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Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles (GARVEEs)

Qualified Projects

A qualified project must be approved as a Federal-aid debt-financed (bond, certificate, note, or other debt instrument) project to receive payments for eligible debt-related costs under Section 122 of Title 23.

Generally, candidates for GARVEE financing are larger projects (or programs of eligible projects) that have the following characteristics:

  • They are large enough to merit borrowing rather than pay-as-you-go grant funding, with the costs of delay outweighing the costs of financing. Other borrowing approaches may not be feasible or are limited in capacity;
  • They do not have access to a revenue stream (such as local taxes or tolls) and other forms of repayment (such as state appropriations) are not feasible; and
  • The sponsors (generally state DOTs) are willing to reserve a portion of future year Federal-aid highway funds to satisfy debt service requirements.

GARVEE proceeds may not be used as the non-Federal match toward a Federal-aid project.

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