As reported by Better Roads, applications for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Grant (TIGER) program far exceeded funding for the program.  Grant requests totaled $14.5 billion for the $500 million program.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx provided the following comments,

“The Department received more than 950 pre-applications to fund transformative and innovative capital projects,” Foxx said in a recent blog post. “These come from every corner of the country representing large cities and small towns alike.

“In fact, TIGER grant pre-applications have been submitted from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, four U.S. territories, and more than 80 tribal governments. But every year, DOT has to turn away . . . high-quality projects because we lack the funds.”

Applications for the program have steadily increased over the past several years. U.S. DOT received 797 eligible applications for fiscal 2014 and 585 in fiscal 2013. The deadline for applications was June 5.