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

The FHWA, on behalf of Caltrans, is issuing this notice to announce actions taken by Caltrans, that are final within the meaning of 23 U.S.C. 139(l)(1). The actions relate to a proposed highway project, replacement of the 5th Street Bridge (No. 18C-0012) over the Feather River and improvement of approach roadways to the bridge, in the Counties of Sutter and Yuba, State of California. Those actions grant licenses, permits, and approvals for the project.

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, on February 6, 2014, FHWA published a draft of the Core Toll Concession Model Contract Guide (Guide) (Docket No. FHWA-2014- 0006), requesting comments by March 10, 2014. The FHWA received a total of 133 public comments regarding different aspects of the Guide and of P3s in general. With this notice, FHWA publishes a revised Guide reflecting these comments. In coming months, FHWA will publish additional draft guides for public comment: An Addendum to the Core Toll Concession Model Contract Guide that will address additional contract provisions, and an Availability Payment Concession Model Contract Guide that will cover this popular type of P3 arrangement. The revised Core Toll Concession Model Contract Guide can be found on the Docket (FHWA-2014-0006) and at the following link: https:// www.fhwa.dot.gov/ipd/pdfs/p3/ modelp3coretollconcessions.pdf.

The FHWA is updating the existing value engineering (VE) regulations to make them consistent with the statutory changes in the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and to make other non-substantive changes for clarity.

This notice announces actions taken by the FHWA and other Federal Agencies that are final within the meaning of 23 U.S.C. 139(l)(1). The actions relate to a proposed highway project, US 220 NHS Corridor between Interstate 68 (I-68) and Corridor H in Allegany County, Maryland and Grant, Hardy, Hampshire and Mineral Counties, West Virginia. The Federal actions, taken as a result of a tiered environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. 4321-4351 (NEPA), and implementing regulations on tiering, 40 CFR 1502.20, 40 CFR 1508.28, and 23 CFR Part 771, determined certain issues relating to the proposed projects. Those Tier 1 decisions will be used by Federal agencies in subsequent proceedings, including decisions whether to grant licenses, permits, and approvals for highway and transit projects. Tier 1 decisions also may be relied upon by State and local agencies in proceedings on the proposed projects.

The FHWA and FTA are extending the comment period for a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) and request for comments, which was published on June 2, 2014. The original comment period is set to close on September 2, 2014. The extension is based on concern expressed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) that the September 2 closing date does not provide sufficient time to review and provide comprehensive comments on the NPRM. The FHWA and FTA recognize that others interested in commenting may have similar concerns and agrees that the comment period should be extended. Therefore, the closing date for comments is changed to October 2, 2014, which will provide AASHTO and others interested in commenting additional time to discuss, evaluate, and submit responses to the docket.