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Project Delivery/Streamlining

Recent Developments

This section describes recent developments related to project delivery/streamlining from the last six months. If you would like to suggest a recent development on this topic, please submit a short description to AASHTO (including any pertinent links) on the Share Info with AASHTO form.

• FHWA 'Successes in Stewardship' Newsletter

  View the most recent issues of FHWA's Successes in Stewardship Newsletter highlighting current environmental streamlining practices from around the country:

  • June 2019: Section 106 Tribal Agreements: Strengthening Government-to-Government Partnerships and Accelerating Project Delivery
  • February 2019: CEDAR Helps States Increase Process Efficiencies in Project Development
    to Improve Environmental Compliance
  • January 2019: The Eco-Logical Approach Helps Accelerate Project Delivery and Improve Environmental Outcomes
  • September 2018: Context Sensitive Solutions and Design: A Practical Approach to Transportation Decisionmaking
  • July 2018: Case Studies Highlight Benefits of Multimodal Roadway Design and Green Infrastructure
  • May 2018: Back to the Basics: Environmental Compliance During Emergencies
  • March 2018: Updates to the Indiana Bat and Northern Long-Eared Bat Programmatic Consultation Accelerate Project Delivery and Improve Mitigation Outcomes
  • January 2018: Back to the Basics: How FHWA Legal Staff Can Help with Project Delivery
  • December 2017: 2017 Year in Review: Key Takeaways for Accelerating Project Delivery and Improving Environmental Outcomes
  • November 2017: California’s North Coast Corridor Program Balances Infrastructure Demands and Environmental Stewardship
  • October 2017: The Endangered Species Act and Section 7 Consultations
  • September 2017: INVEST Leads to Sustainability Success and Innovation at ADOT
  • August 2017 2017 FHWA Environmental Excellence Award Winners Demonstrate Budget-Friendly Best Practices in Stewardship
  • July 2017: Back to Basics: Bridge Permitting
  • June 2017: NEPA Assignment Program Promotes Environmental Stewardship
  • May 2017: Committment and Collaboration Among FHWA and Partners Leads to Successful Atlantic Salmon Programmatic
  • April 2017: Back to the Basics: Improving the Quality of Environmental Documentation
  • March 2017: Federal Permitting Dashboard Helps FHWA Accelerate Environmental Reviews, Improves Communication with the Public
  • February 2017: New Integrating NEPA and Permitting Approach Provides Opportunities for States to Accelerate Project Delivery
  • January 2017: Understanding the Components of Section 106 Compliance
  • FHWA Successes in Stewardship Newsletter Archive (Issues back to 2001)

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• FHWA Updates FAQs Concerning Right-of-Way and Real Estate

  The Federal Highway Administration has updated a question-and-answer document regarding right-of-way and real estate issues, including state and federally funded early acquisition projects. The updates address changes introduced by Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and other changes made by a final rule published in 2016. The questions and answers concern early acquisition flexibilities that can be used by state departments of transportation and other grantees under the federal-aid highway program. For more information, link to the Frequently Asked Questions. (2-19-20)

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• GAO Urges Agencies to Develop Performance Schedules for FAST-41 Projects

  Federal agencies should take steps to fully develop performance schedules for environmental reviews for infrastructure projects, including pipelines, renewable energy production, and electricity transmission, covered under Title 41 of the FAST Act, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office. The GAO found that the process the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council used to develop draft performance schedules for the three sectors did not fully implement two of three selected best practices identified by GAO: (1) maintaining the baseline schedule and (2) conducting an analysis of potential risks. The report recommended that the Permitting Council incorporate such practices into its performance process. For more information, link to the report. (10-29-19)

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• U.S. DOT Issues Policies on NEPA Page Limits, One Federal Decision Process

  The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued two interim policies related to expediting environmental reviews for transportation projects: one on implementation of the One Federal Decision (OFD) process under the National Environmental Policy Act and a second on limiting the page length of NEPA documents. The OFD interim policy addresses how the department and its operating agencies – as well as state DOTs with NEPA assignment – will implement the OFD process for environmental reviews and authorization decisions. It implements Executive Order 13807, which required federal agencies to use the OFD process for major infrastructure projects and established a two-year goal for completing federal environmental reviews. The policy also provides direction on issues including determining covered projects, agency responsibilities, developing permitting timetables, pre-scoping activities, concurrence points, and dispute resolution. In addition, it provides information on estimating environmental review costs for purposes of tracking projects on the federal permitting dashboard. The NEPA page-length guidance calls for agencies to limit the text of environmental impact statements to 150 pages (or up to 300 pages for complex projects) and to limit the text of environmental assessments to 75 pages (or 150 pages for mitigated findings of no significant impact). It also provides best practices for effective NEPA documents. For more information, link to the OFD Interim Guidance and the NEPA Page Limits Interim Guidance. (8-22-19)

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• Study Shows How Transportation Liaisons Help Expedite Project Delivery

  A Federal Highway Administration study illustrates how state transportation agencies are successfully using funded transportation liaison positions at resource and regulatory agencies to accelerate project delivery. The study revisits six of the eight states included in a 2009 study (California, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Washington) to understand how their transportation liaison programs have evolved over the past decade. In addition, FHWA engaged three new states (Colorado, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania) to learn how liaison program practices have grown and operate today. The study, which described benefits, challenges, and recommendations, found liaison programs to be an effective option for expediting project delivery. For more information, link to the study. (July 2019)

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• FTA, California Transit Agency to Begin Expedited Project Delivery

  The Federal Transit Administration has announced that the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in California will be the first to participate in the agency’s Expedited Project Delivery Pilot Program. The agencies will begin discussions about new and innovative approaches to expedite delivery and financing of transit projects. The Santa Clara VTA put forward a project, known as the Silicon Valley Phase II Project, to extend the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) heavy rail network into San Jose and Santa Clara. The agency is one of seven to express interest in being part of the program. For more information, link to the announcement. (7-8-19)

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• White House Issues Accountability Scorecard for Major Infrastructure Projects

  The White House Office of Management and Budget has announced the launch of the inaugural Infrastructure Permitting Accountability Scorecards to track how agencies are progressing toward modernizing the permitting process for major infrastructure projects. The scorecards track how agencies are making progress with regard to the President’s One Federal Decision requirement, permitting timetables and milestones, and procedures for elevating schedule delays to senior agency officials when delays occur. Scorecards are provided that include the first two quarters of 2019 for 15 major infrastructure projects under various agencies including the Transportation Department. Information concerning the meeting of milestones, and the time and funds spent on environmental reviews will be provided in future scorecards when more data is collected. For more information, link to the Accountability Scorecard for Major Infrastructure Projects. (6-27-19)

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• Tool to Measure Public Involvement Effectiveness Provided in Research

  A tool transportation agencies can use to measure the effectiveness of their public involvement efforts has been developed under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. NCHRP Research Report 905 provides a practitioner-ready toolkit, which includes a survey, a scoring tool, and guidelines for scoring. It can be used to collect feedback from the public on several indicators and compare that feedback with the agency’s own perceptions. For the report and related resources, link here. (6-19-19)

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• AASHTO Seeks Poster Ideas for COES Meeting in Minneapolis

  AASHTO is seeking poster presentations for the Committee on Environment and Sustainability Conference Reception and Poster session on Aug. 6th, from 6 to 8 pm at the Radisson Blu in Minneapolis. The poster session is a valuable opportunity for DOTs, universities, and consultants to present recent projects, case studies, or innovative solutions to emerging environmental topics. Send a one page description to Oscar Bermudez (obermudez@aashto.org) by June 21st. If selected, you will be notified by July 12th. For more information, link here.

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• FHWA Issues Summary Report on Every Day Counts Round 5 Initiatives

  The Federal Highway Administration has issued a summary report on the fifth round its Every Day Counts program for innovative approaches to highway project delivery. The report outlines the deployment status of the 10 EDC-5 innovations. Approaches include project bundling, safe transportation for pedestrians, virtual public involvement, and weather responsive management strategies. For more information, link to the report. (5-16-19)

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• ARTBA Gives Out Transportation Project Environmental Excellence Awards

  The American Road & Transportation Builders Association presented the 2019 “Globe Awards” to transportation agencies and construction contractors for contributions to environmental protection and mitigation. The first place award in the large projects category was for the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge replacement in North Carolina, which took steps to minimize impacts on turtle nesting grounds and piping plover habitat. The second place for large projects was awarded to Washington State DOT for the Alaskan Way Viaduct/SR 99 Tunnel project in Seattle, which includes, among other things, advanced stormwater and pollution handling systems. For more information, link to the announcement. (5-15-19)

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• Researchers Develop Tool to Measure Effectiveness of Public Involvement

  A toolkit to measure the effectiveness of public involvement in transportation have been developed under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP Research Report 905, Project 08-105). The toolkit, which includes survey instruments, a scoring tool, and guidelines for use, is designed to collect feedback from the public on several indicators of effectiveness and compare that feedback with the transportation agency’s perceptions. The combined responses then can be used to compare the effectiveness of different public involvement strategies over time. For more information, link to the report. (5-6-19)

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• Study Examines Use of Categorical Exclusion PAs to Streamline Project Delivery

  Programmatic agreements with the Federal Highway Administration concerning categorical exclusions are a good first step toward more streamlined environmental reviews, according to a report issued under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program Project 25-25. The study found that many state departments of transportation have entered into agreements that create a framework for decision making about actions that qualify for categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act. Examples of programmatic agreements for categorical exclusions used by the DOTs in Arizona, Connecticut, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington, were reviewed. The report includes lessons learned, the text of the nine PAs, and a model agreement created by the FHWA. For more information, link to the report. (3-16-19)

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• Newsletter Highlights Process Efficiencies in Project Development

  A tool for accessing a variety of environmental information is outlined in the February 2019 issue of the Federal Highway Administration’s Successes in Stewardship newsletter. The issue describes the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Comprehensive Environmental Data and Reporting (CEDAR) system, which provides a single user interface to access all of an agency’s environmental data such as National Environmental Policy Act documentation, permitting information, and environmental contracts. CEDAR has been adopted by several other states including, most recently, Alaska. For more information, link to the newsletter. (3-18-19)

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• FHWA Posts Virtual Public Involvement Resources

  The Federal Highway Administration has posted resources on ways to conduct public involvement activities virtually. The agency said use of virtual public involvement tools enhances and broadens the reach of public engagement efforts by making participation more convenient and affordable for greater numbers of people. Virtual public involvement techniques – such as telephone town halls, tablet-based surveys and mobile applications, and video posts for project information – are being showcased via the fifth round of FHWA’s Every Day Counts initiative. For more information, link here. (2-25-19)

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• USDOT Report Addresses Steps Taken to Accelerate Project Delivery

  The Department of Transportation has released a report to Congress concerning Section 1317 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which addresses the acceleration of project delivery while improving environmental outcomes under the National Environmental Policy Act. The report addresses the use of technology in environmental reviews, prioritization of programmatic environmental impact statements, methods to encourage agencies to present analysis in a clear manner, and improvements to modernize process implementation. For more information, link to the report. (1-19-17)

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