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bottlenecks on the National Highway Freight Network. The Federal share for <br /> projects that count toward the $500 million maximum may fund only elements of the <br /> project that provide public benefit. Grade crossing and grade separation projects do <br /> not count toward the $500 million maximum for freight rail, port, and intermodal <br /> proj ects. <br /> The FAST Act directs at least 25 percent of the funds provided for FASTLANE <br /> grants must be used for projects located in rural areas, as defined in Section C.3.iv. If <br /> the Department does not receive enough qualified applications to fully award the 25 <br /> percent reserved for rural projects, the Department may use the excess funding for <br /> non-rural awards. The USDOT must consider geographic diversity among grant <br /> recipients, including the need for a balance in addressing the needs of urban and rural <br /> areas. <br /> 4. Repeat Applications <br /> In response to the FY 2016 FASTLANE solicitation(81 FR 10955), USDOT <br /> received applications for more eligible, excellent projects than could be funded in the <br /> first year of the program. Because the evaluation criteria described in this notice do <br /> not differ from the criteria in the FY 2016 solicitation and because USDOT requires <br /> applications to be submitted within 45 days of this notice, USDOT anticipates that <br /> some FY 2016 applicants who did not receive FY 2016 awards will resubmit their <br /> applications with few or no changes. If an applicant is re-applying for a project for <br /> which that applicant applied for FY 2016 funds and was not awarded, the applicant <br /> should highlight new or revised information in the application. This will improve the <br /> evaluation process by allowing USDOT to avoid redundant evaluations and focus <br /> Page 10 of 48 <br />