The Department of Transportation (DOT) has released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program. The SS4A program supports local and Tribal efforts to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries. The program advances the National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) and aims to realize the goal of zero roadway  fatalities through a Safe System Approach.

DOT will fund SS4A grants through two tracks: Planning and Demonstration Grants, and implementation Grants. Planning and Demonstration Grants are intended to support proposals to develop, complete, or strengthen a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, or to test innovative roadway safety strategies before full-scale implementation. The goal of an Action Plan is to develop a holistic, well-defined strategy to prevent roadway fatalities and serious injuries in a locality, Tribal area, or region. Planning and Demonstration Grants can additionally be used to fund supplemental planning activities, such as data collection, safety audits, and stakeholder engagement and demonstration activities, such as feasibility studies, behavioral or operational pilot programs, and new technology pilot programs in support of an Action Plan.

Implementation Grants are intended to support proposals that have an eligible Comprehensive Safety Action Plan in place and are ready to execute specific projects or strategies identified in that plan. Eligible projects and strategies can be infrastructural, behavioral, and/or operational activities. Similar to Planning and Demonstration Grants, Implementation Grants may include supplemental planning and demonstration activities, such as those listed above, to inform an existing Action Plan, and project-level planning, design, and development activities.

To be competitive, applicants should demonstrate how their proposed projects address a clearly defined safety problem using data-driven analysis, how the interventions align with their Action Plan, and how the work will incorporate inclusive community engagement and equity considerations.

The FY 2025 NOFO includes substantial changes from previous NOFOs. DOT has introduced a pre- application process to assist in technical review. The NOFO also includes the change of the definition of “Underserved Community” to the same definition as “Areas of Persistent Poverty”. Additionally, this NOFO has omitted all references to rescinded Executive Orders and priorities from the Biden Administration. The current NOFO has also changed the maximum expected award for Planning and Demonstration Grants from $10 million to $5 million, updated the scope of demonstration activities to include temporary infrastructure pilots and new technologies, and revised scoring criteria to place greater emphasis on cost-effectiveness and scalability.

Award Information: DOT is anticipating awarding a total of $982,260,494 for FY 2025 grants, with $580 million available for Implementation Grants and $402 Million available for Planning and Demonstration Grants. DOT is expecting to award between 40 and 70 Implementation Grants between $2,500,000 and $25,000,000 and 400 to 700 Planning and Demonstration Grants between $100,000 and $5,000,000.

Eligibility: Eligible applicants for SS4A grants include metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), local and state governments, and federally recognized tribal governments. Multijurisdictional partnerships are encouraged.

Due Dates: The recommended pre-application proposals are due on May 16, 2025. Final Applications are due on August 29, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Sources and Additional Information:

• Additional information on the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Grant Program can be found here https://www.transportation.gov/grants/SS4A.
• The FY 2025 Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) NOFO can be found here https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2025-03/SS4A-FY25-NOFO.pdf

Source: Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC, April, 2025