Last year’s FAST Act established the grants through a provision called the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program. This is designed to fund both small and large projects based on size and meeting certain requirements, and is authorized for $4.5 billion through 2020. BAB administers the FASTLANE grants and is designed to streamline credit and grant opportunities for transportation projects, as well as provide technical assistance and encouragement to innovation in completing such projects.
“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,” says Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “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.”
Powered byUSDOT announced fiscal year 2016 grant award recipients in September, with 18 projects receiving $759 million in funding. The department says this figure is leveraging $3.6 billion in total funding from local, state and private sources.
The department received 212 applications valued at $9.8 billion for the first round of FASTLANE grants, with 136 of them in urban areas and 76 for rural projects.
Applications for fiscal year 2017 grants are due Dec. 15 and more information is available at www.transportation.gov/buildamerica/FASTLANEgrants.
