Federal Highway Administration June 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FHWA invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for a new information collection, which is summarized below under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. We published a Federal Register Notice with a 60-day public comment period on this information collection on February 15, 2013. We are required to publish this notice in the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The FHWA invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for a new information collection, which is summarized below under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. We are required to publish this notice in the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The FHWA is issuing this notice to advise the public that five States have rescinded Notices of Intent (NOIs) to prepare nine Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for proposed highway projects. The FHWA Division Offices, in consultation with the State departments of transportation (State DOT), determined that three projects were no longer viable and have formally cancelled the projects. No further Federal resources will be expended on these projects; the environmental review process has been terminated. Four projects are being reassessed and may be reconsidered in whole or in part, by the State DOT at a later time. One project is being rescoped and may not require an EIS. Finally, one project was rescinded without a specific reason for its rescission.

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) is incorporated in our regulations, approved by the Federal Highway Administration, and recognized as the national standard for traffic control devices used on all streets, highways, bikeways, and private roads open to public travel. Consistent with Executive Order 13563, and in particular its emphasis on burden-reduction and on retrospective analysis of existing rules, a Request for Comments was published on January 11, 2013, to solicit input on potential formats for restructuring the MUTCD into two documents, one that would be subject to rulemaking and one that would contain supplemental information that is not subject to rulemaking. One hundred and sixty-nine unique letters were received and this document provides a summary of the input from these letters. Given the lack of support from the MUTCD user community, the FHWA will not proceed with restructuring the MUTCD into two documents at this time.

This notice provides information regarding the FHWA's finding that a conditional Buy America waiver is appropriate for the obligation of Federal-aid funds for 74 vehicle projects involving the purchase of approximately 3,500 vehicles (including sedans, vans, pickups, SUVs, trucks, buses, and equipment, such as backhoes, street sweepers, and tractors), including projects to retrofit vehicles with individual vehicle components, so long as they are assembled in the United States. The FHWA's Buy America requirements provide that 100 percent of all steel and iron that is permanently incorporated into a project must be domestically manufactured. With respect to vehicles, manufacturers typically assemble these products with many different components and subcomponents containing steel and iron. As a result, vehicles are typically referred to as being made where the final product rolls off the assembly line for delivery into the marketplace. The FHWA is unaware of any vehicle that is comprised of 100 percent domestically produced steel and iron, resulting in a need for a conditional Buy America waiver for these projects to proceed.

FHWA invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for a new information collection, which is summarized below under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. We published a Federal Register Notice with a 60-day public comment period on this information collection on March 5, 2013. We are required to publish this notice in the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.