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Base Realignment and Closure projects in Maryland face long statistical odds in obtaining a new round of federal transportation funding for early 2010.

About $58.3 million has been requested for three BRAC projects in Montgomery County at the National Naval Medical Center, in Anne Arundel County at Fort George G. Meade and in Harford County at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. The applications are for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

"This funding would address congestion due to anticipated increases in traffic volumes and transit ridership as a result of BRAC-related growth," Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) wrote in his Sept. 15 letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

BRAC projects face in-state competition for these TIGER grants, however. Maryland made $204 million in TIGER grant applications, which include money for expanding MARC train capacity and improving access to the Branch Avenue station of the Metrorail system in the Washington area. Local jurisdictions in the state also submitted about $120 million in separate TIGER applications.

The odds become even longer when the national picture is considered. The U.S. Department of Transportation received $56 billion in TIGER grant requests. Only $1.5 billion is available. The grant winners will be announced in February of next year.

No state is eligible to receive more than $300 million in TIGER money, according to Andy Scott, special assistant for economic development to state Transportation Secretary Beverley K. Swaim-Staley.

"From what we've heard, they look at applications as a whole. They'd fund an application, or they wouldn't fund it at all," Scott said.