DOT Opens New $850 Million Round of Fastlane Freight Grants

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DALLAS – States and localities have only until mid-December to submit applications for $850 million of competitive federal grants to fund road and rail projects that will untangle congested freight corridors.

Applicants must submit their proposals by Dec. 15 or lose out on the fiscal 2017 round of Fastlane grant funding, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said on Oct. 28.

The Transportation Department set the December submission deadline so soon after the federal fiscal year began Oct. 1 in an effort to get the grants out quickly to deserving projects, Foxx said.

"It's clear that there's demand to invest in strategic projects across the country," he said. "This is why we're excited to hit the ground running on the next round of Fastlane."

The first round of the annual grants awarded in September provided $759.2 million for 18 projects in 15 states and the District of Columbia selected from 212 applications seeking a total of $9.8 billion, Foxx said.

"Demand for Fastlane grant funding was through the roof," he said. "Over 200 applications were submitted, totaling nearly $10 billion in funding requests. But in the last round, for every 10 projects we received, we could only pick one."

The department's Build America Bureau is overseeing the Fastlane program, which is an acronym for Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies.

The Build America Bureau has experts that can provide assistance in the financing and completion of large infrastructure projects, Foxx said.

"Fastlane projects tend to involve several modes of transportation simultaneously, and often utilize innovative financing structures such as public-private partnerships," he said. "In fact, we encourage the use of strategic partnerships, as long as the lead applicant is a public entity."

The unmet demand for the 2016 grants indicates a need for freight-related funding, Foxx said. The Transportation Department said earlier this year that freight shipments are expected to grow to 29 billion tons by 2040, an increase of 45% from current traffic.

"Across the country, there are sidelined projects that are essential to America's cities and our transportation network, and leveraging a Fastlane grant from the Build America Bureau can move many of these projects forward," he said. "Fastlane grants give us an opportunity to identify and invest strategically in those projects that are critical to keeping our nation's economic engine running."

The grants were authorized by the five-year Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, which was enacted in late 2015. The funding totaled $800 million in fiscal 2016 and will increase by $50 million per year before reaching $1 billion in fiscal 2020, the final year of the FAST Act.

No more than $500 million of the $4.5 billion of grants over the five years may go to freight rail or port projects, with the remainder dedicated to highways and bridges. Approximately $326 million of freight rail and port funding remains after the first round of grants.

Unsuccessful 2016 applicants may be able to quickly update their original proposals and submit them by the Dec. 15 deadline, a Transportation Department spokesman said.

The criteria for grant funding remains the same as last year's competition, he said.

Projects that can get under way quickly could receive a higher ranking when the applications are scored, he said. The 2017 grants must be obligated by the end of fiscal 2020 with construction getting underway no later than March 30, 2022.

"A large project with obligation and construction schedules before the Sept. 30, 2020 deadline presents less risk," he said.

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