Municipalities across Massachusetts face a common challenge: transportation needs are pressing, but limited technical capacity and complex grant requirements can make it difficult to access available funding. At the 2026 MassDOT Transportation Innovation Conference, Nitsch helped explore how these barriers are being addressed through collaboration, improved tools, and a focused approach on small, high-impact projects.
The session, Closing the Gap: How the MassDOT Highway Grants Team Connects Municipalities with Technical Resources and Funding, brought together Kristen Rebelo from the MassDOT Highway Division Grants Team with consulting partners – including Bryan Zimolka, PE, ENV SP, Senior Project Manager at Nitsch – to share how communities can better navigate the grant process and advance transportation improvements more efficiently.
The MassDOT Highway Division Grants Team plays a central role in helping municipalities overcome technical hurdles that can delay or derail transportation projects. By encouraging close collaboration between municipal staff, MassDOT, and consultants like Nitsch, the Grants Team ensures that technical expertise is applied where it adds the most value, reducing delays and improving the likelihood of successful grant applications.
Read on for a recap of what we discussed in the program!
Tackling Local Transportation Pain Points
Many municipal transportation challenges are highly localized, and often solvable without major reconstruction. Common pain points could include commuter congestion, school traffic, railroad crossing delays, roadside deliveries blocking travel lanes, limited sight distance, and uncontrolled pedestrian crossings.
Rather than pursuing large, costly overhauls, consultants like Nitsch can work with municipalities to discover targeted, high-impact solutions that ease the burden on commuters, improve safety, and support municipal staff in managing constrained budgets and timelines. By listening to municipal officials and the community to fully understand your needs, we are able to propose context-sensitive improvements – then assist with grant applications, leveraging our long-term experience to improve municipal access to funding.
Local Bottleneck Reduction Program: Small Projects, Big Impact
One program that can benefit Massachusetts communities is the Local Bottleneck Reduction Program, which funds small, targeted roadway and intersection improvements aimed at relieving localized congestion. The program, which caps grant funding at $1 million, prioritizes state highway bottlenecks with regional or statewide impacts and supports low cost, quick-to-implement solutions such as turn lanes, signal upgrades, and minor reconfigurations.
For example, K-12 school projects often experience heavy congestion during commuter rush hours and school pick up and drop off, with frequent gridlock and safety concerns. Nitsch has experience leveraging the Local Bottleneck Reduction Program to implement targeted operational improvements including new traffic signal heads, pedestrian signal upgrades, detection zones, curb ramps, and improved striping. These relatively modest changes resulted in improved level of service, reduced queuing, better intersection clearance, and enhanced safety for students and pedestrians.
Supporting Projects from Concept to Construction
When working with municipal clients to improve transportation infrastructure, Nitsch focuses on balancing technical knowledge with a collaborative project management approach. More specifically, we:
Nitsch approaches every municipal transportation project as a true planning partner: listening first, collaborating throughout, and applying technical rigor to turn community goals into implementable, shovel-ready solutions. From kick-off through construction, our integrated team of engineers, planners, and community engagement specialists works hand-in-hand with municipal staff to navigate funding, permitting, and stakeholder coordination. For communities navigating complex funding programs, this collaborative model demonstrates how the right support can turn local challenges into buildable projects.
New Tools to Streamline Grant Applications
During the presentation, MassDOT discussed new and improved digital tools designed to support municipalities throughout the grant application process. The Fully Integrated Application for MassDOT Highway Grant programs brings applications for all of the MassDOT Highway Division’s competitive grant programs into one place, allowing municipalities to apply for design support and up to $1,000,000 in construction funding more easily. Applications are accepted twice per year; the FY27 Round 1 of funding is expected to open in early June 2026.
The State Aid Reimbursable Programs Estimating Tool helps municipalities develop reliable cost estimates that are a required component of grant applications and a critical factor in project success. With this tool, MassDOT is helping municipalities develop more reliable applications while making the process more seamless and user friendly.
Learn How Nitsch Can Help Your Community Access MassDOT Funding
Navigating MassDOT funding programs can be complex, but municipalities don’t have to do it alone. Nitsch partners with communities across Massachusetts to identify transportation challenges, develop targeted solutions, and align projects with available MassDOT funding programs. From early planning and cost estimating to grant application support and design development, our team helps municipalities move ideas into funded, buildable projects.
Interested in learning how Nitsch can support your community’s next transportation project?
Reach out to Bryan Zimolka, PE, Senior Project Manager to start a conversation about your needs, your pain points, and the funding opportunities that may be available to you.