FHWA Seeks Comments on New Information Collection for Highway Construction Training Program

Content

ACTION:

Notice and request for comments.

SUMMARY:

The FHWA invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for a
new information collection, which is summarized below under
Supplementary Information
. We are required to publish this notice in the
Federal Register
by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES:

Please submit comments by May 12, 2026.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments identified by DOT Docket ID Number 0265 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 http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.

Fax: 1-202-493-2251.

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, (334)-530-0240, 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:

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 (P.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 curricula. 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. 56 respondents
in total.

Frequency: Performance Measures for the HCTP Grant must be submitted quarterly and annually, respectively.

Estimated Average Burden per Response: 20 minutes per form requested.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 19 total annual burden hours.

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.

(Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. chapter 35, as amended; and 49 CFR 1.48.)

Issued on: March 11, 2026. Jazmyne Lewis, Information Collection Officer. [FR Doc. 2026-04917 Filed 3-12-26; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910-22-P

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