Sec. 1204. National Freight Strategic Plan
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Subtitle III as amended by section 1203 of this Act, is further amended by adding after section 5403 the following: Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of the Comprehensive Transportation and Consumer Protection Act of 2015 , the Secretary, in consultation with State departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, and other appropriate public and private transportation stakeholders, shall develop, and after providing notice and an opportunity for comment on a draft national freight strategic plan, post on the public website of the Department of Transportation, a national freight strategic plan that— provides an assessment of the condition and performance of the national freight network; identifies any bottlenecks on the national freight network that create significant freight congestion based on a quantitative methodology developed by the Secretary, which shall include— information from the Freight Analysis Framework of the Federal Highway Administration; and to the maximum extent practicable— an estimate of the cost of addressing each bottleneck; and any operational improvements that could be implemented to address each bottleneck; includes forecasts of freight volumes, based on the most recent data available, for the 5-year period beginning in the year during which the plan is issued; identifies major trade gateways and national freight corridors that connect major economic corridors, population centers, trade gateways, and other major freight generators for current and forecasted traffic and freight volumes; provides an assessment of statutory, regulatory, technological, institutional, financial, and other barriers to improved freight transportation performance, including opportunities for overcoming such barriers; identifies— routes for providing access to energy exploration, development, installation, or production areas; and routes for providing access to major areas for manufacturing, agriculture, or natural resources; includes best practices for— improving the performance of the national freight network; and improving urban and rural access to critical freight corridors; includes a process for— addressing multistate projects; and encouraging jurisdictions to collaborate on multistate projects; identifies— locations or areas with high crash rates or congestion involving freight traffic; and strategies to address such issues; and includes strategies to improve freight intermodal connectivity.
Not later than 5 years after the date of completion of the first national freight strategic plan under paragraph
(1)and every 5 years thereafter, the Secretary shall update and repost on the public website of the Department of Transportation a revised national freight strategic plan, which shall include a revision of the major trade gateways and national freight corridors identified under subsection (a)(4). Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Comprehensive Transportation and Consumer Protection Act of 2015 , the Secretary shall— begin developing new tools and improving existing tools to support State-based outcome-oriented, performance-based approaches to evaluate proposed freight-related and other transportation projects, including— methodologies for systematic analysis of benefits and costs on a national and regional basis; tools for ensuring that the evaluation of freight-related and other transportation projects could consider safety, economic competitiveness, urban and rural access, and system condition in the project selection process; improved methods for data collection and trend analysis; encouragement of public-private partnerships to carry out data sharing activities and maintaining the confidentiality of all proprietary data; and other tools to assist in effective transportation planning; identify transportation-related model data elements to support a broad range of evaluation methods and techniques to assist in making transportation investment decisions; and consider, in consultation with other relevant Federal agencies, any improvements to existing freight flow data collection efforts that could— reduce identified freight data gaps and deficiencies; and help to improve forecasts of freight transportation demand. The Secretary shall consult with other Federal agencies, State governments, and other stakeholders to develop, improve, and implement the tools and collect the data described in paragraph (1). .