<RULE>
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
<SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY>
<CFR>33 CFR Part 117</CFR>
<DEPDOC>[Docket No. USCG-2022-0222]</DEPDOC>
<RIN>RIN 1625-AA09</RIN>
<SUBJECT>Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Okeechobee Waterway, Stuart, FL</SUBJECT>
<HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD>
Coast Guard, DHS.
<HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD>
Temporary interim rule with request for comments.
<SUM>
<HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD>
The Coast Guard is temporarily modifying the operating schedule that governs the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railroad Bridge, across the Okeechobee Waterway (OWW), mile 7.41, at Stuart, FL. This action is necessary to allow for continuity of drawbridge operations while the Coast Guard reviews comments and documents associated with the temporary test deviation. Allowing the drawbridge to return to its regular operating schedule would not meet the reasonable needs of navigation given the increase in railway traffic.
</SUM>
<DATES>
<HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD>
This temporary interim rule is effective from August 9, 2024, through 11:59 p.m. on December 31, 2024.
Comments and related material must reach the Coast Guard on or before September 23, 2024.
</DATES>
<HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD>
To view documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket, go to
<E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E>
Type the docket number USCG-2022-0222 in the “SEARCH” box and click “SEARCH”. In the Document Type column, select “Supporting & Related Material.”
<FURINF>
<HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD>
If you have questions on this temporary interim rule, call, or email Ms. Jennifer Zercher, Bridge Management Specialist, Seventh Coast Guard District; telephone 571-607-5951, email
<E T="03">Jennifer.N.Zercher@uscg.mil.</E>
</FURINF>
<SUPLINF>
<HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD>
<HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Table of Abbreviations </HD>
<EXTRACT>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">DHS Department of Homeland Security</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">FR Federal Register</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">OMB Office of Management and Budget</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Advance, Supplemental)</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">§ Section </FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C. United States Code</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">FL Florida</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM Notice of Proposed Rulemaking</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">TIR Temporary Interim Rule</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">FECR Florida East Coast Railway</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">FEC Florida East Coast</FP>
<FP SOURCE="FP-1">OWW Okeechobee Waterway</FP>
</EXTRACT>
<HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background Information and Regulatory History</HD>
The Coast Guard is issuing this temporary interim rule without prior notice and opportunity to comment pursuant to authority under section 4(a) of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (5 U.S.C. 553(b)). This provision authorizes an agency to issue a rule without prior notice and opportunity to comment when the agency for good cause finds that those procedures are “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” Under 5 U.S.C. 553(b), the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for not publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) with respect to this rule because it is impracticable. Allowing the drawbridge to return to its regular operating schedule would not meet the reasonable needs of navigation given the increase in railway traffic. The regular operating schedule does not provide predictable and reliable drawbridge openings.
On February 6, 2024, the Coast Guard published a notice of temporary deviation from regulations; request for comments, in the
<E T="04">Federal Register</E>
(89 FR 8074) which allowed the bridge owner, Florida East Coast Railway (FECR), to deviate from the current operating schedule in 33 CFR 117.317(c). This action was necessary to test an alternate drawbridge operating schedule due to an increase in railway traffic. The test deviation will run past the end date of August 9, 2024, of the General Deviation due to the delay in receipt and Coast Guard analysis of the marine traffic study. The Coast Guard commissioned an independent third party to conduct a marine traffic study to analyze the type, size, time of day and number of vessels that transit through the FEC Railroad Bridge while in the open and closed to navigation positions. The Coast Guard received the draft report on July 11, 2024. The bridge cannot be brought back to the regular operating schedule as it does not meet the reasonable needs of navigation given the increase in railway traffic. Therefore, there is insufficient time to provide a reasonable comment period and then consider those comments before issuing the modification.
Under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3), the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for making it effective in less than 30 days after publication in the
<E T="04">Federal Register</E>
. For reasons presented above, delaying the effective date of this rule would be impracticable and contrary to the public interest due to the fact that the bridge's regular operating schedule does not meet the reasonable needs of navigation and does not provide predictable and reliable drawbridge openings.
We are soliciting comments on this rulemaking. If the Coast Guard determines that changes to the temporary interim rule are necessary, we will publish a temporary final rule or other appropriate document.
<HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Legal Authority and Need for Rule</HD>
The Coast Guard is issuing this rule under authority in 33 U.S.C. 499. The FEC Railroad Bridge across the OWW, mile 7.41, at Stuart, FL, is a single-leaf bascule bridge with a six-foot vertical clearance at mean high water in the closed position. The normal operating schedule for the bridge is found in 33 CFR 117.317(c).
The regular drawbridge regulation, 33 CFR 117.313(c), states that the draw is normally in the fully open position . . . when a train approaches the bridge . . . the draw lowers and locks . . . and remains down for a period of eight minutes or while the approach track circuit is occupied. The Coast Guard has determined that allowing the drawbridge to return to its regular operating schedule would not meet the reasonable needs of navigation given the increase in railway traffic. The regular operating schedule does not provide predictable and reliable drawbridge openings. The Coast Guard needs sufficient time to review the marine traffic study and other documentation,
while providing continuity in the operation of the drawbridge.
<HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Discussion of the Temporary Interim Rule</HD>
The Coast Guard is issuing this rule, which permits a temporary deviation from the operating schedule that governs FEC Railroad Bridge across the OWW, mile 7.41, at Stuart, FL. This rule allows the bridge to provide continuity with predictable and reliable drawbridge openings through 11:59 p.m. on December 31, 2024.
When determining if this temporary deviation will meet the reasonable needs of competing modes of transportation, sufficient time to review and mitigate public comments and the marine traffic study is necessary. The marine traffic study was delayed and the Coast Guard did not receive the draft document until July 11, 2024. A proper review the marine traffic study and mitigation of comments is anticipated to be completed by December 31, 2024.
<HD SOURCE="HD1">V. Regulatory Analyses</HD>
We developed this temporary interim rule after considering numerous statutes and Executive Orders related to rulemaking. Below we summarize our analyses based on a number of these statutes and Executive Orders.
<HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Regulatory Planning and Review</HD>
Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 direct agencies to assess the costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits. This rule has not been designated a “significant regulatory action,” under Executive Order 12866, as amended by Executive Order 14094 (Modernizing Regulatory Review). Accordingly, it has not been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
This regulatory action determination is based on the fact that little, or no commercial or recreational vessel traffic will be impacted by this rule. Furthermore, the drawbridge, as of date of the publication of this rule, cannot resume its regular operating schedule as it does not meet the reasonable needs of navigation given the increase in railway traffic. The regular operating schedule does not provide predictable and reliable drawbridge openings.
<HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Impact on Small Entities</HD>
The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 (RFA), 5 U.S.C. 601-612, as amended, requires federal agencies to consider the potential impact of regulations on small entities during rulemaking. The term “small entities” comprises small businesses, not-for-profit organizations that are independently owned and operated and are not dominant in their fields, and governmental jurisdictions with populations of less than 50,000. The Coast Guard certifies under 5 U.S.C. 605(b) that this rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
While some owners or operators of vessels intending to transit the bridge may be small entities, for the reasons stated in section V.A above, this rule will not have a significant economic impact on any vessel owner or operator.
Under section 213(a) of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-121), we want to assist small entities in understanding this rule. If the rule would affect your small business, organization, or governmental jurisdiction and you have questions concerning its provisions or options for compliance, please contact the person listed in the
<E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E>
s
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Preview showing 10k of 19k characters.
Full document text is stored and available for version comparison.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
This text is preserved for citation and comparison. View the official version for the authoritative text.