News Digest DOT 48-16
Maritime Administration Announces Availability of Funding for Marine Highway Projects
The Maritime Administration (MARAD) has announced the availability of $5 million in Federal funding to expand marine highway service by creating new or expanding existing services along designated Marine Highway Routes. A Marine Highway Project is a planned service, or expansion of an existing service, on a designated Marine Highway Route, that provides new modal choices to shippers of cargo, reduces transportation costs, and provides public benefits including reduced air emissions, reduced road maintenance costs, and improved safety and resiliency.
Eligible applicants must be sponsors of Marine Highway Projects formally designated by the Secretary of Transportation. The current list of designated Marine Highway Projects can be found at: http://www.marad.dot.gov/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Marine-Highway-Project-Description-Pages.pdf. Applications must be received by 8:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 27, 2016. Addition information can be found in the Federal Register at https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-09563 Contact: Kim Strong 202.366.5067
PHMSA Final Rule Incorporates by Reference ASME Standards Into Hazardous Materials Regulations. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) today issued a direct final rule that adopts the most recent edition of a consensus technical standard, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (2015 Edition) and ASME Code for Transportation Systems for Liquids and Slurries: Pressure Piping, B31.4-2012. Through use of this consensus standard, nurse tank manufacturers and other DOT and UN specification packaging manufacturers will be able to use current technology, materials, and practices. The incorporation of the most recent edition of the ASME Code improves clarity, consistency, accuracy, reduces unnecessary burdens on the regulated community, and will provide, at minimum, an equivalent level of safety for non-specification (ie. nurse tanks) and specification tanks regulated under the Hazardous Materials Regulations. Nurse tanks are commonly used to transport various agricultural chemicals and liquids to the point of application and range in capacity from 105 to 4,250 gallons. For more information go to: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/04/29/2016-10027/hazardous-materials-incorporation-by-reference-edition-update-for-the-american-society-of-mechanical. Contact for media: Joe Delcambre (202) 493-0730.
PHMSA Supplemental Proposed Rule Would Incorporate by Reference ASME Standards Into Hazardous Materials Regulations. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) today issued a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to incorporate American Society of Mechanical Engineers Code Section XII and the National Board Inspection Code into the Hazardous Materials Regulations. If adopted, these amendments will allow for flexibility regarding selection of authorized packaging, in addition to qualification and maintenance for continued service of the packaging, without compromising safety. The 2015 editions of the respective codes include advancements in design, material, fabrication, repair, and inspection of transport tanks. Benefits associated with incorporation by reference of these codes would include greater efficiencies in the manufacture of tanks, as well as the mitigation of the fluctuating cost of materials, and allows the use of a broader range of materials of construction while providing an equivalent level of safety. For more information go to: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/04/29/2016-09919/hazardous-materials-incorporation-of-asme-code-section-xii-and-the-national-board-inspection-code. Contact for media: Joe Delcambre (202) 493-0730.
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