Earlier this week, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued a joint final rule implementing new regulations to speed up the environmental approval process for the repair or reconstruction of any road, highway, or bridge damaged in an emergency declared by either the state’s governor or the president.
The rules establish a Categorical Exclusion (CE) for emergency repairs which allows these projects to undergo an expedited environmental review process.. Projects that would fall under this exclusion typically do not have the potential for significant environmental effects but have been subject to the Federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review, which establishes very strict review process, in the past. MAP-21, the transportation reauthorization legislation, designated a number of project categories that will receive categorical exclusions in the future. This is the first rule that has been adopted in response to the new MAP-21 CEs.
For more information, please contact Brian Deery at (703) 837-5319 or deeryb@agc.org.
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