AOT outlines town highway grant rules, allocation method and nonfederal disaster fund to Senate Transportation

Chad Greenwood, a transportation maintenance engineer with the Agency of Transportation (AOT), briefed the Senate Transportation Committee on the Town Highway Structures program, the Town Highway Class 2 roadway program and the agency’s Town Highway nonfederal disaster program. Greenwood and AOT staff described program caps, local-match rules and how districts prioritize applications, and answered senators’ questions about inflation, geographic distribution and whether sidewalks or Complete Streets elements are eligible.

Greenwood told the committee that the Town Highway Structures program covers work such as bridges, culverts and retaining walls on town highways classified as class 1, 2 and 3. “The max awards, $200,000 for a town,” Greenwood said, and he described a local-match requirement he summarized as 20 percent; he also said the match can be reduced to 10 percent “if town adopts codes and standards.”

The Town Highway Class 2 roadway program currently is funded at $8.6 million, Greenwood said, with a similar $200,000 per-town cap. He said the program’s stated local match is 30 percent of total costs, with the match reducible to 20 percent where towns adopt codes and standards (transcript statements). For both the structures and class 2 programs, Greenwood said town applications are processed through the AOT maintenance program and district project managers.

Why it matters: these three programs provide the principal state funding source towns use for small bridge and roadway repairs and for locating repairs that do not qualify for federal emergency funding. Committee members said changes in buying power and increased extreme weather events could affect towns’ ability to complete projects.

How allocations are made and recent funding levels AOT staff said district project managers try to allocate grants equitably across districts using mileage-based ratios. Greenwood described the Class 2 allocation as driven by each district’s share of class 2 mileage: “a higher percentage of mileage, you’re gonna probably get a grant more often,” he said. Agency staff said the structures program uses a formula based on town structure inventory—long and short structures on town roads—compared statewide and then by district.

Greenwood gave fiscal-year counts showing consistent program activity over several years. For fiscal year 2025 he reported that 67 structures grants were funded out of 103 applications; similar ratios appeared in earlier years, he said. For the nonfederal disaster program Greenwood said the agency has spent about $1,150,000 in recent years and that amount has “been sufficient funding for us, so far.” He said the program is intended for events that do not qualify for FEMA or federal highway emergency funds.

Senators’ questions: inflation, geographic equity and disaster trends Senator Pat Brennan summarized the committee’s interest as twofold: whether lower buying power and higher material costs are reducing what towns can purchase with the same dollars, and whether distribution favors some regions. Greenwood said the AOT has not received many requests from towns seeking contract extensions or higher grant amounts under these programs, and that project managers have not reported widespread inflation-driven cancellations. “We’re not seeing a lot of time extensions. We’re not seeing … requests to increase the cost of the grant,” he said.

Greenwood added that pavement bid prices he reviewed suggested an increase of roughly $10 to $15 per ton for a major item, but he said that overall he was “not seeing a huge inflation on the town” projects within these programs. Several committee members said that answer was counterintuitive to reports they have heard from towns.

On geographic distribution Greenwood and another AOT speaker described active outreach by district project managers to encourage towns to apply annually. If districts have unspent funds, staff said they contact towns that have applied previously to fill gaps. AOT staff said districts prioritize applicants by ratios—class 2 mileage for the Class 2 program and a funding-per-structure ratio for structures grants—so the distribution reflects relative mileage and prior awards.

Nonfederal disaster program: scope and examples Greenwood described the nonfederal disaster program as a backstop for incidents that do not meet thresholds for federal declarations. He said examples include localized washouts or culvert failures not covered by FEMA. AOT staff and municipal-assistance staff described a Bolton example where a microburst caused road washouts that exceeded a municipality’s maintenance budget and AOT used grant funding to pay for repairs.

Eligibility for sidewalks and Complete Streets questions Committee members asked whether sidewalks or Complete Streets elements can be funded through these programs when a structure project would otherwise omit them. Greenwood said sidewalks are not eligible under the Class 2 program as discussed in the meeting. Joel Perrigo, municipal-assistance, said bike-ped grants administered through municipal assistance have been used to partially fund sidewalk and bicycle facilities that accompany structure work and that projects are sometimes “piecemealed” together from several grant sources so the infrastructure is completed.

Tracking local-road condition and asset data Senators asked whether AOT tracks the condition of local (town) roads similar to state pavement and bridge management. Greenwood replied that AOT does not run a statewide tracking program for local road quality. He noted that district project managers and the Municipal Roads General Permit process provide some municipal-level tracking—especially for hydraulically connected segments—but that the agency does not maintain a comprehensive statewide local-road quality dataset.

No formal committee action was taken during the presentation. AOT staff said they will continue to provide data requested by the committee and to work with district project managers and towns on applications and grant packaging.