Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 183 / Thursday, September 21, 2006 / Notices 55269 

Issued on: September 15, 2006. 

James R. Kabel, 

Chief, Management Programs and Analysis 

Division. 

[FR Doc. 06–7832 Filed 9–20–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–22–P 

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. 

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 useroriented 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 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
55270 Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 183 / Thursday, September 21, 2006 / Notices 

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] 

BILLING CODE 4910–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials 

Safety Administration 

Office of Hazardous Materials Safety, 

Notice of Application for Special 

Permits 

AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous 

Materials Safety Administration, DOT. 

ACTION: List of Applications for Special 

Permits. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

procedures governing the application 

for, and the processing of, special 

permits from the Department of 

Transportation’s Hazardous Material 

Regulations (49 CFR Part 107, Subpart 

B), notice is hereby given that the Office 

of Hazardous Materials Safety has 

received the application described 

herein. Each mode of transportation for 

which a particular special permit is 

requested is indicated by a number in 

the ‘‘Nature of Application’’ portion of 

the table below as follow: 1—Motor 

vehicle, 2—Rail freight, 3—Cargo vessel, 

4—Cargo aircraft only, 5—Passengercarrying aircraft. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before October 23, 2006. 

ADDRESS COMMENTS TO: Record Center, 

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety 

Administration, U.S. Department of 

Transportation, Washington, DC 20590. 

Comments should refer to the 

application number and be submitted in 

triplicate. If Confirmation of receipt of 

comments if desired, include a selfaddressed stamped postcard showing 

the special permit number. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Copies of the applications are available 

for inspection in the Records Center, 

Nassif Building, 400 7th Street SW., 

Washington DC or at http://dms.dot.gov. 

This notice of receipt of applications 

for special permit is published in 

accordance with Part 107 of the Federal 

hazardous materials transportation law 

(49 U.S.C. 5117(b); 49 CFR 1.53(b)). 

Issued in Washington, DC, on September 

15, 2006. 

R. Ryan Posten, 

Chief, Special Permits Program, Office of 

Hazardous Materials, Special Permits & 

Approvals. 


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