[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 63 (Tuesday, April 2, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15661-15662]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-7912]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Highway Administration

[FHWA Docket No. FHWA-2001-9706]


Outdoor Advertising Control

AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of amended Federal/State agreement.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Highway Administration agrees with the Oregon 
Department of Transportation (ODOT) that the Highway Beautification 
Federal/State Agreement, dated August 26, 1974, between the United 
States of America and the State of Oregon should be amended to allow 
tri-vision signs, adjacent to routes controlled under the Highway 
Beautification Act. This change will be consistent with State law. A 
copy of the amended agreement will be mailed to the State of Oregon for 
execution.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. John Burney, Office of Real Estate 
Services, HRE-20, (202) 366-5853; or Mr. Robert Black, Office of Chief 
Counsel, HCC-31, (202) 366-1359, Federal Highway Administration, 400 
Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590. Office hours are from 7:45 
a.m. to 4:15 p.m., e.t., Monday through Friday, except Federal 
holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Electronic Access

    Internet users may access all comments received by the U.S. DOT 
Dockets, Room PL-401, by using the universal resource locator (URL): 
http://dms.dot.gov. It is available 24 hours each day, 365 days each 
year. Electronic submission and retrieval help and guidelines are 
available under the help section of the web site.
    An electronic copy of this document may be downloaded, using a 
computer, modem and suitable communications software from the 
Government Printing Office's Electronic Bulletin Board Service at (202) 
512-1661. Internet users may reach the Office of the Federal Register's 
home page at: http://www.nara.gov/fedreg and the Government Printing 
Office's web page at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara.

Background

    The Highway Beautification Act of 1965, Public Law 89-285, 79 Stat. 
1028, Oct. 22, 1965, as amended (HBA), partially codified at 23 U.S.C. 
131, requires the States to provide effective control of outdoor 
advertising in the areas adjacent to the Interstate System, the 
Federal-aid primary system in existence on June 1, 1991, and the 
National Highway System.\1\ States must provide effective control of 
outdoor advertising as a condition of receiving their full 
apportionment of Federal-aid highway funds.
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    \1\ The National Highway System, described in 23 U.S.C. 103(b), 
consists of the Interstate Highway System and other urban and rural 
principal arterial routes.
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    Outdoor advertising may be allowed by a State in zoned or unzoned 
commercial or industrial areas. Signs in such areas must conform to the 
requirements of an agreement between the State and the Federal 
Government, through the FHWA, which establishes size, lighting and 
spacing criteria consistent with customary use. The agreement between 
Oregon and the FHWA was executed on August 26, 1974. The 1974 Agreement 
includes the provision that ``No sign shall contain, include or be 
illuminated by any flashing intermittent, revolving, rotating or moving 
light or lights or moves or has any animated or moving parts.''\2\
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    \2\ The agreement between the State of Oregon and the FHWA is 
available on-line through the Document Management System (DMS) at 
the following URL: http://dms.dot.gov under FHWA Docket No. FHWA-
2001-9706.
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    On July 28, 1999, the 70th Oregon Legislative Assembly passed 
Senate Bill 855, which made an exception in Oregon's outdoor 
advertising control law to allow tri-vision signs (1999 Or. Rev. Stat. 
Vol. 9, amending title 31, ORS, chap. 377. See Or. Rev. Stat., title 
31, sections 377.710 and 377.720(d)). Tri-vision signs are composed of 
a series of three-sided rotating slats arranged side by side, either 
horizontally or vertically, that are rotated by an electromechanical 
process, capable of displaying a total of three separate and distinct 
messages, one message at a time. Prior to this change, outdoor 
advertising signs subject to Oregon's law could not have moving parts. 
This change created an exception for the tri-vision sign.
    In July 1996, the FHWA issued a policy memorandum\3\ indicating 
that the FHWA will concur with a State that can reasonably interpret 
its State/Federal agreement to allow changeable message signs if such 
interpretation is consistent with State law. The interpretation is 
limited to conforming signs, which are signs permitted under 23 U.S.C. 
131(d). Applying updated technology to nonconforming signs would be 
considered a substantial change and inconsistent with 23 CFR 
750.707(d)(5). Many States allow tri-vision signs. The frequency of 
message change and limitation in spacing for these signs is determined 
by each State.
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    \3\ The 1996 FHWA policy memorandum is available on-line through 
the Document Management System (DMS) at the following URL: http://dms.dot.gov under the FHWA Docket No. FHWA-2001-9706.
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    In April 1980 the FHWA adopted a procedure to be followed if a 
State requested a change in the Federal/State agreement. In accordance 
with this procedure, the State of Oregon first submitted its proposed 
change, along with the reasons for the change and the effects of the 
change, to the FHWA Division Office in Oregon. The Oregon Department of 
Transportation (ODOT) held a public hearing on November 8, 2000, 
regarding its proposal to amend the Federal/State agreement. The 
hearing generated fifteen comments.\4\
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    \4\ The fifteen written submissions are available on line 
through the Document Management System (DMS) at http://dms.dot.gov/ 
under FHWA Docket No. FHWA-2001-9706.
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Discussion Of Comments

    The proposed amended agreement was published in the Federal 
Register on August 17, 2001, at 66 FR 43291. We received one comment to 
the docket. The Oregon Roadside Council, a statewide organization 
dedicated to preserving Oregon's scenic beauty, objected to the change. 
It maintained that the tri-vision signs would divert a driver's 
attention and would detract from safety, especially in areas of 
increased traffic congestion.
    The FHWA is certainly concerned with the safety of the motoring 
public, and one of the bases of the HBA is ``to promote the safety * * 
* of public travel.'' 23 U.S.C. 131(a). Tri-vision signs do not appear 
to compromise the safety of the motoring public. Under Oregon law, each 
of the three faces in the tri-vision sign will be displayed for at 
least eight seconds. The next face must rotate into position within 
four seconds. A majority of the States allow tri-vision signs, with the 
time periods for displaying and rotating the sign faces being similar 
to Oregon's statutory time periods. There have been no reports of 
increases in traffic accidents in those States, due to tri-vision signs 
being installed adjacent to highways.
    The Oregon law requires each tri-vision sign to have three permits. 
Oregon has ``frozen'' the statewide number of permits for off-premise

[[Page 15662]]

billboards to approximately 1,700, with approximately 500 permits still 
unused. Tri-vision billboards should help ultimately to reduce the 
number of separate billboard sites.
    Oregon and the FHWA have completed the above procedure up to the 
point of publishing the FHWA's decision in the Federal Register. The 
FHWA has decided the Federal/State agreement between the FHWA and the 
State of Oregon should be amended as proposed. A copy of the amended 
agreement will be mailed to the State of Oregon for execution and will 
then be returned to the FHWA for signature.

Amendment to the Federal/State Agreement

    The Federal/State Agreement ``For Carrying Out the National Policy 
Relative to Control of Outdoor Advertising in Areas Adjacent to the 
National System of Interstate and Defense Highways and the Federal-Aid 
Primary System'' (the Agreement) made and entered into on August 26, 
1974, between the United States of America represented by the Secretary 
of Transportation acting by and through the Federal Highway 
Administrator and the State of Oregon shall include a new definition of 
Tri-vision signs in Section I. Definitions to read as follows:
    O. Tri-Vision sign means an outdoor advertising structure that 
contains display surfaces composed of a series of three sided rotating 
slats arranged side by side, either horizontally or vertically, that 
are rotated by an electromechanical process, capable of displaying a 
total of three separate and distinct messages, one message at a time.
    III: State Control, Paragraph A, Lighting (1) should be amended to 
read as follows:
    No sign shall contain, include or be illuminated by any flashing 
intermittent, revolving, rotating or moving light or lights or moves or 
has any animated or moving parts; however, this paragraph does not 
apply to a traffic control sign or signs providing only public 
information such as time, date, temperature, weather or similar 
information and Tri-vision signs. Tri-vision signs, however, shall not 
contain, include or be illuminated by any flashing intermittent, 
revolving, rotating or moving light or lights. The frequency of message 
change is determined by the State.

    Authority: 23 U.S.C. 131; 23 U.S.C. 315; 49 CFR 1.48.

    Issued on: March 27, 2002.
Mary E. Peters,
Administrator, Federal Highway Administrator.
[FR Doc. 02-7912 Filed 4-1-02; 8:45 am]
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