23 CFR 667 Resiliency Requirements on Federal Aid Projects

Sites of Repeated Disaster Damage (SORDD Table) (XLSX)

Background

Public safety and system resiliency are an important part of Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) management of the federal-aid transportation system.  Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP–21) established requirements to conserve Federal resources and protect public safety.  MAP-21 was then supplemented with the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act.  The FAST Act supplemented MAP-21 with added provisions to protect critical transportation infrastructure on the federal-aid system.

As a result of these Acts, 23 CFR Part 667 was created.  This CFR requires State and local agencies to perform periodic evaluations to their fed-aid roads, highways, and bridges, to determine if reasonable alternatives exist to address the root cause of recurring disaster damage requiring repeated repairs.  Part of this evaluation entails the creation and maintenance of the Sites of Repeated Disaster Damage (SORDD) table and the subsequent 23 CFR 667 Resiliency Evaluation Certification on federally funded projects.  Caltrans maintains the SORRD table, which is located on the Division of Local Assistance (DLA) Emergency Relief (ER) program web page.  The table is updated after every ER eligible disaster event, to determine if any new locations should be added to the table.  A minimum of once, every four years, the entire table is reviewed and updated as needed.

The other part of the evaluation requires the State and local agencies to evaluate each of their federal aid projects, “to determine if reasonable alternatives exist to address the root cause of recurring disaster damage requiring repeated repairs,” prior to:

• Programming the project’s RW and CON phases in the FTIP/FSTIP.
• Authorizing the project’s RW and CON phases of work.

To help local agencies comply with this requirement a three-step procedure has been developed.  These steps are: 

1. Evaluate
2. Document
3. Report

During evaluation, the local agency compares the location of their project to the locations of repeated disaster damage listed on the SORDD table. If one or more SORDD locations are found to be within the limits of the project, the local agency then considers alternatives to address the root cause of the repeated disaster damage.  The 23 CFR 667 Resiliency Evaluation Certification form and the 23 CFR 667 Resiliency Worksheet form help guide the local agency through this process. 

These two forms also serve as documentation to show the local agency complied with the 23 CFR 667 requirement. Once the evaluation is completed, the agency keeps this documentation in their project folder.  The local agency will need this documentation to program the Right-of-Way and Construction phases into the FTIP/FSTIP.  A copy of 23 CFR 667 Certification will be required to program the RW and CON phases of work in the FTIP/FSTIP.  The local agency will also need to provide the forms as part of their Request For Authorization (RFA) package for the Right-of-Way and Construction phases of work.  Without this proof of certification, the RFAs will be returned to the local agency unprocessed.

In addition to filing the forms in the project folder, a copy of the completed evaluation should be sent to the metropolitan planning organization (MPO), or RTPA for Rural agencies without an MPO, and to the Caltrans e-mail address 23CFR667.Compliance@dot.ca.gov.  The State and MPOs, or RTPAs for Rural agencies without an MPO, are encouraged to include consideration of the evaluations received, during their development of their transportation plans and programs, including their TIPs and the STIPs, and during the environmental review process when developing projects.

Each of the three steps is outlined in the 23 CFR 667 Guidance – Resiliency Requirements on Federal Aid Projects, linked in the Resources and Information section of this web page.

Optimally, the evaluation should be completed during the planning stage of the project, prior to the programming of the project into the FTIP/FSTIP.  Alternatively, in cases where the planning stage was skipped, or too brief to permit proper evaluation with consideration of possible alternatives, the 23 CFR 667 resiliency evaluation and certification may take place during the projects Preliminary Engineering (PE) phase.  Then, once the certification is complete, the RW and CON phases of work may be programmed into the FTIP/FSTIP. 

Limited Exceptions

All federally funded road and bridge projects must comply with the 23 CFR 667 Resiliency requirements, with only a few limited exceptions.  Theses exceptions are road and bridge projects on a Federal owned or Tribe owned roadway, and the Emergency Repair portion of Emergency Relief projects.  Emergency Repairs being the Emergency Opening (EO) work performed on the Emergency Relief project.  Note, the Permanent Repair (PR) portion of Emergency Relief projects is not exempt must comply with 23 CFR 667 requirements.  Even though Emergency Relief projects are not required to be programmed in the FTIP/FSTIP, the PR phases of work for RW and CON may not be authorized until the project has completed the 23 CFR 667 Certification process.

Below you will find more guidance on the three-step project evaluation procedure, 23 CFR 667 Resiliency Certification form, the 23 CFR 67 Resiliency Worksheet form, and other helpful documents and links