23 U.S.C. § 101 : US Code - Section 101: Definitions and declaration of policy

Search 23 U.S.C. § 101 : US Code - Section 101: Definitions and declaration of policy

(a) Definitions. - In this title, the following definitions
apply:
(1) Apportionment. - The term "apportionment" includes
unexpended apportionments made under prior authorization laws.
(2) Carpool project. - The term "carpool project" means any
project to encourage the use of carpools and vanpools, including
provision of carpooling opportunities to the elderly and
individuals with disabilities, systems for locating potential
riders and informing them of carpool opportunities, acquiring
vehicles for carpool use, designating existing highway lanes as
preferential carpool highway lanes, providing related traffic
control devices, and designating existing facilities for use for
preferential parking for carpools.
(3) Construction. - The term "construction" means the
supervising, inspecting, actual building, and incurrence of all
costs incidental to the construction or reconstruction of a
highway, including bond costs and other costs relating to the
issuance in accordance with section 122 of bonds or other debt
financing instruments and costs incurred by the State in
performing Federal-aid project related audits that directly
benefit the Federal-aid highway program. Such term includes -
(A) locating, surveying, and mapping (including the
establishment of temporary and permanent geodetic markers in
accordance with specifications of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration of the Department of Commerce);
(B) resurfacing, restoration, and rehabilitation;
(C) acquisition of rights-of-way;
(D) relocation assistance, acquisition of replacement housing
sites, and acquisition and rehabilitation, relocation, and
construction of replacement housing;
(E) elimination of hazards of railway grade crossings;
(F) elimination of roadside obstacles;
(G) improvements that directly facilitate and control traffic
flow, such as grade separation of intersections, widening of
lanes, channelization of traffic, traffic control systems, and
passenger loading and unloading areas; and
(H) capital improvements that directly facilitate an
effective vehicle weight enforcement program, such as scales
(fixed and portable), scale pits, scale installation, and scale
houses.
(4) County. - The term "county" includes corresponding units of
government under any other name in States that do not have county
organizations and, in those States in which the county government
does not have jurisdiction over highways, any local government
unit vested with jurisdiction over local highways.
(5) Federal-aid highway. - The term "Federal-aid highway" means
a highway eligible for assistance under this chapter other than a
highway classified as a local road or rural minor collector.
(6) Federal-aid system. - The term "Federal-aid system" means
any of the Federal-aid highway systems described in section 103.
(7) Federal lands highway. - The term "Federal lands highway"
means a forest highway, public lands highway, park road, parkway,
refuge road, and Indian reservation road that is a public road.
(8) Forest development roads and trails. - The term "forest
development roads and trails" means forest roads and trails under
the jurisdiction of the Forest Service.
(9) Forest highway. - The term "forest highway" means a forest
road under the jurisdiction of, and maintained by, a public
authority and open to public travel.
(10) Forest road or trail. - The term "forest road or trail"
means a road or trail wholly or partly within, or adjacent to,
and serving the National Forest System that is necessary for the
protection, administration, and utilization of the National
Forest System and the use and development of its resources.
(11) Highway. - The term "highway" includes -
(A) a road, street, and parkway;
(B) a right-of-way, bridge, railroad-highway crossing,
tunnel, drainage structure, sign, guardrail, and protective
structure, in connection with a highway; and
(C) a portion of any interstate or international bridge or
tunnel and the approaches thereto, the cost of which is assumed
by a State transportation department, including such facilities
as may be required by the United States Customs and Immigration
Services in connection with the operation of an international
bridge or tunnel.
(12) Indian reservation road. - The term "Indian reservation
road" means a public road that is located within or provides
access to an Indian reservation or Indian trust land or
restricted Indian land that is not subject to fee title
alienation without the approval of the Federal Government, or
Indian and Alaska Native villages, groups, or communities in
which Indians and Alaskan Natives reside, whom the Secretary of
the Interior has determined are eligible for services generally
available to Indians under Federal laws specifically applicable
to Indians.
(13) Interstate System. - The term "Interstate System" means
the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and
Defense Highways described in section 103(c).
(14) Maintenance. - The term "maintenance" means the
preservation of the entire highway, including surface, shoulders,
roadsides, structures, and such traffic-control devices as are
necessary for safe and efficient utilization of the highway.
(15) Maintenance area. - The term "maintenance area" means an
area that was designated as a nonattainment area, but was later
redesignated by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency as an attainment area, under section 107(d) of the Clean
Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7407(d)).
(16) National Highway System. - The term "National Highway
System" means the Federal-aid highway system described in section
103(b).
(17) Operating costs for traffic monitoring, management, and
control. - The term "operating costs for traffic monitoring,
management, and control" includes labor costs, administrative
costs, costs of utilities and rent, and other costs associated
with the continuous operation of traffic control, such as
integrated traffic control systems, incident management programs,
and traffic control centers.
(18) Operational improvement. - The term "operational
improvement" -
(A) means (i) a capital improvement for installation of
traffic surveillance and control equipment, computerized signal
systems, motorist information systems, integrated traffic
control systems, incident management programs, and
transportation demand management facilities, strategies, and
programs, and (ii) such other capital improvements to public
roads as the Secretary may designate, by regulation; and
(B) does not include resurfacing, restoring, or
rehabilitating improvements, construction of additional lanes,
interchanges, and grade separations, and construction of a new
facility on a new location.
(19) Park road. - The term "park road" means a public road,
including a bridge built primarily for pedestrian use, but with
capacity for use by emergency vehicles, that is located within,
or provides access to, an area in the National Park System with
title and maintenance responsibilities vested in the United
States.
(20) Parkway. - The term "parkway", as used in chapter 2 of
this title, means a parkway authorized by Act of Congress on
lands to which title is vested in the United States.
(21) Project. - The term "project" means an undertaking to
construct a particular portion of a highway, or if the context so
implies, the particular portion of a highway so constructed or
any other undertaking eligible for assistance under this title.
(22) Project agreement. - The term "project agreement" means
the formal instrument to be executed by the State transportation
department and the Secretary as required by section 106.
(23) Public authority. - The term "public authority" means a
Federal, State, county, town, or township, Indian tribe,
municipal or other local government or instrumentality with
authority to finance, build, operate, or maintain toll or toll-
free facilities.
(24) Public lands development roads and trails. - The term
"public lands development roads and trails" means those roads and
trails that the Secretary of the Interior determines are of
primary importance for the development, protection,
administration, and utilization of public lands and resources
under the control of the Secretary of the Interior.
(25) Public lands highway. - The term "public lands highway"
means a forest road under the jurisdiction of and maintained by a
public authority and open to public travel or any highway through
unappropriated or unreserved public lands, nontaxable Indian
lands, or other Federal reservations under the jurisdiction of
and maintained by a public authority and open to public travel.
(26) Public lands highways. - The term "public lands highways"
means those main highways through unappropriated or unreserved
public lands, nontaxable Indian lands, or other Federal
reservations, which are on the Federal-aid systems.
(27) Public road. - The term "public road" means any road or
street under the jurisdiction of and maintained by a public
authority and open to public travel.
(28) Refuge road. - The term "refuge road" means a public road
that provides access to or within a unit of the National Wildlife
Refuge System and for which title and maintenance responsibility
is vested in the United States Government.
(29) Rural areas. - The term "rural areas" means all areas of a
State not included in urban areas.
(30) Safety improvement project. - The term "safety improvement
project" means a project that corrects or improves high hazard
locations, eliminates roadside obstacles, improves highway
signing and pavement marking, installs priority control systems
for emergency vehicles at signalized intersections, installs or
replaces emergency motorist aid call boxes, or installs traffic
control or warning devices at locations with high accident
potential.
(31) Secretary. - The term "Secretary" means Secretary of
Transportation.
(32) State. - The term "State" means any of the 50 States, the
District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico.
(33) State funds. - The term "State funds" includes funds
raised under the authority of the State or any political or other
subdivision thereof, and made available for expenditure under the
direct control of the State transportation department.
(34) State transportation department. - The term "State
transportation department" means that department, commission,
board, or official of any State charged by its laws with the
responsibility for highway construction.
(35) Transportation enhancement activity. - The term
"transportation enhancement activity" means, with respect to any
project or the area to be served by the project, any of the
following activities as the activities relate to surface
transportation:
(A) Provision of facilities for pedestrians and bicycles.
(B) Provision of safety and educational activities for
pedestrians and bicyclists.
(C) Acquisition of scenic easements and scenic or historic
sites (including historic battlefields).
(D) Scenic or historic highway programs (including the
provision of tourist and welcome center facilities).
(E) Landscaping and other scenic beautification.
(F) Historic preservation.
(G) Rehabilitation and operation of historic transportation
buildings, structures, or facilities (including historic
railroad facilities and canals).
(H) Preservation of abandoned railway corridors (including
the conversion and use of the corridors for pedestrian or
bicycle trails).
(I) Inventory, control, and removal of outdoor advertising.
(J) Archaeological planning and research.
(K) Environmental mitigation -
(i) to address water pollution due to highway runoff; or
(ii) (!1) reduce vehicle-caused wildlife mortality while
maintaining habitat connectivity.
(L) Establishment of transportation museums.
(36) Urban area. - The term "urban area" means an urbanized
area or, in the case of an urbanized area encompassing more than
one State, that part of the urbanized area in each such State, or
urban place as designated by the Bureau of the Census having a
population of 5,000 or more and not within any urbanized area,
within boundaries to be fixed by responsible State and local
officials in cooperation with each other, subject to approval by
the Secretary. Such boundaries shall encompass, at a minimum, the
entire urban place designated by the Bureau of the Census, except
in the case of cities in the State of Maine and in the State of
New Hampshire.
(37) Urbanized area. - The term "urbanized area" means an area
with a population of 50,000 or more designated by the Bureau of
the Census, within boundaries to be fixed by responsible State
and local officials in cooperation with each other, subject to
approval by the Secretary. Such boundaries shall encompass, at a
minimum, the entire urbanized area within a State as designated
by the Bureau of the Census.
(38) Advanced truck stop electrification system. - The term
"advanced truck stop electrification system" means a system that
delivers heat, air conditioning, electricity, or communications
to a heavy duty vehicle.
(b) Declaration of Policy. -
(1) Acceleration of construction of federal-aid highway
systems. - Congress declares that it is in the national interest
to accelerate the construction of Federal-aid highway systems,
including the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate
and Defense,(!2) because many of the highways (or portions of the
highways) are inadequate to meet the needs of local and
interstate commerce for the national and civil defense.
(2) Completion of interstate system. - Congress declares that
the prompt and early completion of the Dwight D. Eisenhower
National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (referred to
in this section as the "Interstate System"), so named because of
its primary importance to the national defense, is essential to
the national interest. It is the intent of Congress that the
Interstate System be completed as nearly as practicable over the
period of availability of the forty years' appropriations
authorized for the purpose of expediting its construction,
reconstruction, or improvement, inclusive of necessary tunnels
and bridges, through the fiscal year ending September 30, 1996,
under section 108(b) of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (70
Stat. 374), and that the entire system in all States be brought
to simultaneous completion. Insofar as possible in consonance
with this objective, existing highways located on an interstate
route shall be used to the extent that such use is practicable,
suitable, and feasible, it being the intent that local needs, to
the extent practicable, suitable, and feasible, shall be given
equal consideration with the needs of interstate commerce.
(3) Transportation needs of 21st century. - Congress declares
that -
(A) it is in the national interest to preserve and enhance
the surface transportation system to meet the needs of the
United States for the 21st Century;
(B) the current urban and long distance personal travel and
freight movement demands have surpassed the original forecasts
and travel demand patterns are expected to continue to change;
(C) continued planning for and investment in surface
transportation is critical to ensure the surface transportation
system adequately meets the changing travel demands of the
future;
(D) among the foremost needs that the surface transportation
system must meet to provide for a strong and vigorous national
economy are safe, efficient, and reliable -
(i) national and interregional personal mobility (including
personal mobility in rural and urban areas) and reduced
congestion;
(ii) flow of interstate and international commerce and
freight transportation; and
(iii) travel movements essential for national security;
(E) special emphasis should be devoted to providing safe and
efficient access for the type and size of commercial and
military vehicles that access designated National Highway
System intermodal freight terminals;
(F) the connection between land use and infrastructure is
significant;
(G) transportation should play a significant role in
promoting economic growth, improving the environment, and
sustaining the quality of life; and
(H) the Secretary should take appropriate actions to preserve
and enhance the Interstate System to meet the needs of the 21st
Century.
(c) It is the sense of Congress that under existing law no part
of any sums authorized to be appropriated for expenditure upon any
Federal-aid system which has been apportioned pursuant to the
provisions of this title shall be impounded or withheld from
obligation, for purposes and projects as provided in this title, by
any officer or employee in the executive branch of the Federal
Government, except such specific sums as may be determined by the
Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with the Secretary of
Transportation, are necessary to be withheld from obligation for
specific periods of time to assure that sufficient amounts will be
available in the Highway Trust Fund to defray the expenditures
which will be required to be made from such fund.
(d) No funds authorized to be appropriated from the Highway Trust
Fund shall be expended by or on behalf of any Federal department,
agency, or instrumentality other than the Federal Highway
Administration unless funds for such expenditure are identified and
included as a line item in an appropriation Act and are to meet
obligations of the United States heretofore or hereafter incurred
under this title attributable to the construction of Federal-aid
highways or highway planning, research, or development, or as
otherwise specifically authorized to be appropriated from the
Highway Trust Fund by Federal-aid highway legislation.
(e) It is the national policy that to the maximum extent possible
the procedures to be utilized by the Secretary and all other
affected heads of Federal departments, agencies, and
instrumentalities for carrying out this title and any other
provision of law relating to the Federal highway programs shall
encourage the substantial minimization of paperwork and interagency
decision procedures and the best use of available manpower and
funds so as to prevent needless duplication and unnecessary delays
at all levels of government.