Department of Transportation November 13, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FMCSA announces that 15 individuals have applied for a medical exemption from the hearing requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). In accordance with the statutory requirements concerning applications for exemptions, FMCSA requests public comments on these requests. The statute and implementing regulations concerning exemptions require that exemptions must provide an equivalent or greater level of safety than if they were not granted. If the Agency determines the exemptions would satisfy the statutory requirements and decides to grant theses requests after reviewing the public comments submitted in response to this notice, the exemptions would enable these 15 individuals to operate CMVs in interstate commerce.

Notice is hereby given of a meeting of the Rail Energy Transportation Advisory Committee (RETAC), pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. app. 2 section 10(a)(2). This meeting was originally scheduled for Thursday, October 1, 2015, 80 FR 55712 (Sept. 16, 2015). However, the meeting was postponed due to the possibility of a Federal Government shutdown.

This action proposes to modify Class D airspace, Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface, and remove Class E surface area airspace designated as an extension at Chico Municipal Airport, Chico, CA. After reviewing the airspace, the FAA found it necessary to amend the airspace area by increasing the Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface for the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations for arriving and departing aircraft at the airport. The FAA found no standard instrument approach procedures requiring Class E surface area airspace designated as an extension to Class D airspace. This action would also change from navigation aid to geographic coordinate references in the legal description, in anticipation of the FAA's future navigation aid discontinuance plan. The geographic coordinates of Chico Municipal and Ranchaero Airports also would be updated for the Class D and E airspace areas noted above.

This action proposes to modify Class E surface area airspace designated as an extension to Class C airspace, and Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface at Boise Air Terminal/ Gowen Field Airport, formerly Boise Air Terminal (Gowen Field), Boise, ID. After reviewing the airspace, the FAA found standard instrument approach procedures are not fully contained in controlled airspace, thereby necessitating airspace redesign for the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations at the airport. This proposal also would update the name of the airport to match the FAAs aeronautical database.

In issuing Federal-aid eligibility letters for roadside safety hardware, FHWA currently makes determinations of continued eligibility for modifications to devices tested to the National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 350 (NCHRP 350). In an effort to facilitate the implementation of the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH), FHWA intends to discontinue issuing eligibility letters for requests received after December 31, 2015, for modified NCHRP 350-tested devices that do not involve full scale crash testing to the MASH. Modifications to NCHRP 350-tested devices that have, in the past, been based on engineering analysis or finite element modeling will no longer receive FHWA eligibility letters. Effective January 1, 2016, all changes to NCHRP 350-tested devices will require testing under MASH in order to receive a Federal-aid eligibility letter from FHWA.