The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is providing more than $3.2 million to support 21 municipal transportation projects – including new bike-share facilities, sidewalks, and outdoor dining areas.

[Above photo by the Massachusetts DOT.]

That money comes from the third round of Baker-Polito Administration’s Shared Winter Streets and Spaces program.

MassDOT noted in a statement that this program – launched in June 2020 – provides technical and funding assistance to help Massachusetts cities and towns conceive, design, and implement tactical changes to curbs, streets, and parking areas in support of public health, safe mobility, and renewed commerce, with a special focus on the particular challenges of winter.

The agency added that more than $10.2 million in state funding has been allocated for this program so far.

MassDOT said its Shared Winter Streets and Spaces program provides grants as small as $5,000 and as large as $500,000 for municipalities to quickly launch changes for safer walking, biking, public transit, recreation, commerce, and civic activities.

These improvements can be intentionally temporary or can be pilots of potentially permanent changes, with MassDOT particularly focused on projects that respond to the current public health crisis and provide safe mobility for children and senior citizens as well as public transportation, open spaces, and parks projects.

Communities identified as at high risk for COVID-19 transmission are also given preference for winter streets funding as well, the agency said.