Federal Highway Administration March 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) are issuing joint guidance on the implementation of the financial penalty provisions contained in Section 1306 of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). The financial penalty provisions require Federal agencies of jurisdiction (Reviewing Agency) to render a decision on a permit, license, or other approval related to a transportation project within 180 days from the later of the date FHWA or FTA issue a Record of Decision or Finding of No Significant Impacts for a project, or the date on which an application for a permit, license, or approval for the project is complete. If the Reviewing Agency does not render a decision by the 180-day deadline, it is subject to a rescission of funds of $10,000 or $20,000 per week until the Reviewing Agency renders a decision. The FHWA and FTA have the authority to grant ``no-fault'' certifications if the Reviewing Agency's failure to decide was due to circumstances beyond its control. You may review the guidance by visiting FHWA's Web site at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21, or FTA's Web site at https://www/fta.dot.gov/map21.

The purpose of this notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) is to propose changes to Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) regulations to address provisions in the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) as well as to incorporate clarifications to better explain existing regulatory language. Specifically, this rule proposes to amend DOT's regulations to address MAP-21 provisions that removed the requirement for States to prepare a Transparency Report, removed the High Risk Rural Roads set-aside, and removed the 10 percent flexibility provision for States to use safety funding in accordance with federal law. This rule also proposes to amend DOT's regulations to address a MAP-21 provision that requires DOT to establish a subset of roadway data elements that are useful to the inventory of roadway safety, and to ensure that States adopt and use the subset. Finally, this rule proposes to address MAP-21 provisions that add State Strategic Highway Safety Plan update requirements and require States to develop HSIP performance targets. The proposed changes are intended to clarify the regulation for the development, implementation, and evaluation of highway safety improvement programs that are administered in each State.

The FHWA is issuing this revised notice of intent (NOI) to inform the public that an environmental impact statement (EIS) will be prepared for a proposed highway project in Hawaii County, Hawaii. This notice revises the NOI that was published in the Federal Register on July 13, 1999.

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.

Section 1203 of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) declared that performance management will transform the Federal-aid highway program and refocus it on national transportation goals, increase accountability and transparency of the Federal-aid highway program, and improve project decision making through performance-based planning and programming. Section 1203 of MAP-21 identifies national transportation goals and requires the Secretary to promulgate a rulemaking to establish performance measures and standards in specified Federal-aid highway program areas. This NPRM proposes to establish measures for State departments of transportation (State DOT) to use to carry out the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) and to assess serious injuries and fatalities per vehicle mile traveled, and the number of serious injuries and fatalities. The HSIP is a core Federal-aid highway program with the purpose of achieving a significant reduction in fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads, including non-State-owned public roads and roads on tribal lands.