States Focus on MAP-21 Regs, Successor Bill

摘要

State transportation departments are busy carrying out 2012's Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act and gearing up for the next highway-transit bill. They hope it will become law before MAP-21 expires on Sept. 30, 2014, but funding the program will be a problem. At the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials annual winter meeting in Washington, D.C., from Feb. 27 to March 1, federal transportation officials outlined proposed regulations to carry out MAP-21 's big policy changes. If regs to speed environmental reviews track MAP-21, "that's going to be good news for moving projects," says Frederick "Bud" Wright, AASHTO's new executive director. U.S. DOT published on Feb. 28 a proposed MAP-21 rule that would grant more projects "categorical exclusions" from National Environmental Policy Act reviews.