Department of Transportation January 16, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FMCSA announces its plan to submit the Information Collection Request (ICR) described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for its review and approval and invites public comment. The purpose of this information collection is to acquire the perspectives of FMCSA State partners who support the operation, regulation and enforcement of various mutually-beneficial safety programs. This knowledge will improve the Federal government's understanding of the effectiveness of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) safety related grant programs. The FMCSA is interested in surveying grant recipients to collect information on the strengths, weaknesses, and effectiveness of FMCSA grant programs with the intent of improving our capacity to meet the needs of our grantees. FMCSA needs this information to support program evaluation endeavors, program management, and fiscal decision making. FMCSA will use the results in various analyses conducted by FMCSA designed to assess the effectiveness of existing rules, grant programs, and safety programs. On October 8, 2014, FMCSA published a notice in the Federal Register allowing for a 60-day comment period on this ICR. The agency received no comments in response to that notice.

FMCSA announces receipt of applications from 51 individuals for exemption from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. They are unable to meet the vision requirement in one eye for various reasons. The exemptions will enable these individuals to operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce without meeting the prescribed vision requirement in one eye. If granted, the exemptions would enable these individuals to qualify as drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce.

The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) requires DOT and FHWA to develop public-private partnership (P3) transaction model contracts for the most popular type of P3s for transportation projects. Based on public input favoring an educational, rather than prescriptive contract model, FHWA is publishing a series of guides describing terms and conditions typically adopted in P3 concession agreements. The publication and deployment of these model contracts is important to supporting the Administration's Build America Investment Initiative. As part of this Initiative, the U.S. Department of Transportation is committed to providing technical assistance to help project sponsors consider project financing options, including P3s. To address the most popular types of P3s, FHWA is producing separate guides for the two most common agreements for concessionaire compensation: User tolls and availability payments. The Toll Concessions Guide (Guide) is being published in two parts. The first part, addressing the highest profile (core) provisions, comprises chapters 1 through 8 of the Guide. On September 10, 2014, at 79 FR 53825, FHWA published a Final Core Toll Concessions Model Contract Guide (``Core Guide'') incorporating public comments received in response to the Draft Core Guide published February 6, 2014. The second part, described herein as ``the Draft Addendum,'' addresses additional substantive provisions that are proposed to comprise chapters 9 through 28 of the Guide. It addresses a range of additional topics, such as construction performance security, insurance, lenders' rights and direct agreements, performance standards and non-compliance points, consumer protections, government approvals and permits, and a number of other topics described further below. With this notice, FHWA publishes the Draft Addendum so that the general public and interested stakeholders may provide comments. The Draft Addendum can be found on the Docket (FHWA-2014-0006) and at the following link: https://www.fhwa.gov/ipd/pdfs/p3/ model_p3_toll_concessions_addendum.pdf. This model contract guide has been prepared solely for informational purposes and should not be construed as a statement of DOT or FHWA policy. The FHWA values public input in the development of the model contract guides, and seeks continuing input. All documents in this series are available at the same docket (FHWA-2014-0006).