The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will host a public webinar on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. CT with a question and answer session on the re-designation of the Primary Highway Freight System (PHFS).
Registration is required to attend this event. Please register here to join the webinar.
The FHWA published a Notice of Request for Information (RFI) in the Federal Register on August 26, 2021 to solicit input from interested parties [in particular from State Freight Advisory Committees (SFACs)] regarding the re-designation of PHFS. A State submitting routes or feedback for consideration in the PHFS re-designation should provide a letter of support from or on behalf of their SFAC. Responses to the RFI must be received on or before October 25, 2021. Please refer to the original Federal Register Notice FR 2021-18350 for additional details.
Background: The Primary Highway Freight System (PHFS) is an element of the National Highway Freight Network (NHFN) which generally includes the PHFS, Critical Rural Freight Corridors, Critical Urban Freight Corridors, and other interstate portions not on the PHFS. The original PHFS destination was made by FHWA. The redesignation is being handled differently and requires FHWA to seek input from State Freight Advisory Committees on additional miles for consideration.
FHWA indicates this redesignation may include up to 1,246 miles of additional PHFS mileage and due to data reconciliation approximately 960 miles are available to be designated as determined based on responses to this RFI. The RFI requests input on 3 options: 1) Equal distribution of new miles across all 50 states, or 18 miles for Illinois; 2) Equal distribution to 18 high mileage states which would equal approximately 53 miles for Illinois; or 3) Using the mileage to add newly designated Interstates.
