U.S. Department of Transportation Awards $4.6 Million to Pinellas County for Pinellas Connected Community |
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Federal Highway Administration
31 December 2020
FHWA 31E-20
Contact: Nancy Singer
Tel.: (202) 366-0660
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) today awarded a $4.6 million Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) grant to Florida’s Pinellas County for the Pinellas Connected Community project. The ATCMTD program this year awarded grants valued at $49.6 million to 10 projects that use cutting-edge technologies to improve mobility and safety for America’s travelers.
“This $49.6 million in grant funding will support innovative solutions to improve connectivity and help prepare America’s transportation systems for the future,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.
FHWA’s ATCMTD program funds early deployments of forward-looking technologies that can serve as national models. This year, in addition to ITS technologies to reduce congestion, the grants will fund projects that support autonomous and connected vehicle technologies.
“The program selections this year look to the future to help ensure that our nation’s highway network is able to accommodate the many advanced technologies on the horizon,” said Federal Highway Administrator Nicole R. Nason.
Pinellas County will expand the county’s smart city data platform to integrate data from third-party providers and video analytics. It will deploy connected vehicle roadside units on managed corridors, US 19 and SR 60, along with predictive analytics for incident and congestion risk predictions.
The FHWA evaluated 46 applications requesting more than $205 million.
ATCMTD was established under the “Fixing America's Surface Transportation” (FAST) Act. State departments of transportation, local governments, transit agencies, metropolitan planning organizations and other eligible entities were invited to apply under the program. Now in its fifth year, the program has funded more than 45 projects worth $256 million.