Expedited Planning and Environmental Review of Highway Projects (2012) / Chapter Skim
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82 C h a p t e r 4 This chapter documents the case studies gathered from the research and interviews described in Chapter 1. Each case study is relatively brief, focusing on the application of the specific expediting strategy it illustrates, including the project attributes that influenced the success of the strategy, the likely constraints it addressed or proactively avoided, and the lessons learned by the project team.
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83 11th Street bridges requires drivers to leave the freeways and navigate local roads to access other freeway connections. This results in highly congested neighborhood streets, degraded air quality, increased noise, and other factors affecting transportation access, mobility, and quality of life.
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84 District and for the division office in many years. This lack of experience and unfamiliarity with the type and scale of this project posed a challenge to expediting delivery.
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85 problems and potential solutions. The primary problem identified was congestion caused by the diversion of traffic from the Interstate to local streets as a result of the missing freeway-to-freeway connections.
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86 meetings occurred with agencies such as NPS and SHPO. DDOT found that it was most effective to solicit initial input and concerns from the agencies and then propose an approach based on that initial input.
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87 more traditional approach, it would not be unusual for this process to take weeks to complete. DDOT leadership committed to making quick policy and other decisions to keep the project advancing.
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88 of this emphasis, they avoid having the public engage in voting exercises on the alternatives, although they do have the public provide input or even vote on their preferences regarding issues, functions, or project components. This approach solicits more precise input about public preferences and reduces the risk of dividing communities through attachment to specific alternatives.
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89 SHPO concurring "that the replacement of the (Flagler Memorial) Bridge is not a substantial depletion of the resource type, primarily based on nonhistoric changes to the bridge and the existence of more intact examples of similar bridge types.
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90 about the potential effects that a project might have on resources protected or managed by their agency. This initial screening of planned projects allows participants to review project purpose and need statements and to comment on the potential effects of projects on environmental and community resources very early in the planning process.
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91 Project Overview and Timeline The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (Metro) , in cooperation with the Tennessee DOT (TDOT)
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92 the traditional interchange design and the ROD adopting the roundabout design. Had the project attempted to advance the traditional design, it would likely have been delayed by stakeholder opposition.
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93 project through Milwaukee includes numerous interchanges and crossing roadways. The majority of traffic volume in the urbanized areas results from morning and evening commutes.
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94 within WisDOT and with FHWA. The team implemented an early strategy to draft and review the EIS.
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95 Change-Control Practices Biweekly WisDOT team meetings with the State Secretary's staff provided clear communication of project costs and changes and opportunities to discuss why changes were occurring. This strategy was another component of project management that was replicated from previous management efforts within WisDOT.
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96 areas for the construction cranes would have affected some of these wetlands, triggering a difficult mitigation obligation. BPA worked closely with these groups to provide extensive and innovative mitigation for the project, including • Developing new construction techniques using micropiles for towers; • A commitment to not fill a "single square foot" of any wetland type; • Agreeing to protective construction practices such as the use of helicopter sky cranes, replacement of hydraulic fluid with nontoxic vegetable oil, hand-digging selected footings, and no river crossings by construction equipment; • Acquiring title or easements to 1,100 acres of forest lands for preservation to compensate for 90 acres of cleared right-of-way; • Removal of preexisting roads inside the watershed as mitigation; • Purchasing a $100 million liability policy to cover the cost of a filtration plant in the event that BPA's project should cause a water quality violation leading to a requirement to treat drinking water; • $6 million in funding for the City of Seattle to protect and restore the watershed further; and • A promise not to expand the right-of-way in the future.
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97 water supply would be safe required both innovative construction techniques and risk management tools. Expediting Strategies Highly Responsive Public Engagement After the release of the DEIS, BPA received extensive comments and criticisms of the project and the review processes.
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98 improvements. FTA approved $4.25 billion to fund several major projects.
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99 for assessing impacts and developing mitigation would be needed to streamline this activity across all the projects. Cumulative effects would be especially challenging if assessed separately for each project by different teams.
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100 those areas most likely to affect decision making improved understanding of the trade-offs and choices for major decisions. Finally, as each project matured through the NEPA process, the findings of the project were incorporated into the cumulative effects analyses for the projects that follow it.
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101 and I-95/US-1, which became known as the ICC, was retained in plans to address a need for improved east–west mobility between those two north–south corridors. In 1972, the Montgomery County Planning Board recommended, and the Montgomery County Council approved, the alignment of a new highway east of I-270 and north of Rockville to the eastern border of Montgomery County.
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102 with an estimated value of over $97 million. These stewardship and mitigation projects include the following: • Nearly 74,000 linear feet of stream restoration in local watersheds.
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103 environment would be at or below agreed-on thresholds. An important provision of this commitment was that the independent environmental monitor reported not to the ICC project team or MSHA at large, but to several environmental regulatory agencies.
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104 decision making on the Milton–Madison Bridge project was exacerbated in two ways. First, the project spanned two states, which effectively doubled the agencies sponsoring the project: two DOTs and two state FHWA offices.
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105 The media relations manager developed and implemented a simple and consistent strategy for working with local media outlets. A fundamental element of this strategy was early identification and clear communication of the key expectations of the agencies leading the project, such as the need for a single bridge that could be largely paid for with state funding.
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106 Project Overview I-70 in Missouri was constructed in the 1950s, spanning approximately 200 miles between Kansas City and St. Louis.
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107 several challenges. The following steps were taken to implement this strategy: • Make strategy decision quickly.
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108 intended progression through the tiered evaluations and decision making. Outreach during the first tier was sometimes difficult because the development of different strategies was very rough and preliminary, which didn't allow for detailed analysis of impacts.
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109 required to conduct separate Section 106 reviews for the same proposed undertaking. Lengthy Review and Revision Cycles The traditional agency-by-agency, four-step Section 106 review process (initiate consultation, identify historic properties, determine impacts, and resolve adverse effects)
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110 be responsible for answering applicants' questions regarding Section 106 compliance; and • Encourages BTOP and BIP applicants to design their activities to avoid historic properties. Lessons Learned At this time, it is difficult to know how well the NPA will work in terms of Section 106 review schedule compliance, the number of projects that moved from the award to completion stage within the 3-year ARRA schedule, or the number of projects that met or will meet the 5-year ARRA schedule, which was a modification for unexpected contingencies.
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111 2. Undertakings with potential to cause effects to historic properties.
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112 to language. Other amendments have been more significant, such as adding types of projects that are excluded from consultation entirely.
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113 This case study discusses just three of the barriers: significant and diverse environmental impacts and issues, a large number of permitting agencies with overlapping jurisdictions, and a program of unprecedented scale and complexity. Conflicting Resource Values and Difficulty Agreeing on Impacts and Mitigation The bridges program faced significant environmental concerns and required coordination and approvals from a large number of regulatory agencies, including • Section 404 permitting and NEPA coordination with the U.S.
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114 Early Commitment of Construction Funding During the early planning phase of the bridges program the state legislature approved House Bill 2142, which authorized an increase in motor vehicle and trucking fees to provide full funding for the $1.3 billion bridge replacement and repair program. The key factor that made this an expediting tool was that this funding was approved while the program was in early planning and had not yet initiated preliminary engineering or NEPA.
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115 development requires at least two key components. First, the performance standard outcome must be clearly measurable through an agreed-on method.
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116 payments, but saved an estimated $6 million by avoiding a projected 7-month delay to start construction. Project Overview The Woodrow Wilson Bridge project is the largest public works project in the mid-Atlantic region.
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117 Expediting Strategy Incentive Payments to Expedite Relocations The VDOT right-of-way team knew that relocating 333 apartment units in 8 months could not be accomplished simply by implementing traditional approaches to the relocation process. Fortunately, FHWA, AASHTO, and NCHRP had recently completed a study of transportation agencies in England, Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands to review best practices for property acquisition and utility relocation.
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118 references 1.
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