Transportation Department, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
PHMSA is updating its regulations to allow operators to apply modern risk management principles in addressing the safety of gas pipelines affected by class location changes. Relying on an approach originally developed in the 1950s, PHMSA's regulations use class locations to provide an additional margin of safety in the design, construction, testing, operation, and maintenance of gas pipelines based on population density. When the class location of a pipeline changes due to an increase in population density, an operator may need to take certain actions to confirm or to revise the maximum allowable operating pressure of a segment. Because the methods traditionally used for that purpose do not account for modern risk management principles, PHMSA has granted special permits for more than two decades allowing operators to use an integrity-management-based alternative. This final rule adopts that `IM alternative' by regulation to provide operators with an additional method for confirming or restoring the maximum allowable operating pressure of certain eligible segments that experience class location changes.
Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration 49 CFR Part 192 [Docket No. PHMSA-2017-0151; Amdt. No. 192-155] RIN 2137-AF29 ( printed page 1608) AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Department of Transportation (DOT). ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: PHMSA is updating its regulations to allow operators to apply modern risk management principles in addressing the safety of gas pipelines affected by class location changes. Relying on an approach originally developed in the 1950s, PHMSA's regulations use class locations to provide an additional margin of safety in the design, construction, testing, operation, and maintenance of gas pipelines based on population density. When the class location of a pipeline changes due to an increase in population density, an operator may need to take certain actions to confirm or to revise the maximum allowable operating pressure of a segment. Because the methods traditionally used for that purpose do not account for modern risk management principles, PHMSA has granted special permits for more than two decades allowing operators to use an integrity-management-based alternative. This final rule adopts that `IM alternative' by regulation to provide operators with an additional method for confirming or restoring the maximum allowable operating pressure of certain eligible segments that experience class location changes. DATES: This rule is effective March 16, 2026. The incorporat…
Other Federal Register documents from the same docket.
Citation: 91 FR 1608
