Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 211 / Thursday, October 31, 2024 / Notices 86905 

1Under 23 U.S.C. 313, FHWA has a Buy America 

requirement for manufactured products; however, 

FHWA has a standing waiver under 23 U.S.C. 

313(b), known as the Manufactured Products 

General Waiver, which covers manufactured 

products that are not predominantly steel and iron. 

See 48 FR 53099 (Nov. 25, 1983). 

2While the Build America, Buy America Act 

(BABA), included in the Infrastructure Investment 

and Jobs Act (also known as the ‘‘Bipartisan 

Infrastructure Law’’ (BIL)) (Pub. L. 117–58), sets out 

Buy America preferences for steel, iron, 

manufactured products, and construction materials, 

these preferences only apply to the extent that a 

domestic content procurement preference, as 

described in section 70914 of BABA, does not 

already apply to iron, steel, manufactured products, 

and construction materials. BIL section 70917(a)– 

(b). As FHWA has existing domestic content 

preferences for steel, iron, and manufactured 

products at 23 U.S.C. 313, the requirements under 

23 U.S.C. 313 apply to steel, iron, and 

manufactured products instead of the requirements 

under BABA. As FHWA’s existing Buy America 

requirement does not specifically cover 

construction materials, the Buy America preference 

under section 70914 of BABA applies for 

construction materials. 

3https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/ 

contracts/waivers.cfm?id=175. 

Dated: October 28, 2024. 

Melanie Farrell, 

Vice President, Valley Engagement & Strategy, 

Tennessee Valley Authority. 

[FR Doc. 2024–25357 Filed 10–30–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8120–08–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Highway Administration 

Buy America Waiver Notification 

AGENCY: Federal Highway 

Administration (FHWA), U.S. 

Department of Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice supersedes a 

previously published notice on this 

topic. This notice provides information 

regarding FHWA’s finding that it is 

appropriate to grant a non-availability 

Buy America waiver to the Utah 

Department of Transportation (UDOT) 

for procurement and installation of 16 

suspended explosive charge remote 

avalanche control systems (RACS), 

which contain non-domestic iron and 

steel components, along Mount Superior 

overlooking SR–210 in Little 

Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. The waiver 

relates specifically to iron and steel 

components that are part of the tower, 

deployment box, and charges of the 

RACS. 

DATES: The effective date of the waiver 

is October 23, 2024. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

questions about this notice, please 

contact Mr. Brian Hogge, FHWA Office 

of Infrastructure, (202) 366–1562, or via 

email at Brian.Hogge@dot.gov. For legal 

questions, please contact Mr. David 

Serody, FHWA Office of the Chief 

Counsel, (202) 366–1345, or via email at 

David.Serody@dot.gov. Office hours for 

FHWA are from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 

E.T., Monday through Friday, except 

Federal holidays. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Electronic Access 

An electronic copy of this document 

may be downloaded from the Federal 

Register’s home page at: 

www.FederalRegister.gov and the U.S. 

Government Publishing Office’s 

database at: www.GovInfo.gov. 

Background 

The FHWA’s Buy America 

requirements for steel and iron are set 

forth at 23 U.S.C. 313 and 23 CFR 

635.410 and require that all steel and 

iron that are permanently incorporated 

into a Federal-aid project must be 

produced in the United States unless a 

waiver is granted, including 

predominantly steel and iron 

components of a manufactured 

product.1 Under these requirements, all 

manufacturing processes, including the 

application of a coating, must occur in 

the United States.2

Under 23 U.S.C. 313(b)(2) and 23 CFR 

635.410(c)(1)(ii), FHWA may waive the 

application of its Buy America 

requirement for steel and iron when 

products are not produced in the United 

States in sufficient and reasonably 

available quantities of a satisfactory 

quality. This notice provides 

information regarding FHWA’s finding 

that it is appropriate to grant UDOT a 

non-availability Buy America waiver for 

procurement of 16 suspended explosive 

charge RACS, which include nondomestic iron and steel components, for 

installation along Mount Superior 

overlooking SR–210 in Little 

Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. For each of 

the 16 RACS, this waiver will cover 

only: (i) the tower; (ii) the deployment 

box; and (iii) the charges (collectively 

‘‘waiver items’’). This waiver does not 

apply to the reinforced foundation of 

the RACS, which consists of anchor kits 

and a base plate; such foundation must 

be domestically sourced and compliant 

with FHWA’s Buy America 

requirements. This notice supersedes 

the notice previously published on 

October 22, 2024, at 89 FR 84435. 

Background on the Project: In 2020, 

the U.S. Army asked all members of the 

Avalanche Artillery Users of North 

America Committee to submit an exit 

plan for their use of military artillery. 

Currently, UDOT leases a P-Ridge 

howitzer from the U.S. Army to fire live 

artillery ammunition for avalanche 

control in Little Cottonwood Canyon. 

This is the only location in North 

America where live artillery is fired 

over inhabited buildings. The UDOT has 

committed to ending the use of the 

howitzer by 2025 and replacing it with 

RACS, which use remotely detonated 

explosives to mitigate avalanches and 

save lives. This project is to install 16 

RACS using suspended explosive 

charges along SR–210 in Little 

Cottonwood Canyon to minimize safety 

concerns from the overhead fire of live 

artillery over inhabited structures. 

Background on Waiver Request: The 

UDOT is part of the Transportation 

Avalanche Research Pool, which has 

identified three main types of RACS 

used in the United States: gas-delivered 

explosives, propelled explosive charges, 

and suspended explosive charges. The 

UDOT believes that the most 

appropriate products for this project 

based on the unique terrain in the 

deployment area are RACS that utilize 

suspended explosive charges. Prior to 

submitting a waiver request, UDOT 

identified only one domestic supplier of 

any type of RACS; however, that 

company uses gas-delivered explosives, 

and such a system is not viable for this 

project due to the extreme terrain, 

excessive rockfall, and extensive 

distance of the required gas line that 

would be needed to operate the system. 

The UDOT also used the National 

Institute of Standards and Technology’s 

Manufacturing Extension Partnership 

Supplier Scouting service to seek out 

any domestic manufacturers of RACS, 

but no domestic alternatives were 

identified. 

The UDOT thus requested a waiver 

for the tower, deployment box, and 

charges that are part of the RACS for 16 

systems that will use suspended 

explosive charges. 

In accordance with section 122 of 

Division F of the Consolidated 

Appropriations Act, 2024 (Pub. L. 118– 

42), section 117 of the SAFETEA–LU 

Technical Corrections Act of 2008 (Pub. 

L. 110–244), and 23 U.S.C. 313(g), 

FHWA posted a notice of the waiver 

request on its website on April 10, 2024, 

soliciting public comment on the intent 

to issue a waiver of the waiver items for 

a 15-day period.3

Waiver Justification Summary 

Comments to the Notice of Waiver 

Request: The FHWA received five 

comments in response to the notice of 

the waiver request. One commenter 

stated that FHWA’s Buy America 

requirements are outdated and indicated 

that FHWA should grant the waiver. 


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86906 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 211 / Thursday, October 31, 2024 / Notices 

4To meet the requirement that 55 percent of 

components, by cost, be mined, produced, or 

manufactured in the United States for a 

manufactured product containing predominantly 

iron or steel components, a manufacturer may 

choose to domestically produce those components. 

This is different from FHWA’s Buy America 

requirements, which mandate that all 

predominantly steel or iron components be 

domestically produced, regardless of the percent, by 

cost, of which they make up the manufactured 

product. 

Another stated that FHWA should grant 

the waiver and argued that FHWA 

should not apply its Buy America 

requirements to predominantly steel 

and iron components. 

Two other commenters provided 

information not relevant to the waiver 

request. One questioned the 

environmental impacts of RACS, which 

is not an issue within the scope of this 

waiver request. 

Another commenter stated that the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) policy eliminated the need for 

the waiver request because OMB 

requirements apply to manufactured 

products, not just iron and steel. The 

FHWA’s Buy America requirements 

with respect to manufactured products, 

however, differ from requirements 

applicable to other Federal Agencies 

under BABA, which was included as 

part of the BIL (Pub. L. 117–58). The 

FHWA has waived its statutory Buy 

America requirements as to all 

manufactured products that are not 

predominantly steel and iron; however, 

FHWA applies its Buy America 

requirements to predominantly iron and 

steel components of manufactured 

products, and such components must 

comply with FHWA’s requirements that 

all iron and steel must be domestically 

manufactured. Although BABA requires 

that manufactured products be 

manufactured in the United States and 

the cost of the manufactured product’s 

components that are mined, produced, 

or manufactured in the United States 

must be greater than 55 percent of the 

total cost of all components of the 

manufactured product, BABA does not 

specifically mandate that iron and steel 

components in particular must be 

domestically manufactured.4 See BIL 

section 70912(6)(B). 

In other words, FHWA applies its 

own Buy America requirements to steel, 

iron, and manufactured products used 

on FHWA funded projects, not the 

standards for steel, iron, and 

manufactured products under BABA. 

See BIL section 70917(a)–(b). 

Accordingly, manufactured products 

used on FHWA funded projects are only 

compliant with Buy America if all of 

their predominantly steel and iron 

components are domestically 

manufactured. Manufactured products 

that meet BABA’s standards, being 

manufactured in the United States and 

having 55 percent of the components, by 

cost, be mined, produced, or 

manufactured in the United States, are 

not inherently compliant with FHWA’s 

Buy America and may not necessarily 

be permanently incorporated into 

FHWA-funded projects. 

Finally, the fifth commenter, 

representing the domestic supplier 

identified by UDOT as using gasdelivered explosives noted above, stated 

that the company was not consulted on 

the viability of its product to work in 

the project terrain and contested the 

statement from UDOT that its products 

are not a viable alternative for the 

project. When determining whether 

steel and iron materials or products are 

not produced in the United States in 

sufficient and reasonably available 

quantities which are of a satisfactory 

quality pursuant to 23 U.S.C. 313(b)(2) 

and 23 CFR 635.410(c)(1)(ii), FHWA 

considers whether the recipient has 

used appropriate due diligence to 

identify domestic products or 

domestically available alternative 

products that meet the recipient’s 

specifications. A comparable product 

that performs a similar function is not 

necessarily a domestic alternative; the 

product must also meet the recipient’s 

specific requirements that are deemed 

necessary in order to achieve the 

performance objectives of the project. 

The FHWA’s statutory requirements do 

not require recipients to change product 

specifications in order to utilize 

domestic products that do not meet the 

recipient’s original specifications. 

Accordingly, as FHWA views this fifth 

commenter as arguing UDOT should 

modify their original specifications to 

accommodate their domestic product, 

FHWA does not believe that this 

commenter has demonstrated that they 

have a suitable domestic alternative. 

In sum, no commenter provided 

information on potential domestic 

manufacturers of suspended explosive 

charge RACS. Thus, UDOT did not 

receive any new information indicating 

that the waiver items could be produced 

by domestic manufacturers from any of 

the commenters. 

The FHWA believes that UDOT has 

made substantial efforts to find suitable 

Buy America-compliant waiver items 

that will safely and effectively serve the 

purpose of this project but that such 

products are unavailable. 

Timing and Need for a Waiver: The 

waiver items are essential to achieving 

the goal of replacing the current use of 

live artillery with a safer remoteactivated system that can provide 

highway avalanche mitigation. 

While UDOT did not request a waiver 

for the reinforced foundation of the 

RACS, as such foundation can be 

domestically manufactured, the waiver 

items are engineered to work together as 

a single system, and exchanging parts of 

the system would reduce the reliability 

and safety of the system. Accordingly, 

the waiver items at issue must be 

purchased and installed as a single 

system, and UDOT has not located any 

domestic manufacturers for the waiver 

items meeting the project’s 

specifications, nor has any domestic 

manufacturer identified the ability to 

produce Buy America-compliant waiver 

items through the public comment 

process. 

Executive Order 14005: Executive 

Order (E.O.) 14005, entitled ‘‘Ensuring 

the Future is Made in All of America by 

All of America’s Workers,’’ provides 

that Federal Agencies should, consistent 

with applicable law, maximize the use 

of goods, products, and materials 

produced in, and services offered in, the 

United States. 86 FR 7475 (Jan. 28, 

2021). Based on the information 

contained in the waiver request from 

UDOT and the lack of responsive 

comments to the notice of waiver 

request, FHWA concludes that issuing a 

waiver is not inconsistent with E.O. 

14005. 

Finding and Request for Comments 

Based on all the information available 

to the Agency, FHWA concludes that 

there are no Buy America-compliant 

waiver items meeting the project’s 

specifications and is waiving its Buy 

America requirements for steel and iron 

set forth at 23 U.S.C. 313 and 23 CFR 

635.410 for recipient purchases of 16 

RACS using suspended explosive 

charges for avalanche highway 

mitigation in Little Cottonwood Canyon. 

For each RACS, this waiver will cover 

only: (i) the tower; (ii) the deployment 

box; and (iii) the charges (collectively 

‘‘waiver items’’). This waiver does not 

apply to other components of the RACS, 

such as reinforced foundations, which 

must be compliant with FHWA’s Buy 

America requirements. In addition, this 

waiver does not cover additional 

charges purchased for the RACS. 

The waiver is limited to applicable 

purchases by UDOT, UDOT’s 

contractors, or subcontractors (of 

whatever tier) of the waiver items for 

the above mentioned project. The 

waiver does not apply to purchases for 

any other products or projects. This 

waiver would be effective from the 

effective date of the final waiver through 

the period of performance and closeout 


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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 211 / Thursday, October 31, 2024 / Notices 86907 

of FHWA’s financial assistance for the 

project, which is estimated to be 

December 31, 2025. 

The UDOT and its contractors and 

subcontractors involved in the 

procurement of the relevant components 

are reminded of the need to comply 

with the Cargo Preference Act in 46 CFR 

part 38, if applicable. 

In accordance with the provisions of 

section 117 of the SAFETEA–LU 

Technical Corrections Act of 2008, 

FHWA is providing this notice as its 

finding that a waiver of its Buy America 

requirements for steel and iron is 

appropriate. The FHWA invites public 

comment on this finding for an 

additional five days following the 

effective date of the finding. Comments 

may be submitted to FHWA’s website 

via the link provided to the waiver page 

noted above. 

Authority: 23 U.S.C. 313; Pub. L. 110– 

161; 23 CFR 635.410. 

Kristin R. White, 

Acting Administrator, Federal Highway 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2024–25387 Filed 10–30–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Transit Administration 

[Docket No. FTA–2024–0013] 

National Transit Database: Proposed 

Reporting Changes and Clarifications 

for Report Years 2025 and 2026 

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration 

(FTA), Department of Transportation 

(DOT). 

ACTION: Notice, request for comments. 

SUMMARY: This notice provides 

information on proposed changes and 

clarifications to the National Transit 

Database (NTD) reporting requirements. 

Some of the proposed NTD changes 

would take effect beginning in NTD 

report year (RY) 2025, while others 

would take effect in RY 2026. 

DATES: Comments should be filed by 

December 30, 2024. FTA will consider 

comments received after that date to the 

extent practicable. 

ADDRESSES: You may send comments, 

identified by docket number FTA– 

2024–0013, by any of the following 

methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and follow 

the online instructions for submitting 

comments. 

• Mail: Send comments to Docket 

Management Facility; U.S. Department 

of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue SE, West Building Ground 

Floor, Room W12–140, Washington, DC 

20590–0001. 

• Hand Delivery or Courier: West 

Building Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 

1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, between 9 

a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through 

Friday, except Federal holidays. 

• Fax: Fax comments to Docket 

Management Facility, U.S. Department 

of Transportation, at (202) 493–2251. 

Instructions: You must include the 

agency name (Federal Transit 

Administration) and Docket Number 

(FTA–2024–0013) for this notice, at the 

beginning of your comments. If sent by 

mail, submit two copies of your 

comments. 

Electronic Access and Filing: This 

document and all comments received 

may be viewed online through the 

Federal eRulemaking portal at https://

www.regulations.gov or at the street 

address listed above. Electronic 

submission, retrieval help, and 

guidelines are available on the Federal 

eRulemaking portal website. The 

website is available 24 hours each day, 

365 days a year. Please follow the 

instructions. An electronic copy of this 

document may also be downloaded 

from the Office of the Federal Register’s 

home page at https://

www.federalregister.gov. 

Privacy Act: Except as provided 

below, all comments received into the 

docket will be made public in their 

entirety. The comments will be 

searchable 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 should not include 

information in your comment that you 

do not want to be made public. You may 

review DOT’s complete Privacy Act 

Statement in the Federal Register 

published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 

19477) or at https://

www.transportation.gov/privacy. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Chelsea Champlin, National Transit 

Database Program Manager, FTA Office 

of Budget and Policy, 202–366–1651, 

Chelsea.champlin@dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Table of Contents 

A. Background and Overview 

B. Additional Data Within Publicly Hosted 

General Transit Feed Specification 

(GTFS) Datasets 

C. Changes to Passenger Stations and 

Maintenance Facilities Reporting 

D. A–20 NTD/TERM Alignment 

E. Safety and Security—Cyber Security Event 

Reporting 

F. Safety and Security—Disabling Damage 

G. Reduced Reporter Exemption for 

Operators Serving Predominantly Rural 

Areas 

H. Voluntary Reporter Tag 

A. Background and Overview 

The National Transit Database (NTD) 

was established by Congress to be the 

Nation’s primary source for information 

and statistics on the transit systems of 

the United States. Recipients and 

beneficiaries of Federal Transit 

Administration (FTA) grants under 

either the Urbanized Area Formula 

Program (49 U.S.C. 5307) or Rural Area 

Formula Program (49 U.S.C. 5311) are 

required by law to report to the NTD. 

FTA funding recipients that own, 

operate, or manage public transportation 

capital assets are required to provide 

more limited reports to the NTD 

regarding Transit Asset Management. 

Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 5334(k), FTA 

seeks public comment on seven (7) 

proposed NTD reporting changes and 

clarifications. These proposals are based 

on input from the transportation 

industry and FTA’s assessment of 

geospatial data needs following the 

NTD’s first annual data collection since 

implementing reporting changes 

required by the Bipartisan Infrastructure 

Law, enacted as the Infrastructure 

Investment and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 117– 

58). The information below describes 

anticipated reporting impacts from each 

proposed change or clarification and the 

proposed effective date of each change. 

FTA seeks comments on the proposed 

changes and clarifications described 

below. All impacts or changes described 

below are proposed and subject to 

finalization in a future notice. 

B. Additional Data Within Publicly 

Hosted General Transit Feed 

Specification (GTFS) Datasets 

The Infrastructure Investment and 

Jobs Act amended 49 U.S.C. 5335(a) to 

require FTA to collect ‘‘geographic 

service area coverage’’ data through the 

NTD. As of Report Year (RY) 2023, FTA 

requires that reporters with fixed route 

modes create and maintain a public 

domain GTFS dataset that reflects their 

fixed route service. These changes were 

finalized through a Federal Register 

notice published on March 3, 2023 (88 

FR 13497). Specifically, FTA requires 

agencies that operate fixed route service 

to maintain a GTFS feed and submit to 

the NTD a corresponding link or file 

containing their GTFS dataset. FTA 

requires that the GTFS file contain six 

underlying text files at a minimum, 

including trips.txt and stops.txt. A 

seventh set of files (shapes.txt and feed_

info.txt) is optional under current 

requirements. GTFS ensures data 

consistency by establishing minimum 


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