Application of Geospatial Ecological Tools and Data in the Planning and Programming Phases of Delivering New Highway Capacity: Proof of Concept—Contra Costa County Transportation Authority (2014) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 6-117
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CHAPTER 1 Executive Summary There is a clear need for a tool or tools to assist environmental planners in assessing potential effects from both new alignments as well as highway expansions. This project tested the integrated, geospatial ecological screening tool Eco-Plan for early effective transportation planning, as well as several other tools designed by federal agencies.
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developed by FHWA are specifically designed to be used during the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document phase but are definitely helpful earlier.
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CHAPTER 2 Background Overview The genesis of this project dates to 2006 with the publication of Eco-Logical: An Ecosystem Approach to Developing Infrastructure Projects (Eco-Logical) , which was signed by the Federal Highway Administration and eight other federal agencies.
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2. Reaching agreement on conservation priorities in advance of challenges from transportation or other development projects.
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The corridor's proposed study area specifically includes parts of the three counties, along with the city of Brentwood and the unincorporated community of Byron in Contra Costa, and the City of Tracy and unincorporated community of Mountain House in San Joaquin County. The potential new corridor alignments would cross significant amounts of open space and prime agricultural land.
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Table 2.1. Integrated Ecological Framework Steps Purpose Pilot Implementation Step 1: Build and strengthen collaboration and partnerships and vision Build support among relevant stakeholders to achieve a statewide or regional vision and planning process that integrates conservation and transportation/infrastructure planning The TriLink project has a very extensive outreach program and visioning process which is highlighted throughout Tasks 1 and 4.
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CHAPTER 3 Feasibility Study Introduction CCTA has tasked Parsons to prepare a detailed project feasibility study. The feasibility study is being used as the basis for preparing as assessment of how well the current process meets the nine-step Ecological Framework and what would help enhance and expedite the process.
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Project Description CCTA has initiated the TriLink study to evaluate multimodal transportation alignments in the State Route (SR) 239 corridor linking SR-4 near Brentwood to I-205 or I-580 west of Tracy in San Joaquin County.
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accomplished through a robust public outreach process including a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) , a nongovernmental organizations committee (NGO)
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South Link The proposed South Link is a four-lane major arterial facility that is 7.9 miles long, providing a connection between the Airport Connector, the Mountain House development, and the City of Tracy. The South Link would run along Byron Highway from the existing at-grade crossing with the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR)
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Figure 3.4. North Link cross-section.
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Figure 3.5. I-580 cross-section.
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Figure 3.6. Existing and proposed bicycle paths and routes.
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A qualitative evaluation has been done on the alignment options. This evaluation examined potential biological resources, water resources, cultural resources, existing infrastructure, planned infrastructure, construction cost, and right-of-way impacts.
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Figure 3.8. Farmland in TriLink project area.
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Figure 3.9. Bryon Airport, located in the TriLink project area.
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Figure 3.10. Vasco Road.
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species, the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) , and pertinent habitat conservation plans.
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into the grasslands of Altamont Pass. There are occurrence records for both species in wetlands and ponds throughout the region.
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Roadways should be designed to accommodate wildlife movement by incorporating elevated sections or wildlife undercrossing. Additionally, a preconstruction nesting migratory bird survey will need to be conducted to ensure the avoidance of active nests, should construction associated with the TriLink facility commence during the nesting season (February 1 through August 31)
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surveys done for other projects would be very helpful, particularly when during dry years like those this area has been experiencing.
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Figure 3.12. Vernal pools, wetlands, riparian areas, and alkali soils.
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Portions of all proposed alignments encroach on federal designated critical habitat for vernal pool ecosystem, cross through alkali wetlands near Bruins Road, and potentially displace wetlands near Bryon Airport. Proposed alignments also cross various natural and manmade drainages and small discontinuous areas of riparian habitat.
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Table 3.2. Conservation Banks in California Name Contact Information County Notes Brushy Creek Conservation Bank Wildlands, Inc.
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Two conservation banks near the project area have been assessed in more detail to provide more information on potential options for mitigation. Mountain House Conservation Bank Mountain House Conservation Bank is located in eastern Alameda County, north of Livermore, California.
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Figure 3.14. California Tiger Salamander Service Area Map, Mountain House Conservation Bank.
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California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) has been found on-site (federally threatened species)
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Figure 3.16. Springtown land uses and soil types.
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Figure 3.17. Major property ownership around the Springtown Preserve.
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Conservation Plans Conservation plans provide a framework for impacts and mitigation. There are two habitat conservation plans, a conservation strategy, and a multi-species plan, all near the project area.
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system of between 23,800 and 30,300 acres supporting vernal pools, native grasslands, oak woodland, savanna, streams, chaparral, and other diverse landscapes. Goals of the plan are as follows: • Purchase, restore, and permanently protect large, interconnected and biologically rich blocks of habitat.
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USFWS and CDFW, as this amendment would require a change in the conservation strategy for this part of the county. • Other alignments would not be a covered activity under the current HCP/NCCP because it is mostly located west of the railroad and is not located within the 1,500-foot-wide corridor of the existing Byron Highway.
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under the MSCP. Coverage will range from full coverage under federal and state law to CEQA coverage only.
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• California Department of Fish and Game The EACCS is a collaborative effort to preserve endangered species by developing and adopting a shared vision to guide long-term habitat protection. The EACCS will assess areas across east Alameda County for their habitat conservation value and establish guiding biological principles for conducting conservation in that part of the county.
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Potential Future Protected Areas Aside from existing protected areas, the ECCC HCP/NCCP and the EACCS have identified lands for future conservation priority. In Contra Costa County, there is a block of high-priority conservation areas west and south of Byron Airport.
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Aqueduct (Figure 3.18) and the Delta Mendota Canal, as well as several other local aqueducts, irrigation canals, and ditches.
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Figure 3.19. California farmland.
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CHAPTER 4 Existing Procedures and Tools for Assessing Environmental Issues This chapter will be presenting the procedures and tools the TriLink team used to integrate natural environment concerns into the development of proposed alignments. The team assessed the Ecological Framework, which consists of nine steps in this analysis.
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Figure 4.1. Byron Highway.
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Excellence (i-GATE) initiative, centered at the Lawrence Livermore and Sandia labs, aims to create 5,000 new jobs in the Tri-Valley region over the next 5 years.
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Goods Movement In the future, manufacturing, wholesale, and transportation are expected to be among the fastest growing industries in the east Contra Costa and west San Joaquin region. Today, the Tracy area and nearby Lathrop are key regional trucking distribution centers for the Bay Area, and trucks from these centers bound for east Contra Costa County use Byron Highway (Figure 4.4)
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Congestion Relief Figure 4.5. Congestion relief.
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Emergency Access Figure 4.6. Emergency access.
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Roadway Safety Figure 4.7. Roadway safety.
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The team is also aware that a sound ecological approach will lead to a sustainable transportation design. This approach involves creating balanced choices among environmental, economic, and social values that will benefit current and future users.
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Figure 4.8. Sustainability chart for the TriLink study.
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been held. Literally hundreds of presentations have been given to local governments, interest groups, and the steering committees.
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regional planning priorities and should be emphasized. TriLink also has potential farmto-market benefits.
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Nongovernmental Organizations The organizations listed in Table 4.2 have been integrated into the project feasibility team. Table 4.2.
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• CCTA reported that an eBART extension will be considered as part of the TriLink study • Some stakeholders asked that pedestrian and bicycle improvements be considered as part of the study. Specific concerns voiced included providing east-west bicycle crossings; maintaining bicycle access to the canals and levees along the Byron Highway; and ensuring pedestrian access consistent with the Mountain House Specific Plan.
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incubator for innovative technology spun off from the Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories. When these innovations spawn businesses, local communities hope that these businesses will choose to set up in the member communities.
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• PAC members also recommended conducting a range of outreach activities, including public workshops, city council presentations, and virtual meetings in the local communities within the study area. Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)
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Project Impetus • Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) members discussed the project impetus and its five key drivers: regional connectivity, job growth, goods movement, congestion relief, emergency access and safety.
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CHAPTER 5 Internal Data and Methods Assessment of Existing Procedures The internal data and methods of assessments are described, as well as how existing online tools currently available were utilized. In addition, the assessment includes the success of visioning and public engagement early in the planning process, which enhanced the identification of natural resource concerns so key to the success of the ecological process.
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Details of outreach efforts are provided above. However, it is important to note that two visioning sessions were held with agency stakeholders for the TriLink (SR-239)
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• Livermore City Council These efforts have assisted the team in adjusting the proposed alignments to avoid potential sensitive resources. In addition, input from these groups has also educated the team on concerns that will be raised if the project does impact a particular sensitive resource.
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addition, e-mails were sent to a list developed of study area communities and people who registered via the website to let them know about the study and the public open house meetings. Articles were also published in the Contra Costa Times, the Brentwood Press, and the Antioch Herald.
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The first public open house meeting, held on Thursday, May 2, 2013, at the Brentwood Community Center, was attended by approximately 17 people, representing residents, community organizations, and elected officials.
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Figure 5.2. TriLink project virtual meeting home page.
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Figure 5.3. TriLink Corridor project schedule.
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Assessment Methodology All of the TriLink study alignments were developed to address five key areas (regional connectivity; planned development and job realization; roadway safety; emergency response; and goods movement) identified during the stakeholder outreach process.
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The captions for Figures 5.4 through 5.12 include the colors representing constraints in the TriLink study area; the caption serves as a legend for each figure. Figure 5.4.
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Figure 5.5. Prime farmland (green)
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Figure 5.6. Conservation land (dark green)
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Figure 5.7. Alkali soils (orange)
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Figure 5.8. Vernal pools (pink)
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Figure 5.9. Vernal pools (pink)
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Figure 5.10. Wind resource area (blue)
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Figure 5.11. Delta protection zone and waterways (thin blue lines)
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Figure 5.12. Constraints map for the TriLink study area.
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More information on these biological resources, including rare plants, animal species, and soils, regarding their conservation designation would be very useful. The potential impacts to biological resources are described and summarized above.
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CHAPTER 6 Assessment of Online Tools and Databases The team evaluated six tools that are either currently available, being beta tested, or still under construction. As background for this effort, the team completed the draft feasibility study, which focused on utilizing available data sources and creating custom GIS layers, which were used in developing the potential alternatives.
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Enhancements with the Use of Geospatial Tools These tools that have the potential to improve and enhance early environmental assessment and improve interagency coordination were evaluated. The purpose of the evaluation was to determine three things: (1)
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ECOS The Environmental Conservation Online System (ECOS) tool was developed by the USFWS.
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Figure 6.1. Critical habitat tool.
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However, when checked a little further, there was a significantly longer list of threatened and endangered species that could potentially be impacted by the project. These are listed in Table 6.4.
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IPaC Background IPaC stands for Information, Planning, and Conservation. The IPaC system is designed for easy public access to information about the natural resources for which the U.S.
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Project-Specific Application The project-mapping tool is extremely easy to use and to change (see Figure 6.2)
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Figure 6.2. Example project area drawn in IPaC.
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Figure 6.3. Critical habitat.
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Figure 6.4. IPaC website.
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Figure 6.5. Another view of IPaC website.
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eNEPA The eNEPA web tool is part of the FHWA Shortening Project Delivery Toolkit. This web tool is designed to help accelerated project delivery and is also an executive and legislative directive.
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The development of the eNEPA web tool is the result of the longstanding FHWA priority to improve the timeliness and quality of the environmental review process. Since the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)
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Figure 6.7. eNEPA document Manager.
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Table 6.5. eNEPA Roles Sy st em A dm in is tr at or O rg an iza tio n M an ag er Pr oj ec t M an ag er FH W A (H Q a nd D iv isi on )
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The ESA Webtool was launched on a pilot basis in 2008 in three states: New York (March) , Washington (June)
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• Streamline decision-making review and transaction times, increase quality of documentation and submitted materials, and promote accountability and transparency through tracking and reporting. Solution The ESA Webtool was developed as an online solution to meet some of the challenges posed by paper-based development, submittal and review of BAs, including • BA Development: Sharing and managing files can be a challenge.
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within the headquarters and regional offices of both the USFWS and NOAA Fisheries in the area that the TriLink project is in. In addition, updated information on listed and endangered species that could be found in the project area, such as the birds shown in Figure 6.8, is available on this site.
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NOAA Fisheries Northwest Region • Newsroom • Protected Resources Division (Endangered Species) • What's New NOAA Fisheries Southwest Region • Newsroom • Protected Resources Division (Endangered Species)
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NEPAssist NEPAssist is a web-based tool developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
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Next Steps Though NEPAssist provides many benefits to its users, there is room for improvement. For one, it would be useful to expand the information that is available on the interactive map.
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Figure 6.9. NEPAssist graphics of available information for early environmental analysis.
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Figure 6.10. Example of a list of sites that report to the EPA.
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Figure 6.11. NEPAssist.
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EnviroAtlas EnviroAtlas is a collection of interactive tools and resources that allow users to explore benefits that people receive from nature, often referred to as ecosystem services. Key components of EnviroAtlas include the following: • A multi-scaled interactive map with broad-scale data for the lower 48 states and finescale data for selected communities.
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Data Sources and Approach EnviroAtlas brings together data on ecology and environmental resources, community infrastructure, populations, economics, and public health to create a more complete picture of the relationships between nature, people, and well-being. Using a landscape approach, EnviroAtlas can help determine the ecological conditions that might be likely in an area, as well as the underlying reasons for those conditions.
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Figure 6.13. Percentage of medium natural areas.
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Figure 6.15. Percentage of land with any IUCN status.
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Beta Test of Eco-Plan A script was provided by ICF for reviewing both Eco-plan and Eco-Plan Plus. Two team members independently reviewed each of the tools, providing feedback during each step, as well as in the questionaire.
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CHAPTER 7 Tool Usability Comparison for the TriLink Project The team used the TriLink project alternatives, concerns, and considerations in the various environmental web tools to determine the usefulness and clarity of data for environmental decision making. The tools are compared side by side below, through the use of maps from each site to illustrate the team's findings.
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Figure 7.2. Eco-Plan critical habitat and at-risk species.
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Figure 7.4.
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Figure 7.6. IPaC protected lands.
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Wetlands data comparison was done with ArcGis, Eco-Plan, EnviroAtlas, and IPaC (Figures 7.8 through 7.11)
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Figure 7.10. EnviroAtlas wetlands.
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Summary The reviewers found the side-by-side assessment using the TriLink project very informative, keeping in mind that each of the sites was designed to meet a particular agency mission. The team did factor in planned updates as well, since both IPaC and Envio Atlas clearly lay out future enhancements.
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project area. The availabilty of information is dependent both on other projects having been done in the area and the Biological Opinions having been uploaded to the ESA Webtool site.
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The team was very impressed with the breath of tools available and the amount of information that is available. These tools were designed to help agency staff better do their job in a world with inadequate staffing and a work load that requires effective web tools to complete assessments in a timely manner.
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References Alameda County Planning Department.
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EPS (Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.)
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