Department of Transportation November 25, 2024 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action confirms the effective date of the final rule published on April 24, 2024, and responds to the comments received on that final rule. The FAA published a correction on May 7, 2024, to the final rule that established a compliance date of 90 days after the effective date. The rule adopts standards for measuring non-volatile particulate matter (nvPM) exhaust emissions from aircraft engines. With this rulemaking, the FAA implemented the nvPM emissions standards adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), allowing manufacturers to certificate engines to the new nvPM emissions standards in the United States, and fulfilling the statutory obligations of the FAA under the Clean Air Act.

This action proposes to modify the Class D airspace at Torrance Airport, Torrance, CA. This action would more appropriately contain instrument flight rules (IFR) and visual flight rules (VFR) operations at the airport. Additionally, the airport's name and legal description should be amended to match the FAA's database.

This final decision notice adds a crashworthiness pedestrian protection program to the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) to evaluate new model year vehicles' abilities to mitigate pedestrian injuries. Based on its previous research, NHTSA concurs with and adopts most of the European New Car Assessment Programme's (Euro NCAP) pedestrian crashworthiness assessment methods, including the injury limits for test devices and the score calculation method used for impact points. NHTSA will identify new model year vehicles meeting a certain minimum safety threshold on the Agency's website and other published literature. This notice responds in part to the provisions in Section 24213 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which requires NHTSA to incorporate measures in NCAP for evaluating the protection that new vehicles provide vulnerable road users like pedestrians.

The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) closed for repairs the eastbound portion of Interstate 70 (I-70) on the Lewis and Clark Viaduct Bridge over the Kansas River on September 5, 2024. Closure of the bridge and detour routes extend from Kansas City, Kansas, into Kansas City, Missouri. The FHWA is providing notice that KDOT is continuing the temporary closure of the Lewis and Clark Viaduct Bridge in the eastbound direction until the bridge can be repaired, which is estimated to be by the end of December 2024. The FHWA is requesting comments from the public on the alternate routes selected by KDOT and the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) due to the closure.

This notice sets forth the reasons for the denial of a defect petition, DP24-001, submitted by Ms. Jasmine Jewell (the Petitioner) to NHTSA (the Agency) by a letter dated February 2, 2024. The petition requests that the Agency initiate a safety defect investigation into the loss of motive power incidents attributed to 3.3L Lambda-II engines equipped in vehicles manufactured by Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai), which the Agency interpreted as addressing 3.3L Lambda-II engines on certain Model Year (MY) 2017 Santa Fe Models. After conducting a technical review of the petition and other information, the Agency concluded that the issues raised by the petition do not warrant a new defect investigation. Accordingly, the Agency denied the petition.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Safran Helicopter Engines, S.A. (Safran) Model ARRIUS 2F engines. This AD was prompted by a report of an uncommanded in-flight shut-down (IFSD) of a Safran Model ARRIUS 2F engine, followed by an investigation that revealed the IFSD was due to a missing lubricating and balancing groove on one of the bearings of the fuel control unit (FCU) fuel pump related to a non-conforming manufacturing process. This AD requires removal of the affected fuel pump from service and replacement with a serviceable part, as specified in a European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD, which is incorporated by reference. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.