For the first time in over a decade there is a long-term authorization of federal highway and transit programs in place following President Obama signing the five-year $302 billion Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act into law on December 4th. The FAST Act also addresses environmental streamlining and congestion mitigation and air quality – two issues of interest to environmental professionals in the construction industry.
Environmental Streamlining- Project Delivery
The Act retains the improvements in the environmental review and planning process to expedite project delivery made in MAP-21 and adds new reforms.
The Act makes numerous changes that allow more projects to be included as “Categorical Exclusions” (CE) which is a far quicker and less involved environmental review. The Act included multi-modal projects and rail projects as CEs and indexes to inflation the size of projects that can be covered by a CE.
The Act allows states that have opted to take responsibility for the Federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental review (California and Texas so far with several other applying) to use their own state environmental process as long as it’s as stringent as the NEPA process.
The U.S. Department of Transportation and other Federal lead agencies are given more authority to set schedules, deadlines and establish more coordination between agencies with review responsibilities. The Act also aligns environmental reviews for historic properties.
The Act allows for actions and reviews taken during the planning stage to be used to satisfy requirements during the environmental stage. Also limits the need to consider project alternatives during the environmental process if they have been considered during the planning process.
Regulatory requirements under NEPA and other federal regulations for the repair or reconstruction of a bridge, road, highway railway or transit facility damaged by an emergency can either be waived or expedited.
The Act also allows states to bundle similar bridge projects into one project and award as a single contract.
Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ)
The FAST Act makes several small changes to CMAQ. These changes include: expanding the diesel retrofit program to equipment and vehicles that are port-related; exempting low-population states from fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) attainment requirements in certain instances; and allow for the use of CMAQ funds to be used not only for attainment of ambient air quality standards but also to maintain standards in an attainment area.
For more information on the FAST Act and other concerns in the highway and transportation markets, please contact AGC’s Brian Deery at deeryb@agc.org.