Developing Historic Contexts for Roads: A Model for Identification and Evaluation
Focus Area
Historic Preservation/Cultural Resources
Subcommittee
Community & Cultural Concerns
Status
Archived
Cost
$250k-$499k
Timeframe
Unknown
Research Idea Scope
Urgency and Payoff
The sooner each of the objectives outlined above are accomplished, the sooner an efficient and systematic approach to evaluating National Register eligibility of roads and road-related resources can be used by the FHWA and DOTs, facilitating interagency cooperation and decision making and saving those agencies countless hours and dollars.
The proposed research would establish an efficient and systematic approach to evaluating roads and road-related resources for National Register eligibility. This approach would simplify interagency coordination and decision making, and ultimately save these agencies time and effort.
The methodology would address identification, evaluation, documentation, and registration requirements, providing state DOTs with a consistent and replicable approach to historic roads. State DOTs, SHPOs, and cultural resource professionals currently struggle with how to efficiently and consistently evaluate the significance and integrity of historic roads. Traditional methods often lead to inconsistent and unexpected eligibility recommendations. The evaluation of historic roads without benefit of resource-specific guidance or contextual information has also led to increased project costs and delays.
The national historic context for roads would provide significant key benefits to State DOTs, SHPOs, and cultural resource professionals as well. First, the national historic context would offer a succinct background and history of the overall trends and influences on road development. As a result, this general background and history does not need to be developed when preparing a historic context for a specific transportation project that may affect a historic road. Instead, time and focus can be spent on developing the local context and its relationship to the national trends. The model context outline would provide guidance for the development of a local or regional context that is adequate for Section 106 eligibility evaluation purposes.
Suggested By
ADC50 Historic and Archeological Preservation in Transportation Committee (Via TRB RNS Database)
Submitted
06/16/2014