Air Quality Contacts
For more information, please contact Victoria Martinez (787-771-2524).
Also available in PDF, 578KB
On September 14, 2018, the D.C. Circuit Court issued an Order staying its decision with respect to transportation conformity in South Coast Air Quality Management District v. EPA until February 16, 2019. In this decision, the Court required that "orphan areas" are subject to transportation conformity for the revoked 1997 ozone standard. Based on the Court's recent Order, FHWA issued an updated Interim Guidance on Conformity Requirements for the 1997 Ozone NAAQS on October 1, 2018.
The Office of Planning, Environment and Realty, along with the Resource Center, will continue to provide technical assistance to any areas that need help in complying with the Court's decision.
FHWA held the second in a series of Alternative Fuel Corridor Convening's on September 25, 2018 in Charleston, SC. A total of 35 stakeholders participated, including state environmental, energy and transportation offices along with representatives of private industry. The convening focused on addressing the barriers and opportunities to expanding the network of alternative fuel corridors in the Southeast. A planning committee comprised of alternative fuel stakeholders in the region was formed to help shape the agenda for the convening.
Informational materials from the convening including an agenda, summary report, presentation materials, and fact sheets will be available soon via the Alternative Fuel Toolkit website, which is linked from FHWA's Alternative Fuel Corridors website.
The 2018 Request for Nominations to designate alternative fuel corridors was released on Friday, October 5. This is the third call for nominations under the FAST Act requirement. Rounds 1 and 2 have resulted in a total of 58 nominations, covering segments of 84 Interstates and 44 state roads/ highways spanning 43 States plus the District of Columbia. Nominations are due by the end of January 2019 and designations will be made in spring 2019.
A new report documents a pilot project sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Maine Department of Transportation, and the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to assess the potential for green infrastructure techniques to protect sections of Route 209 in Phippsburg, ME and Route 1B in Portsmouth, NH. The Maine and New Hampshire Departments of Transportation studied the potential for green infrastructure techniques to protect Route 209 in Phippsburg, ME and Route 1B in Portsmouth, NH from coastal flooding. Maine results show it is possible to extend the time before a conventional gray infrastructure solution (sheet pile wall or riprap) becomes necessary to protect Route 209. In New Hampshire, results show that intermediate-low levels of sea level rise may cause the existing causeway to be inundated only once in 2060 and twice in 2065. However, if sea level rise follows an intermediate-high trajectory, the causeway may be inundated 188 times in 2060 and 338 times in 2065.
The report is one of five pilot projects FHWA sponsored to assess the potential for natural infrastructure to protect coastal roads and bridges. More information on this ongoing research is available on FHWA's Nature-Based Solutions to Coastal Resilience webpage.
The FHWA selected six communities: the Caltrans and the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments, California, the Frontier Metropolitan Planning Organization, Fort Smith, Arkansas, the McLean County Regional Planning Commission, Normal, Illinois, the Prince George's County Department of Public Works, Maryland, the Summit County Department of Regional Transportation Planning, Utah, and the Texas Department of Transportation, Houston, to receive technical assistance for the local transportation agency to use the data-driven and performance-based decision-making Framework for Better Integrating Health into Transportation Corridor Planning (Framework) to incorporate multimodal access, improve health outcomes, and enhance community considerations into corridor planning. In addition to the in-person technical assistance, we are offering a two-part virtual technical assistance webinar series that will describe the Framework and how it can be used in corridor planning, introduce corridor studies where the it has been used successfully and provide a forum for practitioner discussion and information exchange. Registration available by clicking on the Part(s) you want to attend.
Part 1, Getting Started. Wednesday, November 28 at 1:00 – 2:30pm (Eastern)
Part 2, Setting Goals. Tuesday, December 11 at 1:00 – 2:30pm (Eastern)
Please contact Victoria Martinez, victoria.martinez@dot.gov, (787) 771-2524, with any questions.
Transportation RISE held October 9-10 Denver, CO, brought together State DOTs, senior leaders, practitioners, consultants, academics and more to share state-of-the-practice information about how to consider transportation system resilience practices in decision making. FHWA's Acting Administrator, Brandye Hendrickson, served as the Keynote Speaker for the Summit. Highlights included presentations and participation by leading practitioners in transportation system resilience, interaction with top leadership from State DOTs, and international examples from Australia, Canada, Germany and The Netherlands. Visit the RISE Conference Website for details and access to the full program.
The 98th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. January 13-17, 2019. The spotlight themefor the Annual Meeting is Transportation for a Smart, Sustainable, and Equitable Future. Conference registration opened in early September. Please visit the 2019 TRB Conference webpage for more information.
The Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy and Health (CARTEEH) is hosting the symposium to bring together transportation and health professionals to discuss research, policy and emerging issues related to transportation emissions, energy, air quality, exposures, and human health. Visit the CARTEEH 2019 Symposium Website for registration, abstract submission and other details.
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. Upcoming deliveries include December 2018 in Cleveland, OH; January 2019 in Lansing, MI; February 2019 in St. Louis, MO; and March 2019 in Oakland, CA. For more information and to register, please visit the NTI registration website.
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 Planning 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.
Two training opportunities are available for MOVES model users. A three-hour webinar provides an introduction to MySQL Query Browser and MOVES interface. A six-hour training over two days will enable users to do MySQL programming and to write their own MySQL scripts and to manipulate MySQL databases including MOVES input and outputs. For more information or to schedule 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.
