While the trail work would likely be okay for the SSSG program, the timing is indeed the challenge. You are correct, SSSG grant award notifications are indeed planned to be in August. If you are going through MDOT LAP for the project because of federal TAP funds, I imagine MDOT won’t need to set up a separate SSSG contract (though I’m not certain), in which case you wouldn’t have to wait for that contracting process to happen after August. LAP will likely only need to see the funding show up in JobNet (another guess, as that hasn’t been figured out yet), and then can move forward with the federal obligation request for the TAP funds. The best-case scenario would be SSSG funds available by the end of August, but probably in September or later.
A planned July letting would require federal obligation to be obtained in May, given a normal five-week ad for construction bids. If you need the July letting to work, then, no, SSSG funds will not be available in time. Given the timing logic I’ve outlined, using SSSG funds seems like it would require a letting date no sooner than November.