The Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued
this final rule that modifies our regulations to make certain changes mandated
by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A
Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). SAFETEA-LU prescribes additional requirements
for environmental review and project decision-making that are not appropriately
reflected in the existing FHWA-FTA joint National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) procedures. Additionally, this final rule creates certain new
categorical exclusions (CE) allowing proposed actions to proceed without an
environmental assessment (EA) or environmental impact statement (EIS), and
makes other minor changes to the joint procedures in order to improve the
description of the procedures or to provide clarification with respect to the
interpretation of certain provisions. This final rule was effective April 23,
2009.