Polis Administration Announces Additional Opportunity to Help Save People Money & Drive Economic Progress for Small Businesses Through CDOT’s Successful Revitalizing Main Streets Program

DENVER - The Polis administration and the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Revitalizing Main Streets Program is working to help save people money and drive economic progress for small businesses. The administration announced the Revitalizing Main Streets program is open for additional grant opportunities.

“The successful Revitalizing Main Streets program is making life better across Colorado. Main Street investments deliver results and are a key driver of economic progress for our communities, visitors, and small businesses. These new projects across our state save people time and money,” said Gov. Polis.

CDOT is releasing additional funding for one of the two grant opportunities under the program: the Larger Safety Infrastructure grants.

“During the first round, we had far more fantastic projects submitted than we could award, so this will allow us to fund even more innovative and creative transportation projects that will improve safety on urban roadways and Main Streets all over Colorado,” said CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew. “We strongly encourage applicants who did not receive an award in the first round to resubmit their applications, and we look forward to reviewing the new applications that come in as well.”

The goals of this grant opportunity are to:

• Reduce fatal and serious injury crashes on the transportation system, particularly among bicyclists and pedestrians;
• Deliver practical, simple projects that help stimulate the economy and provide immediate business and employment opportunities in the construction industry.
• Support a transportation system that safely accommodates all modes of travel;
• Improve transit access and bike and pedestrian safety and mobility;
• Support the development of connected urban/employment centers and multimodal corridors;
• Provide safe access to opportunity and mobility for residents of all ages, incomes and abilities, including vulnerable users;
• Help communities adjust to the “new normal” travel patterns caused by COVID-19

This grant opportunity now has an additional $22,160,000 available to support transportation infrastructure projects located anywhere in Colorado.

Eligible applicants are encouraged to submit transportation infrastructure projects of up to $2 million that will improve safety and transform streets and street spaces across the state, especially for vulnerable users. The deadline for submission is Friday, February 4, 2022. All submission details including the eligibility rules and selection process and the application form can be found on the Revitalizing Main Streets web page.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is the second round of this grant opportunity, following the first round when $22 million was awarded to sixteen transportation projects across the state back in August. These awards, and the NOFO, were made possible when Governor Jared Polis signed SB21-110 in March of 2021, which provided an additional $30 million to support and expand the Revitalizing Main Streets Program, originally created in the summer of 2020. Importantly, the passage of SB21-260 further extends this highly successful program.