Rhode Island DOT

Rhode Island DOT, a division of the State of Rhode Island Department of Transportation operating as a child entity of the state, functions as the recipient of federal transportation formula grants and project grants from the Federal Highway Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and other modal agencies, delivering highway infrastructure planning, design, construction, bridge rehabilitation, and multimodal transportation improvements across Rhode Island.

RIDOT operates entirely within the federal grant framework—it is a state transportation agency with no federal contracts or contract vehicles and no role as a prime or subcontractor in the traditional procurement sense. The division receives direct allocations of federal-aid highway funding through formula mechanisms (primarily CFDA 20.205 Highway Planning and Construction, CFDA 20.287 Surface Transportation Block Grant, and CFDA 20.277 National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) and discretionary project grants to execute statewide transportation priorities. With 6,015 awards in the source data spanning from 1999 to June 2026, RIDOT's footprint is dominated by formula grants obligating $9.83 billion against a combined potential value of $35 thousand—a structural artifact of the source system's reporting conventions for state-administered programs where obligated dollars far exceed potential-value placeholders for ongoing, multi-year allocations.

Customer concentration is monolithic: the Federal Highway Administration accounts for 5,767 awards (96% of the portfolio), with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (180 awards), Federal Transit Administration (50 awards), and smaller modal agencies rounding out the remainder. Within the FHWA funding stream, RIDOT's work spans formula-grant categories including highway planning and construction (CFDA 20.205), surface transportation block grants (CFDA 20.287), highway safety improvement programs (HSIP, CFDA 20.272), and state and community highway safety grants (CFDA 20.600). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration grants (CFDA 20.616 National Priority Safety Programs, CFDA 20.608 Repeat Offender Driving While Intoxicated, CFDA 20.614 NHTSA Discretionary Safety Grants) fund behavioral highway safety, occupant protection, distracted driving prevention, and crash data modernization initiatives.

Representative recent work spans bridge infrastructure, multimodal connectivity, and state capacity building. RIDOT received $313.9 million for design-build replacement of Bridge Group 4R at the I-95/Route 10 interchange in Providence and Cranston (CFDA 20.205, awarded June 2025); $6.09 million for electric vehicle charging infrastructure installation under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Phase 2A program (CFDA 20.277, awarded August 2025); $2.78 million from NHTSA for alcohol and drug-impaired driving countermeasures under the Repeat Intoxicated Driver penalty transfer program (CFDA 20.608, awarded October 2025); $758,405 for statewide intersection and pedestrian safety improvements under the Highway Safety Improvement Program (CFDA 20.272, awarded May 2026); and $6.97 million from NHTSA for modernizing Rhode Island's state crash data collection system and enabling electronic data collection (CFDA 20.614, awarded January 2025). RIDOT also manages sub-grants to municipal partners and nonprofit organizations—the City of Providence Planning and Development Department serves as sub-recipient on the North Main Street Revitalization Project (CFDA 20.205, $2.08 million), and the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council received sub-awards for bicycle safety programming and river greenway development.

Activity has declined year over year, from 283 awards in 2022 to 177 in 2025 and 20 through June 2026—a pattern consistent with typical state DOT grant administration cycles rather than competitive recompete risk. Within the next twenty-four months, 66 awards reach ultimate completion dates and face reobligation or recompete under revised state transportation priorities and FHWA funding cycles. The portfolio carries no corporate structure complexity; RIDOT is a division of the State of Rhode Island with no subsidiaries or parent companies beyond the state entity itself. Work is performed statewide across Rhode Island, with administrative oversight at Capitol Hill, Providence.