Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 206 / Thursday, October 24, 2024 / Notices 85001 

were requested to provide this 

information on a voluntary basis. 

Estimated Total Annual Respondents: 

2,390. 

Estimated Annual Burden on 

Respondents: 28,680. 

Frequency: As Needed. 

Kusum Dhyani, 

Director, Office of Management Planning. 

[FR Doc. 2024–24584 Filed 10–23–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–57–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Transit Administration 

Notice of Intent To Prepare an 

Environmental Impact Statement for 

the Ballard Link Extension Project, 

King County, Washington 

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration 

(FTA), Department of Transportation 

(DOT). 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an 

environmental impact statement (EIS). 

SUMMARY: The Federal Transit 

Administration (FTA), as lead Federal 

agency, and the Central Puget Sound 

Regional Transit Authority (Sound 

Transit), as local project sponsor and 

joint lead agency, issue this notice to 

advise the public that they intend to 

prepare an environmental impact 

statement (EIS) pursuant to the National 

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for 

the Ballard Link Extension Project 

(Project) located in the City of Seattle, 

King County, Washington. 

DATES: Comments related to the NEPA 

review of this project must be received 

on or before December 9, 2024. FTA will 

consider comments received after that 

date to the extent practicable. FTA will 

consider all comments received during 

this NEPA scoping period and those 

previously submitted during the 

Washington State Environmental Policy 

Act (SEPA) scoping process. 

Commenters who previously provided 

SEPA scoping comments do not need to 

resubmit those same comments for 

consideration under NEPA, but may 

elect to do so. 

ADDRESSES: Comments on the scope of 

the EIS should be directed to: Lauren 

Swift, Central Corridor Environmental 

Manager, 401 South Jackson Street, 

Seattle, WA 98104, by email to: 

lauren.swift@soundtransit.org, or by 

phone at 206–398–5301. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

FTA: Erin Littauer, erin.littauer@

dot.gov, 206–220–7521. For Sound 

Transit: Lauren Swift, lauren.swift@

soundtransit.org, 206–398–5301. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Project would extend existing light rail 

service along a 7.7-mile corridor 

through downtown Seattle, from SODO 

to Ballard, and include a new 3.3-mile 

light rail-only tunnel from south of the 

Chinatown-International District to 

South Lake Union and Seattle Center/ 

Uptown. Stations would serve the 

following areas: ChinatownInternational District, Midtown, 

Westlake, Denny, South Lake Union, 

Seattle Center, Smith Cove, Interbay, 

and Ballard. FTA has created the 

following ‘‘Unique Identification 

Number’’ that will be included on all 

environmental documents for this 

project: EISX–021–36–R10–1728553542. 

FTA, as NEPA Federal lead agency, 

and Sound Transit, as joint lead agency 

for NEPA and lead agency under the 

Washington State Environmental Policy 

Act (SEPA), issued a Notice of Intent/ 

Scoping Notice in February 2019 and 

later published a combined NEPA/SEPA 

Draft EIS in January 2022 that evaluated 

both the West Seattle Link Extension 

and the Ballard Link Extension together 

as a single project: the West Seattle and 

Ballard Link Extensions Project 

(WSBLE). The extensions were 

evaluated together in the WSBLE Draft 

EIS because of their location, schedule, 

and review efficiencies for partner 

agencies. 

In July 2022, the Sound Transit Board 

directed Sound Transit staff to prepare 

further studies evaluating additional 

station options and other refinements 

for the Ballard Link Extension (BLE). 

Some of these project options and 

refinements required additional 

conceptual engineering and 

environmental review. Rather than 

delay completion of the environmental 

review process for the West Seattle Link 

Extension while additional review was 

conducted for BLE, Sound Transit and 

FTA decided to move forward under 

separate environmental reviews for each 

extension. As described in the WSBLE 

Draft EIS, the two extensions will 

operate as separate lines, and the 

extensions are stand-alone projects with 

independent utility. 

Because the environmental review 

processes are now separated for the two 

extensions, Sound Transit is preparing a 

SEPA Supplemental Draft EIS that 

evaluates the new station options and 

refinements for the BLE. FTA has 

determined that a new NEPA Draft EIS 

be prepared for the BLE, because it is 

now being evaluated independently 

from the West Seattle extension. The 

NEPA process requires that project 

scoping be repeated with a 30-day 

public comment period. Scoping for 

BLE has been extended with a 45-day 

public comment period. The scoping 

process and Draft EIS for the BLE will 

build on the analysis completed for the 

WSBLE Draft EIS. 

Comments made during the previous 

scoping process (February 19 through 

April 2, 2019) will be carried forward 

and considered, as will all of the 

relevant analysis of alternatives and 

environmental impacts included in the 

2022 Draft EIS. At the conclusion of the 

NEPA scoping process, FTA and Sound 

Transit anticipate issuing the Draft 

NEPA EIS and SEPA Supplemental 

Draft EIS, including the new 

information and analysis. 

FTA has determined that the project 

will not be evaluated as a major project 

as defined in 23 U.S.C. 139(a)(7). 

I. Purpose and Need for the Project 

The purpose of the project is to 

expand the Sound Transit Link light rail 

system from SODO to Ballard, to make 

appropriate community investments to 

improve mobility, and to increase 

capacity and connectivity for regional 

connections in order to achieve the 

following: 

• Provide rapid, reliable, and efficient 

light rail transit service to communities 

in the project corridor as defined 

through the local planning process and 

reflected in the regional transit system 

plan, Sound Transit 3 Plan (https://

www.soundtransit.org/get-to-know-us/ 

documents-reports/sound-transit-3). 

• Improve regional mobility by 

increasing connectivity and capacity 

through Downtown Seattle to meet the 

projected transit demand. 

• Connect regional centers as 

described in adopted regional and local 

land use, transportation, and economic 

development plans and Sound Transit’s 

Regional Transit Long-Range Plan 

(https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/ 

default/files/documents/2015123_

lrpupdate.pdf). 

• Implement a system that is 

technically and financially feasible to 

build, operate, and maintain. 

• Expand mobility for the corridor 

and the region’s residents, which 

include transit-dependent residents, 

low-income people, and communities of 

color. 

• Encourage equitable and 

sustainable urban growth in station 

areas through support of transit-oriented 

development and multi-modal 

integration in a manner that is 

consistent with local land use plans and 

policies, including Sound Transit’s 

Equitable Transit-Oriented Development 

Policy (https://www.soundtransit.org/ 

system-expansion/creating-vibrantstations/transit-oriented-development) 

and Sustainability Plan (https:// 


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www.soundtransit.org/get-to-know-us/ 

documents-reports/2019-sustainabilityplan). 

• Encourage convenient and safe nonmotorized access to stations, such as 

bicycle and pedestrian connections, 

consistent with Sound Transit’s System 

Access Policy (https://www.sound

transit.org/system-expansion/creatingvibrant-stations/connecting-to-stations). 

• Preserve and promote a healthy 

environment and economy by 

minimizing adverse impacts on the 

natural, built, and social environments 

through sustainable practices. 

The need for the project is as follows: 

• When measured using national 

standards, existing transit routes 

between SODO and Ballard currently 

operate with poor reliability. Roadway 

congestion in the project corridor will 

continue to degrade transit performance 

and reliability as the city is expected to 

add approximately 287,000 people and 

approximately 214,000 jobs between 

2018 and 2050 (Puget Sound Regional 

Council 2023). 

• Increased ridership from regional 

population and employment growth 

will increase operational frequency in 

the existing Downtown Seattle Transit 

Tunnel, requiring additional tunnel 

capacity. 

• Puget Sound Regional Council (the 

regional metropolitan planning 

organization) and local plans call for 

high-capacity transit in the corridor 

consistent with VISION 2050 (https://

www.psrc.org/planning-2050/vision2050) and the Regional Transit LongRange Plan (https://www.sound

transit.org/sites/default/files/ 

documents/2015123_lrpupdate.pdf). 

• The region’s residents and 

communities, including transitdependent people, low-income people, 

and communities of color, need longterm regional mobility and multi-modal 

connectivity as called for in the 

Washington State Growth Management 

Act (Revised Code of Washington 

36.70A.108). 

• Regional and local plans call for 

increased residential and/or 

employment density at and around 

high-capacity transit stations, and 

increased options for multi-modal 

access. VISION 2050 has a goal for 65 

percent of the region’s population and 

75 percent of the region’s employment 

to occur in regional growth centers and 

within walking distance of transit. 

• Environmental and sustainability 

goals of the State and region, as 

established in Washington State law and 

embodied in Puget Sound Regional 

Council’s VISION 2050 (2020) and 

2022–2050 Regional Transportation 

Plan (2022), include reducing 

greenhouse gas emissions by prioritizing 

transportation investments that decrease 

vehicle miles traveled. 

II. Description of Proposed Action and 

Alternatives 

Each light rail extension build 

alternative is approximately 7.7 miles 

long and includes up to nine stations 

that serve the following areas: 

Chinatown-International District, 

Midtown, Westlake, Denny, South Lake 

Union, Seattle Center, Smith Cove, 

Interbay, and Ballard. FTA and Sound 

Transit may also examine several design 

options and potential minimal operable 

segments for the proposed alternatives. 

Information about the proposed project, 

the alternatives development process, 

scoping, and the EIS process are 

available on the project website: https:// 

www.soundtransit.org/systemexpansion/ballard-link-extension, by 

contacting the project sponsor at 

ballardlink@soundtransit.org, or the 

project phone line at (206) 903–7223. 

For purposes of this notice, the 

proposed build alternatives can be 

generally described as follows: 

A new downtown tunnel would begin 

in the vicinity of the Stadium station in 

SODO, head north with alignments 

between 4th Avenue S and 6th Avenue 

S through the Chinatown-International 

District, then travel northwest below 4th 

Avenue, 5th Avenue or 6th Avenue 

through Midtown and Westlake. The 

alternatives would continue in a tunnel 

configuration along Westlake Avenue N 

to South Lake Union with a station near 

Denny Way before turning northwest 

with a station near Aurora Avenue N 

between Harrison and Roy streets. The 

alternatives would continue in a tunnel 

towards Seattle Center with a station on 

either Republican or Mercer Streets. The 

alternatives then turn north and begin to 

transition to elevated or retained cut 

configurations to serve a Smith Cove 

station along Elliott Avenue W. From 

the Smith Cove station, the alternatives 

either continue in an elevated 

configuration along 15th Avenue W or 

transition to a retained cut along the 

east side of the Burlington Northern 

Santa Fe (BNSF) railway tracks to an 

elevated or retained cut station in 

Interbay near W Dravus Street. From the 

Interbay station, alternatives transition 

to the east of 15th Avenue W and cross 

Salmon Bay in a tunnel or on a highlevel fixed bridge. One alternative 

would continue in an elevated 

alignment along 15th Avenue W and 

cross Salmon Bay on the west side of 

15th Avenue W on a movable bridge. 

Station options in Ballard include 

elevated and tunnel stations near NW 

Market Street on 15th Avenue NW or 

14th Avenue NW. 

The build alternatives could also 

include transit-related roadway, bicycle, 

maritime, and pedestrian projects by 

Sound Transit or others. These 

improvements may be eligible for 

Federal funding and could be part of the 

transit project or constructed together 

with it as part of a joint effort with 

agency partners, thereby meriting joint 

environmental analysis. This could 

include access improvements around 

station areas and over waterway 

crossings. Sound Transit would identify 

these improvements and could include 

them as part of the project as it works 

with partner agencies. 

III. Summary of Expected Impacts 

Consistent with NEPA, FTA and 

Sound Transit will evaluate, with input 

from the public, Tribes, and agencies, 

the potential impacts of the alternatives 

on the natural, built, and social 

environments. Likely areas of 

investigation include, transportation 

(including navigable waterways), land 

use and consistency with applicable 

plans, land acquisition and 

displacements, socioeconomics, park 

and recreation resources, historic and 

cultural resources, environmental 

justice, visual and aesthetic qualities, air 

quality, noise and vibration, energy use, 

safety and security, and ecosystems, 

including threatened and endangered 

species and marine mammals. The EIS 

will evaluate short-term construction 

impacts and long-term operational 

impacts. It will also consider indirect 

and cumulative impacts. The EIS will 

also propose measures to avoid, 

minimize, or mitigate significant 

adverse impacts. 

FTA and Sound Transit will comply 

with all Federal environmental laws, 

regulations, and executive orders 

applicable to the proposed project 

during the environmental review 

process. 

IV. Anticipated Federal Permits and 

Other Authorizations 

Federal Transit Administration 

NEPA Final Environmental Impact 

Statement and Record of Decision 

National Historic Preservation Act 

Section 106 Review 

United States Department of 

Transportation Act of 1966, Section 

4(f) 

Land and Water Conservation Fund Act 

of 1965, Section 6(f) (if needed) 

Federal Emergency Management Agency 

Conditional Letter of Map Revision (if 

needed) 


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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 206 / Thursday, October 24, 2024 / Notices 85003 

Letter of Map Revision (if needed) 

United States Army Corps of Engineers 

Clean Water Act, Section 404 (if needed) 

(including WA Department of Ecology 

Water Quality Certification: Clean 

Water Act Section 401) 

Rivers and Harbors Act, Section 10 (if 

needed) 

United States Code Title 33 Section 408 

Review (if needed) 

United States Coast Guard 

United States Coast Guard Bridge Permit 

(if needed) 

United States Fish and Wildlife Service 

Federal Endangered Species Review 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration Fisheries Service 

Federal Endangered Species Review 

Essential Fish Habitat Review 

Marine Mammal Take Incidental 

Harassment Authorization (if needed) 

United States Department of the Interior 

National Historic Preservation Act 

Section 106 Review 

United States Department of 

Transportation Act of 1966, Section 

4(f) 

V. Schedule for the Decision-Making 

Process 

Below is a tentative schedule for the 

decision-making process, including 

environmental review milestones: 

Draft EIS publication: April 2025. 

Confirmation or modification of the 

Preferred Alternative: July 2025. 

Final EIS publication: May 2026. 

Record of Decision: October 2026. 

As noted in the tentative schedule, 

the Agencies intend to complete the EIS 

for the Project within two years, 

measured from the date of the 

publication of this notice to the date the 

record of decision (ROD) is signed. The 

Agencies will accept public comments 

on the scope of the EIS (i.e., the 

information presented in this notice and 

at https://www.soundtransit.org/systemexpansion/ballard-link-extension) until 

December 9, 2024. The Agencies will 

then consider those comments as they 

prepare the Draft EIS. The Agencies will 

announce the availability of the Draft 

EIS in the Federal Register and via local 

media outlets. Sound Transit expects 

the Draft EIS will be available for a 

minimum of 45 days for the public 

comment period in Spring 2025. The 

Draft EIS will be distributed and 

available for public and agency review 

and comment prior to a public hearing. 

The Agencies will consider substantive 

comments timely submitted during the 

public comment period and comments 

previously submitted for WSBLE and 

then anticipate preparing a Final EIS in 

Spring 2026 and ROD in Fall 2026. The 

Final EIS will identify a preferred 

alternative and any necessary mitigation 

commitments. The Agencies expect that 

all Federal environmental authorization 

decisions for the construction of the 

Project will be completed within a 

reasonable period following issuance of 

the ROD. 

Notices of public meetings, including 

hearings, have been, and will continue 

to be, given through a variety of media 

providing the time and place of the 

meeting along with other relevant 

information. Meeting date, time, and 

location information can be found on 

the Project website at https://

www.soundtransit.org/systemexpansion/ballard-link-extension. 

Public meeting locations will comply 

with the Americans with Disabilities 

Act. People requesting special 

accommodations should contact Sound 

Transit via email at ballardlink@

soundtransit.org. 

Susan K. Fletcher, 

Regional Administrator, FTA Region 10. 

[FR Doc. 2024–24585 Filed 10–23–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–57–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Maritime Administration 

[Docket No. MARAD–2024–0140] 

Coastwise Endorsement Eligibility 

Determination for a Foreign-Built 

Vessel: Mrs. Chippy (Sail); Invitation 

for Public Comments 

AGENCY: Maritime Administration, DOT. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Secretary of 

Transportation, as represented by the 

Maritime Administration (MARAD), is 

authorized to issue coastwise 

endorsement eligibility determinations 

for foreign-built vessels which will carry 

no more than twelve passengers for hire. 

A request for such a determination has 

been received by MARAD. By this 

notice, MARAD seeks comments from 

interested parties as to any effect this 

action may have on U.S. vessel builders 

or businesses in the U.S. that use U.S.- 

flag vessels. Information about the 

requestor’s vessel, including a brief 

description of the proposed service, is 

listed below. 

DATES: Submit comments on or before 

November 25, 2024. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

identified by DOT Docket Number 

MARAD–2024–0140 by any one of the 

following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov. Search 

MARAD–2024–0140 and follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Mail or Hand Delivery: Docket 

Management Facility is in the West 

Building, Ground Floor of the U.S. 

Department of Transportation. The 

Docket Management Facility location 

address is U.S. Department of 

Transportation, MARAD–2024–0140, 

1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West 

Building, Room W12–140, Washington, 

DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., 

Monday through Friday, except on 

Federal holidays. 

Note: If you mail or hand-deliver your 

comments, we recommend that you include 

your name and a mailing address, an email 

address, or a telephone number in the body 

of your document so that we can contact you 

if we have questions regarding your 

submission. 

Instructions: All submissions received 

must include the agency name and 

specific docket number. All comments 

received will be posted without change 

to the docket at www.regulations.gov, 

including any personal information 

provided. For detailed instructions on 

submitting comments, or to submit 

comments that are confidential in 

nature, see the section entitled Public 

Participation. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Patricia Hagerty, U.S. Department of 

Transportation, Maritime 

Administration, 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue SE, Room W23–461, 

Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: 

(202) 366–0903. Email: 

patricia.hagerty@dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: As 

described in the application, the 

intended service of the vessel Mrs. 

Chippy is: 

Intended Commercial Use of Vessel: 

Requester intends to offer passenger 

tours. 

Geographic Region Including Base of 

Operations: Nevada, California. Base of 

Operations: Lake Tahoe, Nevada. 

Vessel Length and Type: 49.2′ 

Sailboat. 

The complete application is available 

for review identified in the DOT docket 

as MARAD 2024–0140 at https://

www.regulations.gov. Interested parties 

may comment on the effect this action 

may have on U.S. vessel builders or 

businesses in the U.S. that use U.S.-flag 

vessels. If MARAD determines, in 

accordance with 46 U.S.C. 12121 and 

MARAD’s regulations at 46 CFR part 

388, that the employment of the vessel 

in the coastwise trade to carry no more 


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