WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Jamie Raskin and Glenn Ivey (all D-Md.) today announced $6,652,757 in federal funding for Maryland state agencies to make improvements in transportation, health technology and road safety.

“We passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to modernize the way we build our transportation systems and explore opportunities to integrate new, life-saving technologies to make them safer, smarter and more equitable. These forward-looking, state-led initiatives will integrate promising technological advancements into our infrastructure planning and systems,” said the lawmakers. “Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed into law by President Biden more than two years ago, we’re continuing to deliver continues to deliver transformational investments to our state.”

The federal investment comes through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s FY23 Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Program. Today’s announcement comes after the lawmakers wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to support the Maryland Department of Transportation’s grant application for cloud-based transit signals and work zone safety funding.

“Improving the safety of our communities and transportation work zones while promoting the efficiency of our transit systems, key priorities of the Moore-Miller Administration, requires broad collaboration and innovative ideas,” said Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld. “These SMART awards will greatly enhance our efforts to make our work zones safer and improve the reliability and on-time performance of MTA bus services. We also congratulate the Maryland Department of Planning on their SMART award to explore innovative medical delivery services to hard-to-reach communities on the Eastern Shore and the islands of the Chesapeake Bay.”

The grants have been awarded to the following projects:

1. $1,766,757 for the Maryland Department of Planning to deploy drones to make medical deliveries to residents on the Eastern Shore.
2. $1,276,000 for the Maryland Transit Administration to install cloud-based transit signals at 90 intersections on four bus lines in Baltimore.
3. $1,610,000 for the Maryland Department of Transportation to collect real-time work zone speed data in the Baltimore region. 
4. $2,000,000 for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to develop and pilot an open-source data standard for transit scheduling operations.

The SMART discretionary grant program was established through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to “conduct demonstration projects focused on advanced smart city or community technologies and systems in a variety of communities to improve transportation efficiency and safety.” The program is appropriated at $100M annually for fiscal years 2022−2026.

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