funding sources, submitted applications for the three grants from USDOT for the Prince William Parkway / Minnieville Road Interchange project, which was identified by the Board as a priority project and evaluated by staff for eligibility and selection criteria. The project is also included in the Fiscal 2024 Capital Improvement Program, the Comprehensive Plan, and the adopted Dale City Small Area Plan.

The county is seeking grants for up to $50 million in federal funding.

In another action, the board authorized the transportation department to apply for grants from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, or NVTA, which funds regional projects in its long-range multimodal transportation plan through a Six-Year Program.

The projects the county’s Transportation Department recommended for grant consideration include:

• Building a missing section of the pedestrian-bicycle path along Va. 234 over Interstate 95 for $12 million.
• Building a hub on Graham Park Road for OmniRide bus services and future high-capacity transit operations on the U.S. 1 corridor for $10 million.
• Constructing a transit center at the Landing at Prince William to serve existing commuter land support transit service expansion for $25 million.
• Placing improvements at Va. 234 at Sudley Manor Drive and adjacent intersections for $130 million.
• Deploying intelligent signal monitoring and control technology to improve travel along VA. 234 for $10 million.

The recommended projects are consistent with the county’s Strategic Plan Transportation and Mobility Goals, as well as the county’s Comprehensive Plan, and were evaluated based on program eligibility requirements, project readiness and funding needs.

The Board also endorsed the City of Manassas Park’s applications requesting up to $40 million for the Va. 28 Innovative Intersections project and up to $16 million for the Manassas Park Trails Construction project.

In a final transportation action, the Board ratified the submission of grant applications to the Fiscal Year 2022 and 2023 Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-Saving Transportation, or PROTECT, program, administered by USDOT. PROTECT provides federal funding for regional, local and Tribal initiatives that address climate change by improving the resilience of the surface transportation system. The PROTECT program will award $848,000,000 in discretionary grant funds through a competitive process, County staff submitted two applications under the Planning Grants subprogram, for which up to $50,000,000 in discretionary funds were made available.

“The county’s Transportation Department is very successful in leveraging state and federal funding for key transportation projects,” said Prince William County Executive Chris Shorter. “We are very proud and appreciative of their efforts, as it has historically saved Prince William County taxpayers’ money while helping to fulfill the Board’s and the community’s goals around mobility.”

According to Rick Canizales, the director of the county’s Transportation Department, all the grant applications are for projects that meet the county’s strategic and comprehensive plans goals of pursing external funding for county mobility projects to help improve travel across the county, which will benefit residents and improve the quality of life in Prince William County.

“Prince William County Department of Transportation, as you can see from the Board agenda items, continues to seek outside funding opportunities to address the need for transportation improvements throughout the county,” Canizales said. “We continue to focus our efforts on the Board’s transportation priorities, 2019 Bond Projects, and the operational needs of the transportation system.”