The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT)/I-64 Expansion project is a Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) Regional Priority Project. The Project will allow for 8 lanes of capacity across the Hampton Roads Harbor and improve the I-64 corridor to provide 6 lanes of capacity from the Settlers Landing Road interchange in Hampton to the I-564 interchange in Norfolk. The total estimated cost of the project, in year of expenditure (YOE) dollars, is $3.66 billion.  All funding that has currently been allocated to the project ($3.56 billion) is from the Hampton Roads Transportation Fund (HRTF). The HRTF is generated from regional tax dollars and is administered by the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission (HRTAC). In an effort to leverage funding on the HRBT/I-64 Expansion project, HRTPO staff submitted applications to the SMART SCALE and BUILD Grant funding programs.

SMART SCALE

Legislation signed into law in 2014 directed the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) to develop a prioritization process to be used in the selection of capacity expansion transportation projects to be funded.  The legislation, originally referred to as House Bill 2 or HB2, has been renamed SMART SCALE (SMART stands for System Management Allocation of Resources for Transportation and SCALE stands for the six road project scoring attributes: Safety, Congestion mitigation, Accessibility, Land use, Environmental and economic development).

SMART SCALE is intended to improve the transparency and accountability of project selection as well as improve stability in the Six-Year Improvement Program (SYIP).  Using the prioritization process, proposed projects are scored based on an objective analysis that is applied statewide.  The project scores are a critical part of the information considered by the CTB and help determine the selection of the projects that provide the maximum benefit for tax dollars spent. The SMART SCALE funding request for the HRBT project is $200 million.

The deadline to submit an application for the FY 2019-20 SMART SCALE program was August 8, 2018.

Complete information on SMART SCALE, including updated guidance documents may be accessed on the CTB website at: vasmartscale.org/

Information on HRTPO policies and procedures related to the SMART SCALE process can be accessed on the HRTPO Website at: https://www.hrtpo.org/page/smart-scale/

BUILD Grant

The U.S. Department of Transportation Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, or BUILD Transportation discretionary Grant Program replaced the previous Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program. FY 2018 BUILD grants are for investments in surface transportation infrastructure and are to be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant local or regional impact. BUILD funding can support roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports or intermodal transportation. 

Projects for BUILD will be evaluated based on merit criteria that include safety, economic competitiveness, quality of life, environmental protection, state of good repair, innovation, partnership, and additional non-Federal revenue for future transportation infrastructure investments.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 made available $1.5 billion for BUILD through September 30, 2020.  For this round of BUILD, the maximum grant award is $25 million, and no more than $150 million can be awarded to a single State. HRTPO staff submitted a BUILD Grant application requesting the maximum of $25 million for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel/I-64 Expansion project. 

The deadline to submit an application for the FY 2018 BUILD Transportation Discretionary Grants program was July 19, 2018.

For more information, please visit:  https://www.transportation.gov/BUILDgrants