[Federal Register: November 29, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 229)]
[Notices]
[Page 69177-69178]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29no06-101]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Highway Administration
[Docket No. FHWA-2006-26431]
Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments
for New Information Collection
AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The FHWA has forwarded the information collection request
described in this notice to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
for approval of a new information collection. We published a Federal
Register Notice with a 60-day public comment period on this information
collection on September 21, 2006. We are required to publish this
notice in the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
[[Page 69178]]
DATES: Please submit comments by December 29, 2006.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments within 30 days to the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget,
725 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503, Attention DOT Desk Officer.
You are asked to comment on any aspect of this information collection,
including: (1) Whether the proposed collection is necessary for the
FHWA's performance; (2) the accuracy of the estimated burden; (3) ways
for the FHWA to enhance the quality, usefulness, and clarity of the
collected information; and (4) ways that the burden could be minimized,
including the use of electronic technology, without reducing the
quality of the collected information. All comments should include the
Docket number FHWA-2006-26431.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Eric Weaver, (202) 493-3153, Long-
Term Planning Program (HRDI-13), Office of Research Development and
Technology, Federal Highway Administration, Turner-Fairbank Highway
Research Center, 6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 22101. Office hours
are from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal
holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design National Status
Survey.
Background: In June 2004, the National Cooperative Highway Research
Program (NCHRP) released the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design
Guide (MEPDG) for New and Rehabilitated Pavement Structures. FHWA
organized a Design Guide Implementation Team (DGIT) to immediately
begin the process of informing, educating, and assisting FHWA field
offices, State Highway Agencies, Industry, and others about the new
design guide. FHWA considers implementation of mechanistic-empirical
pavement design a critical element in improving the National Highway
System. It ties directly into objectives listed in the Safe,
Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy
for Users, (SAFETEA-LU), Section 1503, which supports longer life
pavements. Consequently, the impacts of long-life pavements include
congestion mitigation and improved work zone safety.
The MEPDG represents a significant advancement in pavement design
and includes the best available engineering theory and mechanistic
principles to determine both the structural response and to predict
performance over the lifetime of a pavement structure.
The mechanistic theory is balanced with over 525 empirical
observations from the Long Term Pavement Performance database that
represents a wide range of both material and climatic conditions. The
use of both the mechanistic theory and a wide range of empirical
observations make the MEPDG a robust design procedure.
The MEPDG can be considered a 40-year step forward in pavement
design. The MEPDG is a more theoretical and mathematical based
procedure, strongly bolstered by fundamental engineering principles and
is readily useful to academia, researchers, and practitioners of
pavement analysis and design.
The MEPDG provides significant potential benefits over the current
AASHTO Guide in achieving cost-effective pavement designs and
rehabilitation strategies. Most importantly, its user-oriented
computational software implements an integrated analysis approach for
predicting pavement condition over time. This analysis considers the
complex interaction between traffic loadings, climatic conditions,
materials and pavement structure.
Implementation of the MEPDG will require a significant amount of
time, resources, and funding. However, the adoption of the guide has
the potential for providing a substantial long-term savings based on
the shear magnitude of annual expenditures for highway pavements. In
2003, over 79 billion dollars was used for highway purposes; based on
data published in Highway Statistics 2003 from the Office of Highway
Policy Information. Any improvement in the designs will have a
significant implication in reducing costs to maintain these pavements
and more than offset the resources required to implement the new
pavement design guide.
The DGIT has put forth a strategic plan of action to aid the
transportation community in deploying this new technology. The DGIT is
an integral part of an extensive outreach campaign including
Enhancement, Education, and Implementation strategies to promote the
MEPDG. These activities include onsite and web based workshops that
have already educated more than 1,200 engineers across the USA in 21
States and around the globe in Canada, Europe, China, India, Mexico,
and Central and South America.
FHWA encourages States to evaluate the utility that the MEPDG
offers and to carefully implement the guidelines and recommendations.
The long-term goal of the AASHTO Joint Technical Committee on Pavements
is to adopt the guide as an AASHTOWare product to replace the AASHTO
1993 design guide.
Moving towards a mechanistic-empirical design process represents a
huge paradigm shift for the majority of states and will require a
significant amount of education, training, new equipment, new testing
requirements and data collection. Most importantly it will require
better communication and coordination between the designers, materials
engineers, traffic engineers, and consultants to collect and maintain
the data needed to optimize the pavement designs and continue to
validate and calibrate the models in the Guide. The DGIT is focused on
being a leader in this effort by providing Education, Enhancement, and
Implementation activities to the Transportation Community.
Burden Hours for Information Collection
Frequency: Bi-Annual.
Respondents: The Pavement Design Engineer in each State DOT, Puerto
Rico, and the District of Columbia; for a total of 52.
Estimated Average Burden per response: Assuming 1 respondent per
State plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia and 1 hr to respond
to the survey the total will be approximately 52 burden hours. FHWA is
seeking a 3-year approval and plans on conducting the survey in the
first and third year of the approval time period. The estimated average
annual burden is 35 hours.
Electronic Access: Internet users may access all comments received
by the U.S. DOT Dockets, Room PL-401, by using the universal resource
locator (URL): http://dms.dot.gov, 24 hours each day, 365 days each
year. Please follow the instructions online for more information and
help.
Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35, as amended; and 49 CFR 1.48.
Issued on: November 22, 2006.
James R. Kabel,
Chief, Management Programs and Analysis Division.
[FR Doc. E6-20208 Filed 11-28-06; 8:45 am]
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