Air Quality Contacts
For more information, please contact Victoria Martinez.
Also available in PDF, 671KB
The FHWA is continuing to develop a series of tools to provide technical support for the implementation of the CMAQ Program. This CMAQ Emission Reductions Calculator is offered as an additional resource to assist DOTs, MPOs, and project sponsors in the project justification process. All modules are available on the FHWA CMAQ Emissions Calculator Toolkit webpage. For more information, please contact Mark Glaze (Mark.Glaze@dot.gov or 202-366-4053).
Most recently, the Managed Lane Facilities and Conversions tool was updated, and FHWA hosted a webinar to demonstrate the Alternative Fuels and Vehicles and the Dust Mitigation tools. Recordings of these and other training webinars are available via the toolkit website. The toolkit is accessible here.
FHWA recently published a series of five spotlight profiles on recent CMAQ-funded projects, on the CMAQ Program website. The purpose of these profiles is to highlight recent efforts by transportation agencies and transit providers to reduce emissions and mitigate congestion in a variety of settings and modes, across the country. Each profile provides a brief description of the project, highlights the emissions benefits calculated for the project, and details the other benefits from the project in the metropolitan area or community. The five projects include: the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) Green Line Extension (GLX) Project in Somerville and Medford, MA; Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Refuse Haulers and Fueling in Park Forest and Homewood, IL; a CNG Refueling Station in Hobart, IN; the Georgia Commute Options (GCO) Program in the Atlanta, GA metropolitan area; and Hybrid Electric Ferry Conversion in Seattle, WA.
The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) recently published a pilot report on Asset Management, Extreme Weather, and Proxy Indicators, as part of the FHWA pilot program on Asset Management and Risk to Extreme Weather. The report summarizes ADOT's risk-based asset management pilot effort to use geographic information system-based (GIS-based) analysis to identify and synthesize risks on the ADOT system. The intent of the pilot is to demonstrate that lifecycle planning can play a key part in improving resilience to extreme weather and natural hazard events while reducing safety risks and costs and improving reliability of roadways in Arizona. This is the fourth of six reports in the FHWA pilot program, which aims to help States incorporate information on resilience into asset management programs and their Transportation Asset Management Plans. To stay up-to-date on additional reports and studies, visit the FHWA Asset Management and Extreme Risk website.
On March 31, 2020, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the final Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule setting corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) and CO2 emissions standards for model years 2021-2026 passenger cars and light trucks.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently released updates to the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT). The RAPT is a geographic information system (GIS) tool to help emergency managers and community partners with any level of GIS ability to visualize and assess potential challenges to community resilience. The tool was developed using FEMA's analysis of current body of peer-reviewed, academic, community resilience research, which identified 20 indicators of community resilience, including population and community-focused indicators. The web-based tool is accessible via this link, and FEMA has published an updated overview document and user guide.
The Transportation Research Board's (TRB) National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) recently released a report evaluating the costs and benefits of different adaptation measures for transportation systems facing risks from extreme weather events. The pre-publication draft of NCHRP Research Report 938 was developed to fill the gaps identified by State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) who face limited capacity to develop Cost-Benefit Analyses (CBAs) on new projects in light of future risks from extreme weather and coastal flooding. The report is a resource for transportation practitioners to more easily consider CBAs in their investment-decision making processes when considering different extreme weather adaptation alternatives. The report also has additional resources, including a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the research, a spreadsheet tool that provides an approximate CBA with future conditions, and a spreadsheet tool that uses existing conditions only to calculate a return period. The report and associated resources can be accessed via TRB.
The Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) released the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program White Paper. The purpose of this White Paper is to share information collected in a survey of metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) on the CMAQ Program and to provide examples of different practices and approaches in four key CMAQ program areas: Intrastate distribution of CMAQ funds, CMAQ project selection processes and criteria, Emissions reduction estimating methodologies for CMAQ-funded projects, and, CMAQ performance measures and target setting. On April 8, 2020, a webinar was held to highlight the findings of the white paper and the recording of the webinar and additional materials related to the webinar can be found on AMPO's website.
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) committees on Environmental Analysis in Transportation
and Air Quality, Ecology and Transportation, Transportation-Related Noise and Vibration, Resource Conservation and Recovery, Transportation Energy, and Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies were to host a Symposium in Denver, CO on July 12-15, 2020. Â However, TRB has announced the cancelation of this Symposium.
The SETT 2020 conference will bring together researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers to discuss and debate the intersection of sustainability and emerging transportation technologies with a focus on solutions. The conference will address questions around how academics, policy-makers, the private sector, NGOs, and others can work together to shape new mobility solutions to benefit all users of our transportation systems. For more information about the conference is available via the conference website.
The Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations has announced their Annual Conference to be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 26 – 30, 2020. Presentation proposals were accepted through April 13, 2020, but more details about the conference will be announced in the summer. If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Hicks at shicks@ampo.org or 202-624-3682.
Please note: in-person events listed are all currently scheduled, as of the publication of this newsletter. Please check with the event organizers to confirm the latest information.
The National Transit Institute (NTI) is offering in-person training opportunities covering its "Introduction to Transportation Conformity" course. This 2.5 day course will present basic information about conformity requirements and the relationship of the transportation and air quality planning processes in order to prepare agency staff (Federal, State and local) to participate in interagency consultation and work effectively in resolving conformity issues. For more information, please visit the NTI registration website.
FHWA's Resource Center Air Quality Technical Services Team is available to offer MOVES and other trainings. Please contact Mike Claggett, at Michael.Claggett@dot.gov, for additional information or to discuss scheduling a training.
US EPA has announced the cancellation of the previously-scheduled Air Emissions Inventory training on MOVES, to be hosted May 5-7 in Research Triangle Park, NC. EPA has also announced that following trainings are entirely cancelled for May (both in-person and webinar, if applicable):
The following trainings will be held via webinar in May (no in-person training):
As a reminder, several web-based transportation conformity training opportunities are available on-demand from FHWA's conformity training website (under "Web-based Training"). These training opportunities range in level of detail from a short 27-minute video providing a high-level basic overview of transportation conformity to a detailed set of 32 self-directed training modules. Recordings of two webinars are available: basic transportation conformity overview (June 12, 2018, 70 minutes) and basic MOVES emissions model training (June 18, 2018, 42 minutes).
The target audience for these training materials are FHWA staff and State and local transportation partners (MPOs and State DOTs) who are either new to or would like a refresher training on the conformity process. For questions, please contact David Kall, at david.kall@dot.gov, or 202-366-6276.
The FHWA posted a 27-minute YouTube video on the CMAQ program. The video provides a basic introduction to the program, how CMAQ funds are distributed to States, and the types of projects eligible for the CMAQ program. The training is available via the FHWA's YouTube channel. For more information about the CMAQ program, please contact Mark Glaze at mark.glaze@dot.gov or (202) 366-4053.
The FHWA Resource Center Environment and Air Quality team will be conducting a series of training sessions on NEPA Air Quality Analysis for Highway Projects. The training includes sessions on project-level applications appropriate for managers and practitioners, as well as hands-on sessions intended for modelers. Please note this is not a general MOVES training course, but is focused on project-level applications. It is not intended to address regional applications, such as SIP emissions inventories or regional (plan and TIP) conformity analyses. If you are interested in this training, please contact Michael Claggett at michael.claggett@dot.gov.
The National Highway Institute (NHI) Air Quality Planning web-based training series is designed for transportation practitioners. It includes four modules: Clean Air Act Overview (FHWA-NHI-142068), State Implementation Plan (SIP) and Transportation Control Measure (TCM) Requirements and Policies (FHWA-NHI-142069), SIP Development Process (FHWA-NHI-142070), and Transportation Conformity (FHWA-NHI-142071). All courses are free. For more information, visit the NHI website and search "Air Quality Planning," or look for the specific course number. Please contact Karen Perritt at (202) 366-9066, or Karen.Perritt@dot.gov with any questions or comments.
Past issues of the Air Quality and Sustainability Highlights are available on FHWA's website: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/air_quality/conformity/highlights/ or https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/sustainability/newsletter/.
Please e-mail Victoria.Martinez@dot.gov with any suggestions for future issues.
