The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) established the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Program to help make surface transportation more resilient to natural hazards, including climate change, sea level rise, flooding, extreme weather events, and other natural disasters through support of planning activities, resilience improvements, community resilience and evacuation routes, and at-risk costal infrastructure.
The PROTECT Program consists of:
There are four categories of activities eligible for funding under the PROTECT Program: Planning, Resilience Improvements, Community Resilience and Evacuation Routes, and At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure.
Planning (23 U.S.C. § 176(c)(2) and 176(d)(3)):
Resilience Improvement (23 U.S.C. § 176(d)(4)(A)(ii)(I)):
Community Resilience and Evacuation Routes (23 U.S.C. § 176(d)(4)(B)(ii)):
Activities that strengthen and protect evacuation routes that are essential for providing and supporting evacuations caused by emergency events, including:
At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure (23 U.S.C. 176(d)(4)(C)(iii)):
Activities to strengthen, stabilize, harden, elevate, relocate or otherwise enhance the resilience of highway and non-rail infrastructure, including: bridges, roads, pedestrian walkways, and bicycle lanes, and associated infrastructure, such as culverts and tide gates to protect highways that are subject to, or face increased long-term future risks of, a weather event, a natural disaster, or changing conditions, including coastal flooding, coastal erosion, wave action, storm surge, or sea level rise, in order to improve transportation and public safety and to reduce costs by avoiding larger future maintenance or rebuilding costs.
A Resilience Improvement Plan is a voluntary, risk-based assessment of vulnerable transportation assets in immediate and long-term transportation planning that demonstrates a systemic approach to surface transportation system resilience (23 U.S.C. 176(e)). A Resilience Improvement Plan can reduce Non-Federal match by up to 10% for both PROTECT Formula and Discretionary Grant projects (23 U.S.C. 176(e)(1)(B)).
Public Webinar - Resilience Improvement Plans: Best Practices & Requirements (August 3rd, 2023)
FHWA has compiled a list of resources that may be helpful for resilient project development: PROTECT Resources List
While Congress created the PROTECT program to help make surface transportation more resilient to natural hazards, the FHWA recognizes that many other Federal grant programs may also be complimentary. For additional federal assistance, you may refer to other programs including, but not limited to the following:
