Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments for a New Information Collection
The FHWA has forwarded the information collection request described in this notice to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve a new information collection. We are r...
The FHWA has forwarded the information collection request described in this notice to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve a new information collection. We are required to publish this notice in the
Federal Register
by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
DATES:
Please submit comments by July 17, 2026.
ADDRESSES:
You may submit comments identified by DOT Docket ID Number 0694 by any of the following methods:
Website:
For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to
https://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
Fax:
1-202-493-2251.
( printed page 36647)
Mail:
Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier:
U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Christina Currier,
christina.currier@dot.gov,
or Stephanie James,
stephanie.james@dot.gov,
Office of Infrastructure, Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. Office hours are from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
We published a
Federal Register
Notice with a 60-day public comment period on this information collection on March 13, 2026, at [91 FR 12483]. The notice received 1 comment. The comment and FHWA's response are below:
The South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) submitted a formal response that focuses on clarifying who is required to report, reducing reporting frequency, and addressing technical challenges in data collection.
FHWA Response
On Applicability and Respondents:
The notice defines “Respondents” as 50 State DOTs, local/state governments, territories, and educational institutions that may apply. The collection is specifically titled “Performance Measures for Highway Construction Training Program (HCTP) Grant,” supporting the interpretation that these measures apply only to recipients of the HCTP grant.
On Reporting Frequency:
The NOFO required quarterly and annual performance measure reporting and the sixteen current recipients have not expressed concerns about this frequency as it is common in the workforce development industry.
On Administrative Burden:
The FHWA estimates the “Average Burden per Response” to be 20 minutes per form. SDDOT's comment suggests that the actual time required to gather and verify contractor data (such as median wages and six-month retention) may significantly exceed this 20-minute estimate. FHWA understands that specific data may be difficult to obtain but requests that recipients provide readily available data.
Title:
Performance Measures for Highway Construction Training Program (HCTP) Grant.
Background:
The demand for highway construction, maintenance, and operations workers is growing, while at the same time, emerging technologies require these workers to have new skills. According to a 2022 national survey by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), more than 70 percent of construction firms reported difficulty finding qualified trade and craft workers and 90 percent reported difficulty filling salaried positions. Government agencies, trade organizations, private agencies, and local and Tribal communities nationwide need new, collaborative approaches to meeting this challenge.
The predecessor to the HCTP, the Transportation Education Development Program, was originally established as a pilot program in 2005 by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (Pub. L. 109-59) to provide grants to institutions of higher education to enhance transportation education and workforce development through “partnership[s]with industry and State departments of transportation (State DOT).” Now codified at 23 U.S.C. 504(f), amendments in Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act (IIJA) changed the program name to Transportation Education and Training Development and Deployment Program, expanded the type of entities eligible for grants and the activities that can be funded, and for the first time made State DOTs eligible grant recipients. The program will now be known as HCTP.
In 2016, FHWA collaborated with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, AGC, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, and the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration to establish the Highway Construction Workforce Partnership (HCWP) Pilot Program. The two-year HCWP Pilot Program brought together working groups of highway, education, and workforce system representatives in six cities and six states to recruit, train, and place individuals into highway occupations.
In 2021, HCWP was selected as a focus program for the FHWA's Every Day Counts-6 (EDC-6) Program, a State-based model to identify and rapidly deploy proven but under-used innovations. The program was renamed the Strategic Workforce Development (SWD) Initiative and was also a focus program in EDC-7. The SWD has been adopted by 43 States. These programs developed valuable resources for workforce development stakeholders, which can be found in the SWD Toolkit available at
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/innovativeprograms/centers/workforce_dev/hcwp/toolkit/.
The HCTP grants will continue to build on the lessons learned through the HCWP and the SWD Initiative. This opportunity represents $4,226,871 in funding available to applicants at no more than $300,000 for each award.
This collection request, included in the NOFO for the HCTP Grant requirements, provides a resource to track the progress of the awarded programs through the period of performance of up to two years. The following performance measures are quarterly and are as follows: the number of entrants, the number of completed programs, the number of job placements, the median wages at time of hire and their progression at 180 days into the job placement, the number of trainees retained, and, if an educational institution, the number of enrollees in a particular curriculum. There are two remaining performance measures to be submitted annually. They are both related to educational institutions and the number of credentials attained with the corresponding skill gains in post-secondary educational opportunities.
Respondents:
50 State DOTs, local and state governments, District of Columbia, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, United States territories of American Samoa, Guam, N. Marina Is., and the Virgin Islands (4 territories), and educational institutions may apply.
Frequency:
Performance Measures for the HCTP Grant must be submitted quarterly and annually, respectively.
Estimated Average Burden per Response:
2 hours per response.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours:
160 hours total burden.
Public Comments Invited:
You are asked to comment on any aspect of this information collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed collection is necessary for the FHWA's performance; (2) the accuracy of the estimated burdens; (3) ways for the FHWA to enhance the quality, usefulness, and clarity of the collected information; and (4) ways that the burden could be minimized, including the use of electronic technology, without reducing the quality of the collected information. The agency will summarize and/or include your comments in the request for OMB's clearance of this information collection.
Use this for formal legal and research references to the published document.
91 FR 36646
Web Citation
Suggested Web Citation
Use this when citing the archival web version of the document.
“Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments for a New Information Collection,” thefederalregister.org (June 17, 2026), https://thefederalregister.org/documents/2026-12134/agency-information-collection-activities-request-for-comments-for-a-new-information-collection.