[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 120 (Monday, June 23, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35632-35634]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-14560]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
Early Scoping Reopening Notification for the Alternatives
Analysis of the GA 400 Transit Initiative in Fulton County, Georgia
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of reopening of early scoping and comment periods and
announcement of additional scoping meetings.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Metropolitan
Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) issue this early scoping notice
to advise other agencies and the public that they intend to conduct
another round of early scoping. The additional early scoping period
will continue the examination of potential alternatives for providing
high-capacity transit in the Georgia (GA) 400 corridor in north Fulton
County, GA from Dunwoody to Alpharetta. The alternatives would improve
transit linkages and coverage to communities within this corridor and
would enhance mobility and accessibility to and within the corridor by
providing a more robust transit network that offers an alternative to
automobile travel. This notice invites the public and agency officials
to provide input to the ongoing alternatives analysis and system
planning effort by commenting on the project's purpose and need, the
project study area, the alternatives being considered, the
transportation problems that are being addressed by the alternatives
analysis study, public participation and outreach methods, the relevant
transportation and community impacts and benefits being considered,
known environmental issues raised by public and agency coordination to
date, and the projected capital and operating costs of this project.
The early scoping process is intended to support the alternatives
analysis and a future National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) scoping
process and will help streamline the future development of an
environmental impact statement (EIS), if warranted. In addition, the
early scoping process supports FTA planning requirements associated
with the New Starts (``Section 5309'') funding program for certain
kinds of major capital investments. Although recent legislation has led
to changes in the New Starts process, MARTA will comply with all
relevant FTA requirements relating to planning and project development
to help analyze and screen alternatives in preparation for the NEPA
process.
The planned public meetings are described immediately below. A more
detailed discussion of the project and this early scoping process is
included in sections that follow.
DATES: Three early scoping meetings where the public and interested
agencies can learn more about and comment on the scope of the
alternatives analysis will be held on the following dates at the
locations indicated under ADDRESSES below:
Tuesday, July 8, 2014.
Thursday, July 10, 2014.
Thursday, July 17, 2014.
At the early scoping meetings, MARTA will provide information on
the alternatives analysis progress along with opportunities for written
comments. Written or electronic scoping comments are requested by
August 8, 2014, and can be sent or emailed to the MARTA project manager
at the address below. Comments may also be offered at the early scoping
meetings and will be accepted after the deadline as practicable.
ADDRESSES: Written or electronic comments should be sent to Mark
Eatman, P.E., Project Manager, MARTA, 2424 Piedmont Road NE., Atlanta
GA 30324-3330 or by email to [email protected]. If submitting an
electronic comment, please type ``Connect 400 Early Scoping Comment for
MARTA'' in the subject line of the email. MARTA maintains a Facebook
page for the Connect 400 project and will notify Facebook followers, in
conjunction with publication of this notice, to submit comments to the
aforementioned email address as well.
Early Scoping meetings will be held at the following locations:
Tuesday, July 8, 2014, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., at Johns Creek
Environmental Campus, 8100 Holcomb Bridge Road, Roswell, GA 30022.
Thursday, July 10, 2014, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., at Georgia
State University Alpharetta Center, 3775 Brookside Pkwy, Alpharetta, GA
30022.
Thursday, July 17, 2014, 6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m., Hampton Inn
Atlanta--Perimeter Center, 769 Hammond Dr. NE., Atlanta, GA 30328.
The meeting locations are accessible to persons with disabilities.
If translation, signing services, or other
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special accommodations are needed, please contact the Project Manager,
Mr. Mark Eatman at [email protected] or 404-848-4494, or the Senior
Transit System Project Planner, Ms. Janide Sidifall at
[email protected] or 404-848-5828 at least one week before the
scoping meetings.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Keith Melton, Community Planner,
FTA Region IV, 230 Peachtree Street NW., Suite 800, Atlanta, GA 30303
or email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Early Scoping
Early scoping is an optional early step in the NEPA process that
precedes NEPA scoping, which normally begins when the FTA and the grant
applicant publish a notice of intent to prepare an EIS. FTA encourages
the use of early scoping for major planning activities and studies that
may receive other FTA funding as a way to start the NEPA process during
earlier project planning phases. Early scoping is intended to generate
public and agency review and comments on the scope of a planning effort
within a defined transportation corridor, which helps the agency to
determine which particular alignment variations, should receive more
focused study and development to streamline the NEPA process. Early
scoping can serve not only to streamline the NEPA process, but also to
firmly link transportation planning and NEPA, making sure that the
public and interested agencies are given the opportunity to review and
provide comments on the results of planning activities and studies that
can then be used to inform the NEPA process.
Early scoping for the GA 400 Transit Initiative was initially
announced in 78 FR 53187, August 28, 2013, and is being conducted in
support of NEPA requirements and in accordance with the Council on
Environmental Quality's (CEQ) and FTA's regulations and guidance for
implementing NEPA (40 CFR 1501.2 through 1501.8 and through 23 CFR
771.111), which encourage federal agencies to initiate NEPA early in
their planning processes. Early scoping allows the scoping process to
begin as soon as there is enough information to describe the proposal
so that the public and relevant agencies can participate effectively.
This is particularly useful in situations when a proposed action
involves a broadly defined corridor with an array of transit investment
alternatives. This notice reopens early scoping and invites public and
agency involvement with the ongoing supplementary planning activities
and studies for the GA 400 Transit Initiative, including review of the
(a) purpose and need, (b) the proposed alternatives, and (c) the
potential environmental, transportation, and community impacts and
benefits to consider during the NEPA process.
The GA 400 Transit Initiative and the Regional Transit System
The GA 400 Corridor Alternatives Analysis (AA) was initiated by
MARTA in late 2011 to identify potential and feasible transit modal
alternatives in the GA 400 corridor to address travel demands. The GA
400 corridor is the transportation spine of northern Fulton County, one
of the fastest growing sub-regions in the metro-Atlanta region. The GA
400 Corridor AA addressed the travel market in a study area generally
extending north along GA 400 from I-285 in Dunwoody to the Fulton/
Forsyth County line north of Alpharetta, a distance of approximately 15
miles. The corridor is home to many employment centers, including
Perimeter Center in the southern portion of the corridor, one of the
largest employment centers for the region. Transit service to and
within the study area is provided primarily by MARTA heavy rail and
bus. The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) also operates
two bus routes that connect the southern portion of the GA 400 corridor
with express bus service at peak hours to/from the north and southeast
outside the GA 400 corridor. Rail service extends from Downtown Atlanta
to the major retail and employment centers, including the Medical
Center and Perimeter Center in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs in the
southern portion of the corridor. MARTA bus service primarily functions
as feeder service to MARTA heavy rail stations from areas to the north,
including Roswell, Alpharetta and Milton. A number of the bus routes
and the MARTA heavy rail stations serve park-and-ride facilities.
Purpose and Need for the Proposed Project
MARTA invites comments on the following preliminary statement of
the project's purpose and need.
The purpose of the project is to provide reliable, convenient,
efficient, and sustainable transit service in the GA 400 corridor by:
Providing high capacity transit (bus and/or rail) through
the GA 400 corridor study area;
Improving transit linkages and coverage to communities
within the study area; and
Enhancing mobility and accessibility to and within the
study area by providing a more robust transit network that offers an
alternative to automobile travel.
The need for this project arises from the following:
Travel demand--Increased travel demand and traffic
congestion;
Transit mobility--There is inadequate transit connectivity
within the northern Fulton study area and between the study area and
DeKalb, Gwinnett, and Cobb Counties and central Atlanta. In addition,
east-west transit connectivity is inadequate. The limited routes across
the Chattahoochee River reflect the inadequate transit connectivity;
Transit travel times--Transit travel times are not
competitive with auto travel times due to the lack of express service;
this is true for north-south trips within the study area and for trips
with origins and destinations outside the study area. Transit and auto
travel times cannot be compared for east-west trips as there is no
east-west transit service;
Economic development--Traffic congestion caused by
insufficient transportation system capacity affects both personal
travel and goods movement, which constrains economic development
opportunities; and
Air quality--The continued growth of vehicular travel will
negatively affect air quality in the study area and the region.
Potential Alternatives
MARTA has been exploring alternative transit mode, alignment, and
design options for high capacity transit service in the GA 400 corridor
using a three-step evaluation process. The three-step evaluation
process includes a Fatal Flaw Analysis, Screen 1 and Screen 2 and is
generally characterized by the application of an increasingly detailed
and comprehensive set of performance measures to a decreasing number of
alternatives. Each step in the evaluation process focuses the analysis
on progressively fewer alternatives with higher levels of scrutiny. In
addition, the Build Alternatives are compared not only to each other
but also to the No-Build Alternative, which provides the benchmark for
establishing the travel benefits, environmental impacts of the
alternatives and the cost-effectiveness of the alternatives. The GA 400
Corridor Transit Initiative is currently in Screen 2. After
consideration of the findings of the first and second steps in the
evaluation process, MARTA has identified an alignment that would
provide approximately 11.9 miles of transit service along the GA 400
corridor within existing right-of-way from the existing North Springs
MARTA station
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to Windward Parkway. This alignment is referred to as the GA 400-1A
Build Alternative. Bus rapid transit (BRT), heavy rail transit (HRT),
and light rail transit (LRT) are the three transit modes or
technologies being considered for this corridor. The three modes each
have the same general alignment, following GA 400 from North Springs
MARTA station to Windward Parkway. The LRT and the BRT alternatives
have six stations, from south to north: Northridge, Holcomb Bridge,
Mansell Road, North Point Mall, Old Milton and Windward Parkway. The
HRT alternative is similar, but it does not currently include a station
at Old Milton. The outcome of Screen 2 will be the recommendation of
the preferred alternative. MARTA may also consider other alternatives
that arise during the early scoping comment period.
FTA Procedures
At the end of the alternatives analysis process, FTA and MARTA
anticipate identifying a preferred mode and corridor for further
evaluation during the NEPA process. The classification of the NEPA
documentation will be determined by the FTA at the end of the
alternatives analysis. If the preferred mode and alignment involve the
potential for significant environmental impacts an EIS may be required.
If an EIS is required, a Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS will be
published in the Federal Register by FTA and the public and interested
agencies will have the opportunity to participate in a review and
comment period on the scope of the EIS.
Dated: June 18, 2014.
Yvette G. Taylor,
Regional Administrator Federal Transit Administration, Region IV.
[FR Doc. 2014-14560 Filed 6-20-14; 8:45 am]
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