OMB Renewal 7-6-12

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSION

Introduction:

Name of the information collection (IC): Highways for LIFE Incentive Funding for Federal-aid Projects Application

Part A. Justification.

1. Circumstances that make collection of information necessary:

The FHWA will solicit for Highways for LIFE Projects from State Departments of Transportation (DOT) candidate projects for incentive funding. The Highways for LIFE Pilot Program was enacted in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for User (SAFETEA-LU) of 2005. Section 1502 describes the pilot program. Specifically, the statute states:

(b) PROJECTS.—

(1) APPLICATIONS.—To be eligible to participate in the program, a State shall submit to the Secretary an application that is in such form and contains such information as the Secretary requires. Each application shall contain a description of proposed projects to be carried by the State under the pilot program.

The Federal-aid highways projects built with Highways for LIFE incentive roads will incorporate technologies and innovations that result in improved safety, reduced construction congestion and improved quality. This new information collection supports the DOT Strategic Goals for Safety and Mobility

2. How, by whom, and for what purpose is the information used:

Project applications will be solicited annually. The form will be completed by State DOT and submitted electronically to the FHWA Division Office, which will forward the form to the Office of Infrastructure, Highways for LIFE Program. The application will be evaluated using the Selection Criteria in SAFETEA-LU Section 1502 (b) (4).

Program Summary

The Highways for LIFE (HfL) Pilot Program was established under SAFETEA-LU to advance longer-lasting highways using innovative technologies and practices to accomplish the fast construction of efficient and safe highways and bridges. The program authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to provide leadership and incentives to demonstrate and promote state-of-the-art technologies, elevated performance standards, and new business practices in the highway construction process that result in improved safety, faster construction, reduced congestion from construction, and improved quality and user satisfaction.

The incentive grants for the Demonstration Construction Project element under the HfL Pilot Program is 20 percent of the total cost of the construction project with a maximum incentive of approximately $5,000,000, or waive the matching requirement to allow 100-percent Federal-aid funding for projects. The maximum of 15 projects per year is allowed to receive monetary incentives per the legislation.

The approximate amount available for Demonstration Construction Projects per year is approximately $13M.

Funding

Funded by contract authority; funds are not transferable. Funds are subject to the overall Federal-aid highway obligation limitation.

Federal Share

The Federal share of the cost of a project carried out under this program may amount to 100 percent of the cost of construction of such project.

Eligible Use Of Funds

A proposed project shall be eligible for assistance under the HfL program if the project:

1. Constructs, reconstructs, or rehabilitates a route or connection on a Federal-aid highway eligible for assistance under chapter 1 of title 23, United States Code;

2. Uses innovative technologies, manufacturing processes, financing, or contracting methods that improve safety, reduce congestion due to construction, and improve quality; and

3. Meets the additional criteria outline in this solicitation.

Statutory Priority Consideration

In selecting projects under this program, the Secretary will give priority to projects that:

1. Address achieving the HfL performance goals for safety, construction congestion (including speed of construction), quality, and user satisfaction (see details below);

2. Deliver and deploy “proven” innovative technologies, manufacturing processes, financing, contracting practices, and performance measures that are never, or rarely used, by the State, and that will demonstrate substantial improvements in safety, congestion, quality, and cost effectiveness;

3. Include innovation that is intended to change the administration of the State DOT’s transportation program to more quickly construct long-lasting, high-quality, cost effective projects that improve safety and reduce congestion on a recurring basis;

4. Are or will be ready for construction within 1 year of approval of the project proposal.  For the purposes of the HfL program, the FHWA considers a project to be “ready for construction” when the FHWA Division Office authorizes the construction project;

Project Selection Criteria

FHWA has not established regulatory criteria for the selection of HfL projects; however, FHWA will consider the following in the evaluation of candidates for this program, in addition to the priority considerations set forth above:

1. The State DOT demonstrates a willingness to participate in subsequent technology transfer and information dissemination activities associated with the project(s);

2. The State DOT is willing to accept FHWA Division Office oversight if the project is approved by HfL. and

3. Projects which deploy Every Day Counts technologies and processes and meet the HfL performance goals will be given additional consideration. (Innovations listed at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/everydaycounts/)

The performance goals of HfL projects that satisfy the first statutory priority consideration described above include:

Safety

• Work Zone Safety During Construction--work zone crash rate equal to the pre-construction rate at the project location;

• Worker Safety During Construction--worker injury rate less than 4.0 based on the OSHA 300 rate;

• Facility Safety After Construction—20 percent reduction in fatalities and injuries as reflected in 3-year average crash rates, using pre-construction rates as the baseline.

Construction Congestion

• Faster Construction—50% reduction, compared to traditional methods, in the duration that highway users are impacted;

• Trip Time During Construction-- less than 10 percent reduction in the average pre-construction speed using 100 percent sampling; or

• Queue Length During Construction—The line of vehicles passing through the construction work zone should be less than 0.5 mile long (travel speed 20% less than posted speed) in a rural area OR a moving queue length less than 1.5 miles long (travel speeds 20 percent or less than the posted speed limit) in an urban area.

Quality

• Smoothness--An inertial Profile, International Roughness Index (IRI) of less than 48 inches/mile

• Noise—a tire to pavement noise measurement of less than 96.0 decibels using the On Board Sound Intensity (OBSI) Method

User satisfaction

• User satisfaction—Pre- and post- project construction surveys will be used to determine user satisfaction in two areas: (1) How satisfied the user is with the new facility, compared with its previous state, and (2) how satisfied the user is with the approach used to construct the new facility in terms of minimizing disruption. A five-point Likert scale will be used for measurement, and the goal for each area will be 4+.

3. Extent of automated information collection:

The project application form completion, submission, evaluation, selection and notification will be done completely electronically.

4. Efforts to identify duplication:

There is no duplication or existing source for the information to be collected.

5. Efforts to minimize the burden on small businesses:

The required information for Highways for LIFE project funding will be solicited from the State DOTs only. This collection of information will not impact any small businesses.

6. Impact of less frequent collection of information:

An annual solicitation is necessary to provide sufficient time and to give the maximum opportunity to all State DOTs to receive Highways for LIFE project incentive funding.

7. Special circumstances: There are no special circumstances related to this information collection.

8. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.8:

The FHWA published a Federal Register notice December 13, 2011 (Volume 76, Number 239) Page 77587. No comments were received from the public.

9. Payments or gifts to respondents:

Payments or gifts will not be provided to State DOTs for submitting their applications for Highways for LIFE project funding.

10. Assurance of confidentiality:

The information to be collected is not considered to be confidential.

11. Justification for collection of sensitive information: This information collection will not involve questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of burden hours for information requested:

Number of respondents: 52 State DOTs including Puerto Rico and DC

Frequency of responses: annually

Estimated total number of responses: 30 each year

Estimated respondent burdens: 8 hours per application

Total estimated burden hours: 240 hours annually

13. Estimate of total annual costs to respondents:

There will not be any additional costs to the respondents.

14. Estimate of cost to the Federal government: The estimated cost to the Federal government is $25,000.00, which would cover the FHWA staff and contractor costs to develop the electronic form, collect the information and evaluate the candidate projects.

15. Explanation of program changes or adjustments:

There are no program changes.

16. Publication of results of data collection:

The information submitted to the FHWA on the applications will not be published.

17. Approval for not displaying the expiration date of OMB approval: There is no such request for this information collection.

18. Exceptions to certification statement: There are no exceptions to the certification statement for this collection.