AmericaFWD Selects Nashville’s Choose How You Move Program for Inaugural Technical Assistance Award to Accelerate Local Delivery

Today, AmericaFWD announced that Nashville is one of three locations in the United States selected to receive dedicated technical assistance through the Project Delivery Accelerator Lab (The Lab). The award will provide Nashville's voter-approved Choose How You Move transportation program with specialized expertise to move the project from funding to active construction, ensuring the community sees tangible improvements in connectivity and equity.

By providing direct expertise through The Lab, AmericaFWD helps local leaders navigate complex regulatory environments and accelerate construction on projects focused on reconnecting communities, improving transit, and fostering economic equity.

"AmericaFWD is helping us turn our Choose How You Move promise into progress," said Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell. "Their support will provide resources and expertise as we continue delivering on the transportation improvements our voters asked for. This is the kind of partnership that moves communities forward, and I'm pleased to be one of only three entities selected to receive this vital support."

Choose How You Move, the largest capital program in Nashville's history, is a $3.1 billion initiative to install smart signals at nearly 600 intersections and build 54 miles of high-capacity transit with more frequent, reliable, and accessible service available 24/7/365. The initiative will include 86 miles of new sidewalks to connect neighborhoods to transit, while making critical safety improvements across 78 miles of the city's Vision Zero High-Injury Network.

"When Nashville voters approved the Choose How You Move transportation improvement program, they asked for safer streets, more sidewalks, smarter signals, and more reliable transit," said Sabrina Sussman, Choose How You Move Chief Program Officer. "AmericaFWD's Project Delivery Accelerator Lab will provide the support we need to navigate the complexities of project delivery and strengthen our capacity as we move from planning to construction. We're thankful for their investment in our community."

By providing direct expertise through The Lab, AmericaFWD helps local leaders navigate complex regulatory environments and accelerate construction on projects focused on reconnecting communities, improving transit, and fostering economic equity.

"Infrastructure is about more than concrete and steel. It is about affordability and shifting power back to the people who rely on these systems every day," said AmericaFWD Executive Director Christopher Coes. "We aim to demonstrate to the nation that accelerating the American Dream is achievable when leaders, community voices, and the private sector work together. Choose How You Move represents the future of American infrastructure: equitable, sustainable, and deeply rooted in the needs of residents and local businesses."

"The goal of AmericaFWD's Project Delivery Accelerator Lab is to ensure that local leaders have the tools they need to actually get work done," said Roger Millar, Director of the Project Delivery Accelerator Lab. "By providing these technical assistance awards, we are clearing the path from funding to completion. We are rolling up our sleeves and helping communities bring their infrastructure projects to life."

Joining Choose How You Move as national awardees in AmericaFWD's Project Delivery Accelerator Lab are:

• Interstate 5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project, Portland, OR (Oregon Department of Transportation): This project focuses on fixing Oregon's top traffic bottleneck while healing the community fabric. In addition to highway safety upgrades and auxiliary lanes, the project will construct a highway cover to reconnect the historic street grid with widened, well-lit sidewalks and bicycle facilities.
• The Emerald Trail, Jacksonville, FL (Jacksonville Transportation Authority): The Emerald Trail is a transformative 34-mile linear park system designed to reconnect urban neighborhoods long divided by Interstate 95. This phase, being delivered by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, advances approximately 15 miles of off-street bicycle and pedestrian trails to improve access to jobs and essential services for economically distressed communities.

The selection of Choose How You Move marks a critical step in operationalizing AmericaFWD's 2025 State of Play report, which identified community-led delivery as the key to national infrastructure success. By turning the report's high-level findings into on-the-ground results, AmericaFWD is providing a real-time roadmap for local leaders nationwide who are ready to move from funding to completion.

About AmericaFWD

AmericaFWD is a new national initiative with local DNA, realigning America's infrastructure investments with the lived realities of everyday people. Through five pillars of transportation, water, clean energy, housing, and wealth-building, AmericaFWD provides the playbooks and technical support necessary to turn policy into progress.

About Choose How You Move

Choose How You Move is Nashville's voter-approved transportation improvement program, supported by 66% of voters in 2024 and funded by a dedicated half-cent sales tax. As the largest capital program in Nashville's history, the $3.1 billion initiative delivers critical upgrades across all of Davidson County: smart signals at nearly 600 intersections, 54 miles of high-capacity transit with 24/7/365 service, 86 miles of new sidewalks, and safety improvements across 78 miles of the Vision Zero High-Injury Network. Whether you walk, roll, ride, bike, or drive, Choose How You Move is building a Nashville that's safer and easier to get around. For more information, visit nashville.gov/transit.