(a) The Secretary shall evaluate and rate each proposed project as “highly recommended,” “recommended,” or “not recommended” based on the criteria in section 505.9 of this part. Individual ratings of “highly recommended,” “recommended,” or “not recommended” will be conducted for each of the selection criteria.

(b) In response to a PNRS project solicitation a State may submit a project for a non-binding preliminary rating and evaluation at any point in the project development after the project's concept plan is developed.

(c) Non-binding preliminary rating and evaluation will be reported in the appendix of the Secretary's Annual Report on PNRS.

(d) A rating and evaluation will be considered complete and listed in the Secretary's Annual Report on PNRS only after preliminary engineering is completed.

(e) The rating and evaluation for a proposed project will remain valid until the closing date of the next PNRS solicitation.