SS4A's Last IIJA Round Paid Out $1.013B to 297 Projects — the Fewest Awards in Program History. Here's What Comes After the Cliff.

On October 30, 2026, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the fifth and final round of Safe Streets and Roads for All awards under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The total was $1,012,969,919 across 297 projects in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Tribal lands. Implementation grants took about $684 million across 100 awards, and planning and demonstration grants took about $329 million across 197 awards.

The headline dollar figure looks like every other SS4A year. The award count doesn't. It's 297 awards, against 511 in FY2022, 620 in FY2023, 710 in FY2024, and 521 in FY2025. SS4A was built to put a planning grant in front of every jurisdiction that wanted one. Its last IIJA round instead looks like an implementation program with a planning sidecar.

That change matters for every city, county, MPO, and Tribe deciding what to do next. FY2026 was the last year of IIJA's Division J advance appropriations. No guaranteed FY2027 SS4A money exists yet, so anyone who didn't win this round has no scheduled next round to aim for.

The FY2026 round in one table

The NOFO advertised $687.8 million for implementation and $305.7 million for planning and demonstration. The final split moved about $23 million toward planning and demonstration and about $4 million away from implementation, so the round closed almost exactly at its $1 billion annual authorization.

Five years of SS4A, side by side

Using USDOT award data compiled by the Eno Center for Transportation for FY2022–FY2025, plus the FY2026 announcement:

Three things stand out.

Implementation hit a record. One hundred implementation grants is the most SS4A has ever made in a year, up from 67 in FY2025 and 37 in the first round. Implementation awards made up about a third of all FY2026 awards. In FY2022 they were about 7 percent.

Planning and demonstration collapsed in count. At 197 awards, the planning and demonstration track made fewer than half as many awards as in any earlier round. It also took roughly a third of the dollars. That puts the average planning and demonstration award near $1.67 million, compared with about $650,000 in FY2025. The FY2026 track is no longer mostly $200,000 action plans. It's mostly supplemental planning and demonstration projects, meaning quick-build pilots, temporary installations, and data collection, which come in at seven figures.

The average implementation award fell. About $684 million across 100 grants works out to roughly $6.8 million each, down from about $10.2 million in FY2025. USDOT funded more implementation projects at a smaller average size. That favors applicants who scope a tight, shovel-ready corridor package over applicants who try to fund an entire Vision Zero program in one grant.

Why the planning track shrank

The simplest explanation is saturation. After four rounds and more than 2,000 planning awards, most jurisdictions that wanted a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan already have one, or are covered by a regional plan from their MPO or county. Planning demand had already slipped before FY2026. USDOT couldn't fill the original 40 percent planning set-aside, and the March 2025 continuing resolution lowered that floor to 30 percent for FY2025.

The FY2026 data suggest the program has finished converting from a planning program into an implementation program. The jurisdictions still applying for planning money are mostly stacking supplemental studies and demonstration pilots on top of a plan they already have.

Policy changes also filtered the field. As our March analysis covered, the FY2026 NOFO added scoring that disfavors road diets and lane reductions, restricted automated speed enforcement as a funded intervention, and carried forward FY2025's revised definition of underserved communities. Applicants whose action plans were built around road diets or speed cameras either rescoped or sat out the round.

The rural tilt

USDOT says 52 percent of FY2026 awards benefit rural communities, with more than $425 million going to rural and Tribal areas. The rural share has been a talking point for the current administration across its discretionary grant programs, including BUILD, INFRA, and the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program. In SS4A it's also a structural result. Rural roads carry a disproportionate share of fatalities, and the Safe System scoring rewards fatality-rate data.

For rural counties and small towns that won planning grants in FY2022 or FY2023, this round was the payoff. The planning-to-implementation pipeline that SS4A was designed around worked for them. For larger urban applicants, FY2026 was more competitive than its $1 billion headline suggests.

The cliff: there is no FY2027 round yet

SS4A was authorized at $1 billion a year for FY2022 through FY2026 and funded through IIJA's Division J advance appropriations, which came from the general fund rather than the Highway Trust Fund. The FY2026 tranche was the last one.

H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act signed September 2, 2026, extended surface transportation authorities through December 11, 2026. It didn't extend the Division J advance appropriations. We walked through that gap in our Division J analysis. For SS4A, that means no FY2027 money exists until Congress passes either a surface transportation reauthorization or a full-year appropriation that funds the program.

Two vehicles are in play.

The BUILD America 250 Act (H.R. 8870). The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved its surface transportation reauthorization 62–2. The bill continues SS4A at $500 million in FY2027, ramping to $1 billion by FY2031, and moves the program onto the Highway Trust Fund. It also lowers the local match on SS4A projects to 10 percent from the current 20 percent and reduces the share reserved for planning. If that version becomes law, FY2027 SS4A would be roughly half the size of FY2026, more implementation-heavy, and cheaper for winners to match.

The Safe Streets for All Reauthorization and Improvement Act (H.R. 5452). Introduced by Reps. Steve Cohen, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Robert Garcia in September 2025, it would fund SS4A at $5 billion over FY2027–FY2031, about the current pace, and cut the planning floor to 20 percent. It sits in the Highways and Transit Subcommittee. Most observers expect its provisions to fold into the larger package rather than move on their own.

Neither bill is law. With the House out until after the November 3 midterms, December 11 is now the date to watch for the continuing resolution, the surface transportation extension, and any SS4A money that rides along with them. The most likely outcome is another short-term extension that keeps authorities alive without new SS4A dollars. The next SS4A NOFO is therefore unlikely before mid-to-late 2027, and could come later.

Strategy for jurisdictions that won

Sign the grant agreement fast. FY2026 awards are obligated from IIJA money that's already appropriated, so they're safe from the FY2027 cliff, but only once they're under agreement. In earlier SS4A rounds, the gap between announcement and an executed agreement often ran many months. Have your NEPA classification, your match documentation, and your SAM.gov registration ready before FHWA's division office calls.

Treat the scope in your application as binding. With the average implementation award down to about $6.8 million and the NOFO's policy screens in place, FHWA will look hard at scope changes during agreement negotiation. If your application included elements the FY2026 NOFO disfavors, expect to defend or drop them.

Plan your closeout for the next competition. Planning and demonstration winners should finish demonstration projects with before-and-after crash, speed, and conflict data. That evidence is exactly what an FY2027 or FY2028 implementation application will need.

Strategy for jurisdictions that didn't

Don't wait for SS4A. For the first time since 2022, the program has no scheduled next round. Move fully designed safety projects toward funding that exists today.

• Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). HSIP is a formula program run by your state DOT and remains funded under the extended authorities. Systemic safety countermeasures in an SS4A action plan line up closely with HSIP project lists. Ask your state DOT's safety office when the next local HSIP call opens.
• Transportation Alternatives set-aside. Sidewalk, crossing, and Safe Routes to School projects in a safety action plan are often TA-eligible. The BUILD America 250 Act would loosen TA transfer rules and let HSIP funds serve as local match on some TA projects.
• State programs. Several states run their own safety or complete-streets grants with state funds. Those calls are independent of the federal cliff.
• Local and regional MPO funds. MPO-suballocated STBG funds often support safety projects, especially when an MPO adopted a regional action plan with SS4A money.

Refresh your action plan while you wait. SS4A's implementation eligibility has always turned on having a recent, qualifying action plan. Plans adopted in 2022 or early 2023 will look stale by the time a new round opens. A plan update with current crash data, current countermeasures, and a prioritized project list is cheap and keeps you eligible.

Rescope to the current policy screens. The FY2027 NOFO will be written by the same administration that wrote FY2026. If your top project is a lane reduction, consider whether a signal, intersection, crossing, or lighting package delivers the same Safe System outcomes without the scoring penalty.

Engage on reauthorization now. The difference between $500 million and $1 billion in FY2027 is the difference between roughly 150 and 300 awards. Counties and cities that want to protect implementation funding should be talking to their delegation before December 11, not after.

The bottom line

SS4A ended its IIJA run doing what its designers hoped for: turning a generation of local safety plans into funded projects. The FY2026 round's 297 awards, 100 of them for implementation, show a mature program, not a starter program. It's also a program with no money behind it after September 30, 2026. Winners should get to executed agreements quickly. Everyone else should treat SS4A as a 2027-or-later possibility, move their best projects toward HSIP, TA, and state funds now, and keep their action plans current for whatever version of the program Congress funds next.