Department of Transportation

The Baltimore Red Line is a proposed 14-mile rail transit line that would connect the suburban areas west of Baltimore to downtown, the Inner Harbor and Fells Point areas, and the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Campus. Maryland Transit Administration is the project sponsor and the Federal Transit Administration is the lead federal agency. This proposed project has several outstanding federal permitting actions that will require substantial cooperation between a number of resource and other federal agencies.

These include:

Issuance of the Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision for the Baltimore Red Line project, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA);

Issuance of a conformity determination, which the FTA, as the federal funder for this project, must make in order to ensure that the proposed project (which is located in an area that does not meet or has not met air quality standards for ozone, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, or nitrogen dioxide) is consistent with air quality goals established under the Clean Air Act;

A Programmatic Agreement, which is being prepared as part of the Section 106 Consultation process with the Maryland Historical Trust. The Programmatic Agreement will address any cultural or historical resources, including archaeology identified during final design and construction following the FEIS. The PA will identify the process and procedures to be followed concerning evaluating effects on historic properties and exploring measures to avoid or reduce harm to affected properties.

Endangered Species Act Section 7 consultation, which will be completed in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether the project may affect a listed or endangered species.

This process will conclude with the signing of the Record of Decision in February 2013. The ROD was originally scheduled to be completed in July 2013 and has since been expedited. The Record of Decision is the final step in the NEPA process and identifies the selected alternative, presents the basis for the decision, identifies all the alternatives considered, specifies the "environmentally preferable alternative," and provides information on the adopted means to avoid, minimize and compensate for environmental impacts.

The Crenshaw/LAX project will be constructed by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro). The project will extend the existing Metro Green Line light rail service nearer to the Los Angeles International Airport and connect it to the Expo Line light rail. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is providing funding for the project by means of a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan and a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) II grant award, as well as additional targeted technical assistance to the project sponsor, LA Metro, in an effort to shorten the approval time for this project by several months. In addition, FTA and LA Metro will pilot FTA's new streamlined risk assessment approach for major transit projects to ensure risks and associated mitigation measures are identified and addressed promptly, before they become critical and cause delays to the project.

FTA published a Final Environmental Impact Statement, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), on September 9, 2011, and expects to issue the Record of Decision for the project in December 2011.

The Project will address rising level of Devil's Lake that floods the BNSF rail line between Devil's Lake and Church's Ferry, North Dakota. The Project will ensure the rail line remains open to passenger and freight traffic, and avoids rerouting these trains. The Project involves: replacing bolted rail with continuous welded rail between mile post 31.50 and mile post 91.00 and between mile post 105.51 and mile post 114.25 (approximately 52.5 miles); raising approximately 12.4 miles of rail line grade between mile post 91.39 and mile post 105.43 five feet; placing rip rap on slopes; and paying costs related to engineering, construction management, crossing adjustments, and other incidental work.

These improvements will ensure continued Amtrak service that will be able to operate at a faster speed, improving long-term reliability, and will reduce maintenance costs for both passenger and freight trains. There has been extensive coordination between North Dakota, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Federal Railroad Administration to ensure timely permitting and environmental approval process. Through careful engineering and planning, the rail improvements will be constructed with little to no environmental impact. All work will be completed within existing right-of-way.

The project replaces an 80 year-old moveable span truss bridge at the end of its service life with a high level, fixed bridge over the Kennebec River on State Route 197 between Richmond and Dresden, located upstream from the existing bridge. The Maine Kennebec Bridge is an important crossing on the Kennebec River as it connects the communities and links Dresden and points east with Interstate 295. This structurally deficient structure contains five fracture critical spans. The existing bridge has one movable section (swing span) that allows larger vessels to pass the navigable portion of the Kennebec River. Navigability on this section of the Kennebec River is extremely important, especially for the U.S. Coast Guard which operates two vessels for ice breaking and aids to navigation. These vessels are utilized during most winters to prevent ice jams that can cause flooding in many upstream areas. At the request of the U.S. Coast Guard, the new bridge will provide sufficient vertical clearance to eliminate the need for a movable span, and will provide reliable access and regional mobility for both highway and marine traffic. In addition, the current bridge is only 20 feet wide, and often acts as a single lane bridge when logging and other large trucks cross. The new structure will provide two travel lanes plus shoulders to safely accommodate trucks, bicycles and pedestrians.

The project involves significant collaboration with Federal and State agencies. The Kennebec River is home to the Atlantic salmon, Atlantic sturgeon and Short-nose sturgeon, federally listed endangered and threatened species. Extensive consultation and coordination continues with the National Marine Fisheries Service in order to protect these species. The bridge is also directly upstream of the Swan Island Nature Preserve which is managed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The new bridge will be located further away from this property. Consultation for Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act was completed with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement in March 2012. The process was expedited to allow archeological data recovery from the site of 18th century Fort Richmond to proceed this summer, allowing the project to remain on schedule. The data recovery element is being used as a means to educate others on the history of the area. Please see http://mainehumanities.org/programs/history-camp/fort-richmond.html for more information.

The bridge is also eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. A programmatic Section 4(f) evaluation for replacement of the historic bridge was completed in April 2012. Other environmental approvals are expected to be completed as scheduled in October 2012. Construction is expected to start in May 2013 with completion in November 2015.

Introduction

NiSource, Inc. has announced that it will implement a long-term investment program to modernize its Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC ("Columbia") interstate gas transmission system by replacing aging infrastructure. The company estimates an investment of $4 billion over 10 to 15 years, beginning in 2012. Affected states include West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Maryland. One of the major drivers for the project's timetable is navigating the various federal, state and local regulations and permitting requirements.

Project Description

Columbia states that this will be a long-term program to modernize its gas transmission system and is designed to improve service reliability and pipeline safety, and should provide more flexibility for its customers. The company states modernization efforts are needed to address bare steel infrastructure in high consequence areas, and the fact that 76% of its control systems are running on obsolete platforms. Seventy percent of its pipeline is more than 40 years old.

A major component of the modernization activities would be the replacement of approximately 1,000 miles of large diameter pipeline in West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio. Domestic-made steel would be used for the new pipeline. NiSource estimates an investment of $4 billion over 10 to 15 years, beginning in 2012, and would create approximately 7,000 to 8,000 jobs.

External Factors

The modernization program will require approval from numerous entities at all levels of government, including the Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency as well as multiple state and local government entities. In addition to navigating the approval and permitting process, Columbia will have to inform and engage key stakeholders, including environmental groups, customers, community organizations and safety officials.

Regulatory Review and Coordination

Per Executive Order 13604, which calls for federal agencies to identify opportunities to streamline and improve regulations while involving the public in the process, DOT is coordinating with other government agencies to determine if opportunities exist to remove overlap and expedite the regulatory and approval processes without sacrificing safety or lowering industry standards. This dashboard will give the public the opportunity to view the collaborative process for the pipeline modernization project.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is an independent regulatory agency which, among other things, is responsible for reviewing proposals to build interstate natural gas pipeline facilities as well as liquefied natural gas terminals. As an independent regulatory agency, the Commission's decisions are not subject to review by the President or Congress. These natural gas facility siting responsibilities are guided by the Natural Gas Act (NGA) which states, in Section 15(b), that the Commission is the lead agency for the purpose of coordinating the necessary Federal authorizations and for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. The NGA also states that the Commission is responsible for establishing a schedule for the issuance of all necessary Federal authorizations. Such schedules take into account the statutory processing requirements of the necessary Federal authorizations.

The Commission attempts to act expeditiously on all infrastructure applications, generally in the order in which they are received, and thus is not in a position to select particular projects to be highlighted in a public forum, which might give the incorrect assumption that those projects have priority. However, in accordance with the Commission's regulations and after consultation with the relevant Federal permitting agencies, we will issue a notice disclosing the anticipated date for the issuance of our final NEPA document. This schedule will be issued only after an applicant has filed a formal application with the Commission and staff has determined that sufficient information exists to prepare the EA. The notice will be posted on the Commission's website and can then be posted and attributed to the Commission.

The Commission's environmental review process is transparent and well defined, and provides a number of resources to people that are interested in pending projects (http://www.ferc.gov/for-citizens/get-involved/how-get-inv.asp). Therefore, while the "schedule" may not be available for some time, anyone interested in following the progress of Columbia's Line MB Project at the Commission (Docket No. PF12-6) can easily do so using the Commission's eLibrary (http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/elibrary.asp) and eSubscription (http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/e

The Project would re-route passenger trains from the Point Defiance BNSF rail line that runs along the southern Puget Sound shoreline to an existing rail corridor (the proposed Project corridor) that runs along the west side of Interstate 5 (I-5) between Tacoma and Nisqually. The existing alignment (BNSF line), shared by freight and passenger rail traffic, is near capacity and is operationally constrained by the shoreline geography has physical and operational constraints. Outreach efforts to local communities have been extensive and many are part of the Projects Technical Advisory Group.

The Project is a key in providing more competitive intercity passenger rail service between Seattle, WA and Portland, OR, including: Increasing Amtrak Cascades round-trips from four to six by 2017 in order to meet projected service demands; reducing scheduling conflicts with freight trains that often result in delays, and by mitigating or avoiding operational delays (e.g., drawbridge openings) and weather-related delays (e.g., mudslides), and improving on-time performance from 68 percent to 88 percent; decreasing passenger train trip times by at least 10 minutes, and reducing conflicts with freight trains; and upgrading at-grade crossings safety with wayside horns, median barriers, advanced warning signals, and traffic signal improvement.

The Provo Westside Connector in Utah is a proposed highway project establishing a new arterial roadway between Provo Airport and Interstate 15 to improve roadway system linkage in southwest Provo, UT. By increasing coordination among federal and state agencies, permit review and approval can be expedited, saving six or more months. This time savings will be achieved through an agreed upon schedule for document reviews and establishing a process for dispute elevation and resolution.

The Southwest Light Rail Transitway (LRT) Project will greatly improve access to major employment centers and all area attractions for residents and commuters in greater Minneapolis by building new light rail service running between downtown Minneapolis and the southwestern suburbs out to Eden Prairie. The project, would be funded in part by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), adds over 15 miles of new track as well as several new stations and park-and-ride lots. The LRT line would improve accessibility and mobility by enhancing transit travel speeds. The project is projected to result in an average of 16 minutes of travel time savings compared to lower-cost bus improvements, which is attributable to the LRT line's diagonal route compared to the north-south/east-west roadway orientation and increasing levels of congestion in the corridor. The LRT line would link several major activity centers, including Target Field on the corridor's eastern end and the Eden Prairie Center Mall on the corridor's western end. Also, because the project would share track with the Central Corridor LRT line, it would provide a one-seat ride from Minneapolis' southwestern suburbs via downtown Minneapolis to the State Capitol complex and downtown St. Paul.

FTA is using the Federal Infrastructure Projects dashboard process and tools to engage other Federal partners earlier in the environmental process to streamline the interagency coordination by understanding expectations and requirements early. FTA, the Metropolitan Council, Minnesota Department of Transportation and Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority are also exploring using the NEPA/Clean Water Act Section 404 Merger process which is estimated to save many months of sequential review by aligning the processes to occur concurrently. FTA has given delegation authority for the Section 106 process to Minnesota Department of Transportation, Cultural Resources Unit to facilitate and coordinate the Section 106 process under federal guidelines.

Additional information is available on FTA's public website in the Capital Investment Project Profiles.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's University Circle-Little Italy Rapid Station project involves the relocation of an existing station at E 120th Street and construction of a new a rail transit station along with the rehabilitation of two transit track bridges at Mayfield Road. The project will integrate the station with the dense, high employment areas of Little Italy neighborhood and University Hospitals. The project replaces an obsolete station with a new, energy efficient building, while focusing on reusing existing community resources. The project is funded in part with a Department of Transportation $12.5 million TIGER grant.

FTA is working closely with the Greater Cleveland Transit Authority and implementing FTA's new internal environmental standard operating procedures to develop a streamlined and focused environmental assessment in line with the Council on Environmental Quality's Guidance on Improving Efficiency of NEPA Reviews. Using this new approach is expected to save weeks, if not months during the NEPA process through greater efficiencies in the process by focusing the NEPA review.