[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 117 (Wednesday, June 18, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 36625]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-15399]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Railroad Administration
Petition for Waiver of Compliance
In accordance with part 211 of Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations
(CFR), notice is hereby given that the Federal Railroad Administration
(FRA) received a request for a waiver of compliance with certain
requirements of its safety standards. The individual petition is
described below, including the party seeking relief, the regulatory
provisions involved, the nature of the relief being requested, and the
petitioner's arguments in favor of relief.
Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad
[Docket Number FRA-2003-14986]
Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad (DM&E) seeks a waiver of
compliance from the provisions of the Track Safety Standards, 49 CFR
213.113(a), regarding defective rails.
The DM&E is petitioning for a waiver which would provide relief
from replacing rails that contain bolt hole/rail crack-outs that
emanate from the edge of the rail to the bolt hole `one' location of
various rail joint locations.
The petitioner states that rails with bolt-hole/rail crack-outs up
to 6'' maximum from the end of the rail to the bolt hole `one' location
can be allowed to remain in service as the broken-out piece of rail
remains tightly held by the joint bars and thus poses less danger of
breaking loose. The petitioner proposes to institute a 10 MPH slow
order at these locations as well as schedule daily visual inspections
in lieu of constant visual inspection of each operation over that
defect (for up to no more than 30 days for any instance) by qualified
personnel as per 49 CFR 213.7. If the cracks grow greater than 6'' from
the edge of rail or the rail section becomes loose, priority will be
given to that location for an immediate rail replacement. The
petitioner feels that this will enable the DM&E to more efficiently
utilize its limited resources.
Interested parties are invited to participate in these proceedings
by submitting written views, data, or comments. FRA does not anticipate
scheduling a public hearing in connection with these proceedings since
the facts do not appear to warrant a hearing. If any interested party
desires an opportunity for oral comment, they should notify FRA in
writing before the end of the comment period and specify the basis for
their request.
All communication concerning these proceedings should identify the
appropriate docket number (e.g., Waiver Petition Docket Number 2003-
14986) and must be submitted to the Docket Clerk, DOT Docket Management
Facility, Room PL-401 (Plaza Level), 400 7th Street, SW., Washington,
DC 20590. Communications received within 45 days of the date of this
notice will be considered by FRA before final action is taken. Comments
received after that date will be considered as far as practicable. All
written communications concerning these proceedings are available for
examination during regular business hours (9 a.m.-5 p.m.) at the above
facility. All documents in the public docket are also available for
inspection and copying on the Internet at the docket facility's Web
site at http://dms.dot.gov.
FRA wishes to inform all potential commenters that anyone is able
to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our
dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or
signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association,
business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act
Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (volume
65, number 70; pages 19477-78), or you may visit http://dms.dot.gov.
Issued in Washington, DC on June 11, 2003.
Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,
Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program
Development.
[FR Doc. 03-15399 Filed 6-17-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P