(a) Immediately after approval of an application, the FHWA Division Administrator will notify the applicant to proceed with preparation of a program which defines the work needed to restore or replace the damaged facilities. It should be submitted to the FHWA Division Administrator within 3 months of receipt of this notification. The FHWA field office will assist the applicant and other affected agencies in preparation of the program. This work may involve joint site inspections to view damage and reach tentative agreement on type of permanent corrective work to be undertaken. Program data should be kept to a minimum, but should be sufficient to identify the approved disaster or catastrophe and to permit a determination of the eligibility and propriety of proposed work. If the damage survey summary report is determined by the FHWA Division Administrator to be of sufficient detail to meet these criteria, additional program support data need not be submitted.

(b) Project procedures.

(1) Projects for permanent repairs shall be processed in accordance with regular Federal-aid procedures. In those cases where a regular Federal-aid project in a State similar to the ER project would be handled under the project oversight exceptions found in title 23, United States Code, the ER project can be handled in a similar fashion subject to the following two conditions:

(i) Any betterment to be incorporated into the project and for which ER funding is requested must receive prior FHWA approval; and

(ii) The FHWA reserves the right to conduct final inspections on all ER projects. The FHWA Division Administrator has the discretion to undertake final inspections on ER projects as deemed appropriate.

(2) Simplified procedures, including abbreviated plans should be used where appropriate.

(3) Emergency repair meets the criteria for categorical exclusions pursuant to 23 CFR 771.117 and normally does not require any further NEPA approvals.

[52 FR 21948, June 10, 1987, as amended at 61 FR 67212, Dec. 20, 1996; 65 FR 25445, May 2, 2000]