PROTECT Resilience Improvement Plan
As part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, otherwise known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) in 2021, the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Federal Aid Program was created. PROTECT’s purpose is 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 coastal infrastructure.
The PROTECT Program invites state DOTs to create a Resilience Improvement Plan, an optional component that can reduce the state and local cost-share of identified PROTECT projects. The State Climate Resilience Improvement Plan for Transportation (SCRIPT) is California’s response to this optional component. The SCRIPT summarizes and highlights the breadth of existing climate adaptation policies, tools, guidance, and activities that have positioned Caltrans and its partners to take a systemic approach to making immediate and long-range investments to improve the resilience of the multi-modal transportation system.
Certain projects included in the SCRIPT’s unconstrained Project Priority List (“PPL”, see Appendix F of the SCRIPT document) that are subsequently awarded PROTECT funds, may receive a 10% reduction in the non-federal cost share requirement for future grant cycles. The PPL identifies projects receiving PROTECT formula funding, as well as eligible projects that are pursuing discretionary grants in remaining cycles.
The SCRIPT’s PPL will be periodically updated in coordination with PROTECT stakeholders to reflect new project nominations pursuing discretionary funds in future cycles through 2026, subject to federal review and approval. To request adding a new PROTECT project nomination to the SCRIPT PPL, please submit a SCRIPT PPL Request Intake Form here:
SCRIPT Project Priority List Request Intake Form
The deadline for including this year's nominations for Cycles Two of both the FHWA PROTECT Discretionary Grants (nationally competitive program), and the California Transportation Commission's Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program is 5/10/2024.
If you have questions on the intake form, overall PPL update process, or need general assistance, please join our virtual stakeholder drop-in Q&A session on 5/1/2024 from 10 AM - 12 PM. No pre-registration is necessary, simply click this link to join at any point during the meeting window.
Documents
Related Links
Contacts
resilience.improvement@dot.ca.gov
Please contact us if you'd like to be added to the PROTECT mailing list for pertinent program updates and info sharing.