NEW JERSEY – The Murphy Administration Monday announced the grant solicitation period for NJDOT’s Fiscal Year 2025 State Aid programs is now open.
Applications are now being accepted for Municipal Aid, Transit Village, Bikeway, and Safe Streets to Transit programs through July 1, 2024.
“Governor Murphy and the New Jersey Department of Transportation are committed to investing in municipal and county infrastructure by providing financial assistance and technical expertise for local road and bridge projects,” said NJDOT Acting Commissioner Fran O’Connor. “Municipal Aid grants, along with our Transit Village, Bikeway, and Safe Streets to Transit programs, allow our cities and towns to make safety and quality-of-life improvements to ensure New Jersey has a modern, efficient, and equitable transportation system.”
Governor Murphy signed legislation on March 26 renewing the State’s Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) for five more years. With the renewal of the TTF, the funding for Local Aid programs to counties and municipalities will remain at the same level as the previous reauthorization for this fiscal year.
NJDOT’s grant cycles allow municipalities to incorporate awarded projects into upcoming municipal budgets to ensure that important infrastructure projects get to construction sooner. Grant awards are expected to be announced in November.
The following is a brief description of each grant program:
- Municipal Aid – This $140 million program with an additional $10 million in Urban Aid provides funding for local transportation projects for a total of $150 million. Municipalities are encouraged to consider projects that support walking and biking safety.
- Transit Village – This program is open to the 35 municipalities that have been designated as Transit Villages by the Commissioner of Transportation and the inter-agency Transit Village Task Force. A total of $1 million is available to fund traditional and non-traditional transportation projects that enhance walking, biking and/or transit ridership within a half mile of the transit facility. The approved Transit Village municipalities are provided in the following link: www.state.nj.us/transportation/business/localaid/transitvillagef.shtm.
- Bikeways – This $1 million program is intended to fund bicycle projects which create new Bike Path Mileage. This program encourages new bikeways that are physically separated from motorized vehicular traffic by an open space or barrier. Counties and municipalities are eligible.
- Safe Streets to Transit – This program encourages counties and municipalities to construct safe and accessible pedestrian linkages to transit facilities to promote transit usage for all. A total of $1 million is available for grant awards.
An additional $21.8 million was provided in the FY 2024 State Budget to disperse among the Transit Village, Bikeways and Safe Streets to Transit programs for a total of $24.8 million allowing the award of many more grants and more fully funded grants.
The grants are administered by the NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development. The Local Aid Resource Center provides a central warehouse for local government managers by providing hands on resources for the application process, raising awareness of grant cycles and proactively communicating program information.
For more information about Local Aid programs go to www.njdotlocalaidrc.com; call 609.649.9395; or email DOT-LocalAID.ResourceCenter@dot.nj.gov.
