Procedures for Abatement of Highway Traffic Noise and Construction Noise

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Highway Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>23 CFR Part 772</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FHWA-2019-0036]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2125-AF78</RIN> <SUBJECT>Procedures for Abatement of Highway Traffic Noise and Construction Noise</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM); request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The FHWA proposes to revise the Federal regulations on the Procedures for Abatement of Highway Traffic Noise and Construction Noise. The proposed rule would clarify certain definitions, the applicability of this rulemaking, certain analysis requirements, and the eligibility of funds made available under the Highways title of the United States Code (U.S.C.) to provide noise abatement measures and to improve the analytical procedures. The FHWA also proposes changes and clarifications of factors used to determine the effectiveness of noise abatement measures. In addition, the proposed rule would include exemptions to Type I projects and allow screening analysis that would focus on the projects most likely to cause a traffic noise impact to improve efficiency. The proposed rule would make several changes that are intended to increase the pool of eligible participants in the noise study and mitigation decision processes to ensure everyone receives due consideration for impacts and the possibility of receiving abatement on a given project. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before December 17, 2024. Late-filed comments will be considered to the extent practicable. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> To ensure that you do not duplicate your docket submissions, please submit them by only one of the following means: • <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking Portal:</E> Go to <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> and follow the online instructions for submitting comments. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590. • <E T="03">Hand Delivery:</E> West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone number is (202) 366-9329. • <E T="03">Instructions:</E> You must include the agency name and docket number or the Regulatory Identification Number (RIN) for the rulemaking at the beginning of your comments. All comments received will be posted without change to <E T="03">www.regulations.gov,</E> including any personal information provided. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For technical information: Aileen Varela-Margolles, Office of Natural Environment, (305) 978-7780; for legal information: Lev Gabrilovich, Office of the Chief Counsel, (202) 366-3813, Federal Highway Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. Office hours are from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., ET Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents for Supplementary Information</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Electronic Access and Filing</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Executive Summary</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Summary of Key Proposed Changes</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Table: Summary of Key Proposed Changes</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Section-by-Section Discussion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Section 772.1 Purpose</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Section 772.3 Definitions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Section 772.5 Applicability</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Type I Projects</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Project Exemptions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Type II Projects</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Type III Projects</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">State Noise Policy</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Effective Date</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Section 772.7 Traffic Noise Prediction</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">TNM Version</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Clarifications</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Noise Screening Process</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Section 772.9 Analysis of Traffic Noise Impacts</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Section 772.11 Analysis of Traffic Noise Abatement</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Engineering Effectiveness</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Acoustic Effectiveness</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Cost Effectiveness</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Consideration of Viewpoints</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Optional Factors</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Date of Public Knowledge</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Section 772.13 Construction Noise</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Section 772.15 Documentation and Reporting</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Section 772.17 Information for Local Officials</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Section 772.19 Federal Participation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Table 1 to Part 772—Traffic Noise Impact Criteria</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Regulatory Analyses and Notices</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Electronic Access and Filing</HD> This document and all comments received may be viewed online through the Federal eRulemaking portal at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> using the docket number listed above. Electronic retrieval help and guidelines are available on the website. It is available 24 hours each day, 365 days each year. An electronic copy of this document may also be downloaded by accessing the Office of the Federal Register's website at: <E T="03">www.federalregister.gov</E> and the U.S. Government Publishing Office's website at: <E T="03">www.GovInfo.gov</E> . All comments received before the close of business on the comment closing date indicated above will be considered and will be available for examination in the docket at the location specified in the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section. Comments received after the comment closing date will be filed in the docket and considered to the extent practicable. In addition to late comments, we will continue to file relevant information in the docket as it becomes available after the comment period closing date, and interested persons should continue to examine the docket for new material. A final rule may be published at any time after the close of the comment period and after DOT has had the opportunity to review the comments submitted. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Executive Summary</HD> The FHWA proposes to update the Federal Procedures for Abatement of Highway Traffic Noise and Construction Noise in 23 CFR part 772 (part 772) to clarify the responsibilities under the “applicability” section of this part to various State department of transportation (State DOT) and non-State DOT recipients of apportioned or discretionary funding, provide additional flexibility for State DOTs, improve consistency in the implementation of part 772, increase options for abatement that is best suited to a particular project and community, and create a more equitable process for considering the affected public's preference when making noise abatement decisions. The proposed rule would make changes to how and when noise impacts are considered, the funding mechanisms available for noise abatement, the methods for consideration of benefitted receptor's desires, the Date of Public Knowledge as currently defined in § 772.5, and recommendations for considering construction noise in ways that are intended to increase the pool of eligible participants in the noise study and mitigation decision processes to promote equitable consideration for impacts and the possibility of receiving abatement on a given project. The proposed changes would allow all recipients to expedite project delivery while maintaining protections for human health and the environment by continuing to provide for analyzing, considering, minimizing, and mitigating noise impacts. The FHWA proposes to reorganize part 772 to improve its clarity in response to stakeholder feedback on the existing regulation. The proposed changes fall into three categories: (1) those that are intended to better balance the needs of receptors (noise-sensitive lands and buildings) adjacent to the project with the needs of recipients; (2) those that are intended to improve the compliance process and focus work effort on projects that are likely to alter the existing noise environment; and (3) those that will allow for the timely adoption of new technology in noise analyses. The proposed rule includes several key changes that have the potential to alter how recipients conduct noise analyses and how the public receives consideration for noise abatement. The FHWA is proposing to redefine how projects are categorized, what areas of and around a project must be considered for noise analysis, adding exemptions to Type I projects, and allowing project-level screening. This would allow recipients to focus analysis and mitigation efforts on projects and areas that have, or are likely to have, noise impacts. When projects must undergo noise analyses, FHWA is proposing to update the method for adopting new versions of the Traffic Noise Model. In considering traffic noise impacts, the proposed rule would include changes to the levels that are considered an impact. When impacts are identified and abatement must be considered, FHWA is proposing to improve the process for considering abatement by consolidating requirements; allowing for the use of innovative mitigation measures; allowing for the consideration of non-acoustical benefits of mitigation; seeking comment on third-party funding options; updating how property owners' and residents' viewpoints are solicited, counted, and considered; defaulting to replacing existing mitigation in-kind; and including provisions for reestablishing a Date of Public Knowledge. These proposed changes would increase ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 178k characters. 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