Department of Transportation June 23, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On April 16, 2009, President Obama, together with Vice President Biden and Secretary of Transportation LaHood, announced a new vision for developing high-speed rail in America. They called for a collaborative effort among the Federal Government, States, railroads, and other key stakeholders to help transform America's transportation system through a national network of high-speed rail corridors. This notice builds on this ``Vision for High-Speed Rail'' (available on FRA's Web site) by detailing the application requirements and procedures for obtaining funding for high-speed rail projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and the Department of Transportation Appropriations Acts of 2008 and 2009 (FY 2008/2009 DOT Appropriations Acts), while laying the foundation for a longer-term program to establish a network of high-speed rail corridors.

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:

This notice announces actions taken by FHWA that are final within the meaning of 23 U.S.C. 139(l)(1). The actions relate to a proposed highway project, the SR 520 Variable Tolling Project, in the State of Washington. Those actions grant licenses, permits, and approvals for the project.

This document makes a correction to final special conditions, NE129, 33-007-SC, applicable to General Electric Company (GE) GEnx-2B67 and GEnx-2B69 model turbofan engines that was published in the Federal Register on April 24, 2009 (74 FR 18624). Two typographical errors occurred under the Background section and one typographical error under The Special Conditions section. This document corrects these errors. In all other respects, the original document remains the same.

This establishes, amends, suspends, or revokes Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAPs) and associated Takeoff Minimums and Obstacle Departure Procedures for operations at certain airports. These regulatory actions are needed because of the adoption of new or revised criteria, or because of changes occurring in the National Airspace System, such as the commissioning of new navigational facilities, adding new obstacles, or changing air traffic requirements. These changes are designed to provide safe and efficient use of the navigable airspace and to promote safe flight operations under instrument flight rules at the affected airports.

This final rule responds to petitions for reconsideration of a December 14, 2006 final rule establishing a new small adult female side impact crash test dummy, called the ``SID-IIs'' test dummy. The petitions were submitted by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, First Technology Safety Systems, and Denton ATD. In response to the petitions, among other things today's final rule modifies the iliac performance criteria to allow a new material formulation and design to be used for the iliac wing of the dummy's pelvis, defines a time period in which accelerations are measured in the thorax with arm and pelvis acetabulum tests, slightly modifies some of the test procedures used in the qualification tests (e.g., by slightly lowering the impact speed of the impactor in two tests and by increasing the recovery time for the pelvis-iliac and pelvis-acetabulum tests), adjusts the performance corridors for the various impact tests of the dummy, and revises parts of the drawing package and the user's manual for the dummy.