This action approves an award in the amount of $1,877,000 to support accomack-northampton planning district commission smart grant program

The U.S. Department of Transportation (Immediate Office of the Secretary) has awarded a $1,877,000 Project Grant under the Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program (CFDA 20.941) to the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission. The purpose of this 18-month award is to support the planning and initial demonstration of using aerial drone technology for medical and emergency package delivery in rural areas of Virginia's Eastern Shore. Key activities include exploring drone delivery pilots for transporting patient prescriptions and other critical medical supplies to improve access, reduce response time, and enable homebound residents to receive needed items efficiently. The grant aims to provide insights on the safety, cost-effectiveness, and operational feasibility of developing a defined drone delivery network and infrastructure in the region. There are no sub-award activities under this grant.

The purpose of this award is to address climate and resiliency, equity and access, and safety and reliability for medical and emergency response package delivery for various applications where the use of aerial drone mode of transportation will lead to better patient outcomes and improved safety and emergency response. The activities to be performed include exploration of initial medical drone delivery demonstrations, including delivery of patient prescriptions across rural areas of the eastern shore of virginia in order to reduce latency times, reduce critical staff windshield time, and enable patients that are homebound to receive their much-needed medical supplies easily and quickly. The expected outcome is that this project will provide the answers to safety, cost effectiveness, and efficiency in moving forward to bring the eastern shore of virginia a defined network of systems and workflow, identifying optimal drone hub and destination box locations and operationalizing chain of custody requirements. The intended beneficiaries will be the residents of the eastern shore of virginia. There are no subaward activities in this project.