[Federal Register: September 21, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 183)]
[Notices]
[Page 55269-55270]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr21se06-99]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Highway Administration
[Docket No. FHWA-2006-25848]
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 invites public comments about our intention to
request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for a new
information collection, which is summarized below under SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION. We are required to publish this notice in the Federal
Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
DATES: Please submit comments by November 20, 2006.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by DOT DMS Docket Number
FHWA-2006-25848 by any of the following methods:
Web site: http://dms.dot.gov. Follow the instructions for
submitting comments on the DOT electronic docket site.
Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Nassif Building, Room PL-401,
Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery: Room PL-401 on the plaza level of the
Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time or to Room 401
on the plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW.,
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions concerning the
Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design National Status Survey, please
contact Gary Crawford, Office of Pavement Technology, HIPT-1, (202)
366-1286, Department of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW.,
Washington, DC 20590. Office hours are from 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 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. The Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) organized a Design Guide Implementation
Team (DGIT) to immediately begin the process of informing, educating,
and assisting the FHWA field offices, State Highway Agencies (DOTs),
Industry, and others about the new design guide. The 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 through design-build
efforts. 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
the structural response and 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 sheer 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 FHWA 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 U.S. in 21
States and around the globe in Canada, Europe, China, India, Mexico,
and Central and South America. The FHWA encourages States to evaluate
the utility that the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide 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, providing education, enhancement, and
implementation activities to the transportation community.
Guidelines and Administration
This Survey will be a continuation of a previous informal
assessment of State Practices in MEPDG Pavement Design
[[Page 55270]]
that was undertaken in 2004 by the AASHTO Lead States Group and will
provide a benchmark for future surveys to which later responses may be
assessed. The information will serve as a baseline measurement on the
national activities related to Mechanistic Pavement Design Procedures.
The information will be used by FHWA to develop a national program to
aid State DOTs in the implementation efforts and to guide research
efforts. The information has been requested by the AASHTO Lead States
Group in order to be better able to address areas of need. The
information will be used in order to disseminate information and to
avoid the duplication of implementation efforts. The information will
also be helpful to the AASHTO through the process of assessing the
procedure as an official national pavement design procedure.
Information concerning national activities in MEPDG will be very useful
in aiding this governing body in the balloting process. The information
will aid in guiding the direction of research and implementation
efforts by both the FHWA and State DOTs. The results of the survey will
be disseminated by the FHWA and the Lead States Group to interested
parties throughout the Nation. Stakeholders in the MEPDG will be able
to assess the adequacy of the implementation efforts over time. This
information will be collected under a contract through the Office of
Pavement Technology. The survey will be administered through electronic
media in order to reduce the burden of the responders.
Information Proposed for Collection
The information collected will asses the current state of pavement
design and capture current activities associated with the
implementation of mechanistic design procedures throughout the Nation.
This information can be categorized into four major areas.
1. Implementation Plan for Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design.
This information includes current status of pavement design and
implementation strategies included in the State DOT activities. This
includes information about the major areas of materials
characterization and traffic collection.
2. Calibration Plan for Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design. This
information details the SHA activities associated with calibration of
the mechanistic pavement design procedure. Calibration activities at
the State and regional level are of particular interest for guiding
research activities and avoiding duplication of efforts.
3. Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design: Methodology and
Partnering. This information includes the intended use of the
mechanistic pavement design procedure for other applications and the
possible use by other transportation agencies in a State. The
mechanistic pavement design procedure has the potential to be used in
coordination with innovative contracting techniques and other pavement
analysis and materials acceptance programs.
4. Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design: Training and
Communication. This is information outlining the training activities
anticipated or already conducted in relation to the mechanistic
pavement design procedure. The information also includes anticipated
costs associated with implementation activities.
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 plan on conducting the survey in the
first and third year of the approval time period. The estimated annual
burden is 35 hours.
Public Comments Invited: 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 burdens; (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.
The agency will summarize and/or include your comments in the request
for OMB's clearance of this information collection.
Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35, as amended; and 49 CFR 1.48.
Issued on: September 15, 2006.
James R. Kabel,
Chief, Management Programs and Analysis Division.
[FR Doc. 06-7931 Filed 9-20-06; 8:45 am]
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