73184 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 174 / Monday, September 9, 2024 / Notices 

alternative under 23 CFR 650.113 and 

650.115. 

E.O. 12898, Federal Actions to Address 

Environmental Justice in Minority 

Populations and Low-Income 

Populations 

E.O. 13112, Invasive Species, as 

amended by E.O. 13751, Safeguarding 

the Nation from the Impacts of 

Invasive Species 

E.O. 13985, Advancing Racial Equity 

and Support for Underserved 

Communities Through the Federal 

Government 

E.O. 13990, Protecting Public Health 

and the Environment and Restoring 

Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis 

E.O. 14008, Tackling the Climate 

Change Crisis at Home and Abroad 

E.O. 14096, Revitalizing Our Nation’s 

Commitment to Environmental Justice 

for All 

Other Executive Orders not listed, but 

related to railroad projects 

The proposed MOU would allow the 

State to act in the place of FRA in 

carrying out the environmental reviewrelated functions described above, 

except with respect to Government-toGovernment consultations with 

federally recognized Indian Tribes. The 

State would continue to handle routine 

consultations with the Tribes and 

understands that a Tribe has the right to 

direct consultation with FRA upon 

request. The State may assist FRA with 

Government-to-Government 

consultations, with consent of a Tribe, 

but FRA remains responsible for the 

consultation. 

In addition, the State would not 

assume FRA’s responsibilities for 

conformity determinations required 

under section 176 of the CAA (42 U.S.C. 

7506), or any responsibility under 23 

U.S.C. 134 or 135, or under 49 U.S.C. 

5303 or 5304. 

FRA will consider the comments 

submitted on the State’s application and 

the proposed MOU. A copy of the 

application package and proposed MOU 

may be viewed on the docket (FRA– 

2024–0096) at www.regulations.gov. A 

copy also may be viewed on ODOT’s 

website at: https://

www.transportation.ohio.gov/programs/ 

nepa-odot/nepa-assignmentdocumentation. Any final MOU 

approved by FRA may include changes 

based on comments and consultations 

relating to the proposed MOU and will 

be made publicly available. 

Authority: 23 U.S.C. 327; 42 U.S.C. 

4331, 4332; 23 CFR part 773; 40 CFR 

1507.3; and 49 CFR 264.101. 

Marlys Osterhues, 

Director, Office of Environmental Program 

Management, Office of Railroad 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2024–20247 Filed 9–6–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–06–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Transit Administration 

Limitation on Claims Against Proposed 

Public Transportation Project— 

Operations and Maintenance Facility 

South, Federal Way, King County, 

Washington 

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration 

(FTA), Department of Transportation 

(DOT). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces final 

environmental actions taken by the 

Federal Transit Administration (FTA) 

regarding the Operations and 

Maintenance Facility South, Federal 

Way, King County, Washington. The 

purpose of this notice is to publicly 

announce FTA’s environmental 

decisions on the subject project, and to 

activate the limitation on any claims 

that may challenge these final 

environmental actions. 

DATES: A claim seeking judicial review 

of FTA actions announced herein for the 

listed public transportation project will 

be barred unless the claim is filed on or 

before February 6, 2025. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Kathryn Loster, Assistant Chief Counsel, 

Office of Chief Counsel, (312) 705–1269, 

or Saadat Khan, Environmental 

Protection Specialist, Office of 

Environmental Programs, (202) 366– 

9647. FTA is located at 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. 

Office hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 

p.m., Monday through Friday, except 

Federal holidays. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is 

hereby given that FTA has taken final 

agency actions subject to 23 U.S.C. 

139(l) by issuing certain approvals for 

the public transportation project listed 

below. The actions on the project, as 

well as the laws under which such 

actions were taken, are described in the 

documentation issued in connection 

with the project to comply with the 

National Environmental Policy Act 

(NEPA) and in other documents in the 

FTA environmental project files for the 

project. Interested parties may contact 

either the project sponsor or the relevant 

FTA Regional Office for more 

information. Contact information for 

FTA’s Regional Offices may be found at 

https://www.transit.dot.gov/about/ 

regional-offices/regional-offices. 

This notice applies to all FTA 

decisions on the listed project as of the 

issuance date of this notice and all laws 

under which such actions were taken, 

including, but not limited to, NEPA (42 

U.S.C. 4321–4375), Section 4(f) 

requirements (49 U.S.C. 303), Section 

106 of the National Historic 

Preservation Act (54 U.S.C. 306108), 

Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 

1531), Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries 

Conservation and Management Act (16 

U.S.C. 1801), Migratory Bird Treaty Act 

(16 U.S.C. 703–712), Clean Water Act 

(33 U.S.C. 1251), the Uniform 

Relocation and Real Property 

Acquisition Policies Act (42 U.S.C. 

4601), Coastal Zone Management Act 

(16 U.S.C. 1451–1462) and the Clean Air 

Act (42 U.S.C. 7401–7671q). This notice 

does not, however, alter or extend the 

limitation period for challenges of 

project decisions subject to previous 

notices published in the Federal 

Register. The project modifications and 

actions that are the subject of this notice 

follow: 

Project name and location: Operations 

and Maintenance Facility South 

(Project), Federal Way, King County, 

Washington. 

Project sponsor: Central Puget Sound 

Regional Transit Authority (Sound 

Transit), Seattle, King County, 

Washington. 

Project description: The Project would 

construct and operate a light rail 

operations and maintenance facility 

(OMF) in its South Corridor. The OMF 

would be constructed on 66 acres and 

provide capacity to receive, test, 

commission, store, maintain, and 

deploy an expanded fleet of light rail 

vehicles (LRVs) to support the Link light 

rail system expansion goal as part of 

Sound Transit 3: The Regional Transit 

System Plan for Central Puget Sound 

(Sound Transit 3). The facility will 

include the OMF building, Maintenance 

of Way (MOW) building, the Link 

System-Wide Storage building, OMF 

tracks that provide staging for LRVs, 

parking (480 spaces), training tracks, 

and yard areas. The Project also 

involves construction of new mainline 

track (1.4 miles), a 0.9-mile test track 

running parallel to the mainline tracks, 

and a tail track connecting the facility 

to the light rail system. 

Final agency actions: Section 106 no 

adverse effect determination, dated 

October 31, 2023; Section 4(f) de 

minimis impact determination, dated 

October 31, 2023; and Operations and 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 174 / Monday, September 9, 2024 / Notices 73185 

Maintenance Facility South Record of 

Decision (ROD), dated August 7, 2024. 

Supporting documentation: 

Operations and Maintenance Facility 

South Project Final Environmental 

Impact Statement (FEIS), dated June 7, 

2024, and Operations and Maintenance 

Facility South Project Draft 

Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) 

dated September 22, 2023. The ROD, 

FEIS, DEIS and associated documents 

can be viewed and downloaded from: 

https://www.soundtransit.org/systemexpansion/operations-maintenancefacility-south. 

Authority: 23 U.S.C. 139(l)(1). 

Megan Blum, 

Deputy Associate Administrator for Planning 

and Environment. 

[FR Doc. 2024–20190 Filed 9–6–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–57–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Transit Administration 

[Docket No. FTA–2024–0009] 

Notice of Proposed Buy America 

Waiver and Request for Comment 

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, 

Department of Transportation. 

ACTION: Notice; request for comment. 

SUMMARY: The Federal Transit 

Administration (FTA) received a request 

from the Detroit Transportation 

Corporation (DTC) for a Buy America 

nonavailability waiver for the 

procurement of special trackwork 

turnout switch components needed to 

keep the DTC’s Elevated Guideway in a 

state of good repair. FTA is providing 

notice of the nonavailability waiver 

request and seeks public comment 

before deciding whether to grant the 

request. If granted, the waiver would 

apply for the switch components 

identified in the waiver request. 

DATES: Comments must be received by 

September 24, 2024. Late-filed 

comments will be considered to the 

extent practicable. 

ADDRESSES: Please submit all comments 

electronically to the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal. Go to https://

www.regulations.gov and follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

Instructions: All submissions must 

refer to the Federal Transit 

Administration and the docket number 

of this notice. Note that all submissions 

received, including any personal 

information provided, will be posted 

without change and will be available to 

the public on https://

www.regulations.gov. You may review 

DOT’s complete Privacy Act Statement 

in the Federal Register published April 

11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), or at https://

www.transportation.gov/privacy. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Jason Luebbers, FTA Attorney-Advisor, 

at (202) 366–8864 or Jason.Luebbers@

dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

purpose of this notice is to seek public 

comment on whether the FTA should 

grant a nonavailability waiver for the 

Detroit Transportation Corporation 

(DTC) for the procurement of 

replacement special trackwork turnout 

switch components (the ‘‘switch’’). 

Background 

With certain exceptions, FTA’s Buy 

America requirements prevent FTA 

from obligating an amount that may be 

appropriated to carry out its program for 

a project unless ‘‘the steel, iron, and 

manufactured goods used in the project 

are produced in the United States.’’ 49 

U.S.C. 5323(j)(1). A manufactured 

product is considered produced in the 

United States if: (1) all of the 

manufacturing processes for the product 

take place in the United States; and (2) 

all of the components of the product are 

of U.S. origin. A component is 

considered of U.S. origin if it is 

manufactured in the United States, 

regardless of the origin of its 

subcomponents. 49 CFR 661.5(d). 

FTA may waive Buy America 

requirements for a product if, among 

other reasons, a compliant version of the 

product is not produced in a sufficient 

and reasonably available amount or is 

not of a satisfactory quality. 49 U.S.C. 

5323(j)(2)(B). FTA cannot deny a request 

for a nonavailability waiver unless it 

can provide the waiver applicant with a 

written certification that: the item is 

produced in the United States in a 

sufficient and reasonably available 

amount; the item produced in the 

United States is of a satisfactory quality; 

and includes a list of known 

manufacturers in the United States from 

which the item can be obtained. 49 

U.S.C. 5323(j)(6). 

DTC is the owner and operator of the 

Detroit People Mover, which is the 

largest municipal rail system in 

Michigan. It is an automated light rail 

system that operates twelve rail cars on 

an elevated single track in a 2.9-mile 

loop with thirteen passenger stations in 

Detroit’s central business district. 

The existing switches were installed 

as original equipment in 1987 and 

designed to European standards, using 

AREMA 115RE rail throughout the 

turnout with a special EN60E1A1 

switch point section. The proper 

operation of the switch is essential for 

the continued, safe operations of DTC 

vehicles. DTC seeks a waiver for the 

switch because there are no known 

domestic manufacturers of the switch. 

DTC previously sought and received a 

Buy America waiver from FTA for two 

replacement switches from Delta 

Railroad Construction, Inc. (Delta), on 

April 19, 2016 (81 FR 23077). 

On January 19, 2023, DTC issued a 

request for proposals (RFP) (No. 1–19– 

2023, for DTC Sub-Package 7), which 

includes the special track switch 

described above, and received two 

responses. Both bidders certified that 

the switches they could provide would 

not comply with the FTA Buy America 

requirements. Following the RFP, DTC 

submitted a nonavailability waiver 

request to FTA for the noncompliant 

switch components. 49 U.S.C. 5323(j)(2) 

and 49 CFR 661.7(c)(2). 

The product that requires a waiver is 

one pair of EN60E1A1 switch point rails 

and all appurtenances associated with 

its installation; four transition head 

machined rails for connection to frog 

and turnout rails; and one set of switch 

point rods consisting of two drive rods 

and two detector rods. FTA estimates 

the total cost of goods subject to this 

proposed waiver is less than $300,000. 

Proposed Waiver 

FTA proposes waiving the Buy 

America requirement for the special 

trackwork switches DTC seeks to 

procure under Sub-Package 7. The 

proposed waiver would apply only to 

the switch described above that is 

procured after a notice of final waiver is 

published. The waiver would not apply 

to any other products or any other 

projects besides Sub-Package 7. The 

proposed waiver would be effective 

from the effective date of the final 

waiver through the period of 

performance and closeout of FTA’s 

financial assistance for the project, 

which is estimated to be March 30, 

2030. 

Request for Comment 

This notice satisfies FTA’s 

requirement to publish any proposed 

Buy America waiver in the Federal 

Register and provide the public with a 

reasonable period of time for notice and 

comment. 49 U.S.C. 5323(j)(3) and 

section 70937(b)(1) of the Build 

America, Buy America Act (Pub. L. 117– 

58). 

FTA seeks public and industry 

comment from all interested parties. In 

particular, FTA seeks comment 

regarding whether the waiver should be 

approved, and, if so, whether it should 

be modified from FTA’s proposal and 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1