Department of Transportation June 23, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Section 5207 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) established the Surface Transportation Environment and Planning Cooperative Research Program (STEP). The general objective of the STEP is to improve understanding of the complex relationship between surface transportation, planning, and the environment. SAFETEA-LU provides $16.875 million per year for fiscal years (FY) 2006-2009 to implement this new cooperative research program. The STEP is the primary source of funds to conduct all Federal Highway Administration research on planning and environmental issues. In addition, Congress mandated several special studies and STEP will be the funding source for those projects. The purpose of this notice is to announce revisions to the STEP implementation strategy for FY 2009 and to request suggested lines of research for the FY 2009 STEP via the STEP Web site at https:// www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep/step/index.htm.

PHMSA is holding a Workshop on Cased Pipeline Integrity Assessments and in coordination with a planning group representing the National Association of Pipeline Safety Regulators, American Gas Association, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, American Public Gas Association, American Petroleum Institute, and NACE International, the workshop focus will be for pipeline operators, trade associations, and others to address concerns with successfully using External Corrosion Direct Assessment integrity evaluation methods and use of other technologies to assess casings in High Consequence Areas.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This proposed AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) originated by an aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to request the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to extend the following currently approved information collection: 49 U.S.C. Section 5330Rail Fixed Guideway Systems, State Safety Oversight.