Department of Transportation November 25, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Maritime Administration announces the availability of the Record of Decision for the Port Dolphin Energy LLC (Port Dolphin Energy) Deepwater Port License Application. On October 26, 2009, the Acting Maritime Administrator, David T. Matsuda, issued the Record of Decision ``approving with conditions'' Port Dolphin Energy's application to own, construct, and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) deepwater port 28 miles southwest of Tampa Bay, Florida. Issuance of this Record of Decision completes the application review and license approval process, mandated by the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, as amended (the Act).

Under the provisions of Title 49, U.S.C. Section 47153(d), notice is being given that the FAA is considering a request from the North Carolina Global TransPark Authority to waive the requirement that a 35.19 acre parcel of surplus property, located at the Kinston Regional Jetport, be used for aeronautical purposes.

This action removes the Class E5 Airspace at Liberty County Airport, Hinesville, GA, as the airport has closed, eliminating the need for controlled airspace.

The FAA is revising an existing airworthiness directive (AD), which applies to all McDonnell Douglas Corporation airplane models identified above. That AD currently requires revising the FAA-approved maintenance program, or the Airworthiness Limitations (AWLs) section of the Instructions for Continued Airworthiness, as applicable, to incorporate new AWLs for fuel tank systems to satisfy Special Federal Aviation Regulation No. 88 requirements. For certain airplanes, this AD also requires the initial accomplishment of a certain repetitive AWL inspection to phase in that inspection, and repair if necessary. This AD clarifies the intended effect of the AD on spare and on-airplane fuel tank system components. This AD results from a design review of the fuel tank system. We are issuing this AD to prevent the potential for ignition sources inside fuel tanks caused by latent failures, alterations, repairs, or maintenance actions, which, in combination with flammable fuel vapors, could result in a fuel tank explosion and consequent loss of the airplane.

FRA proposes to amend its regulations on railroad workplace safety to reduce further the risk of serious injury or death to roadway workers. In particular, FRA proposes to require that railroads adopt specified on-track safety procedures to protect certain roadway work groups from the movement of trains or other on-track equipment on ``adjacent controlled track.'' FRA proposes to define ``adjacent controlled track'' to mean ``a controlled track whose track center is spaced 19 feet or less from the track center of the occupied track.'' These on-track safety procedures would be required for each adjacent controlled track when a roadway work group with at least one of the roadway workers on the ground is engaged in a common task with an on- track roadway maintenance machine or coupled equipment on an occupied track. FRA also proposes to require that railroads, contractors to railroads, and roadway workers comply with these procedures. The NPRM issued as ``Notice No. 1'' under this same docket number and published July 17, 2008 (73 FR 41214), was withdrawn by ``Notice No. 2'' published August 13, 2008 (73 FR 47124).