1 / 22

Closing Session

Closing Session. Highlights. Over 265 participants! 98.182% representation of Division and FLH offices Bud Wright said ... FHWA serves as an agent of change, a leader of change that can help improve the quality of life. The key to success is building relationships and trust.

fagan
Download Presentation

Closing Session

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Closing Session

  2. Highlights • Over 265 participants! • 98.182% representation of Division and FLH offices • Bud Wright said ... • FHWA serves as an agent of change, a leader of change that can help improve the quality of life. • The key to success is building relationships and trust. • Meeting the Vital Few Goals would leave an important legacy for us all.

  3. Highlights (cont’d) • Cindy Burbank said ... • Federal agencies, collectively, need to redesign the process to make relationships with resource agencies better. • Three focus areas: 1. Work together to improve the quality of documentation and process 2. Linking planning and NEPA is Key 3. Continue to Improve the timeliness of the NEPA process

  4. Highlights (cont’d) • From the Field... • Three important roles for FHWA, include: 1. Working for the public good 2. Striving to achieve trust 3. Building partnerships to succeed • Three tools to lead change, include: 1. Passion 2. Support 3. Communication

  5. Highlights (cont’d) • CEQ said ... • FHWA does an EXCELLENT job and will continue to improve the process.

  6. The Week in Review • Vital Few Goals and Performance Measures • Interaction of Roads and Nature • Federal Lands - State of the Practice • Making Right-of-Way Work for You • Applied Technologies/GIS • Environmental Competency Building Program • Historic Preservation

  7. The Week in Review (cont’d) • Air Quality and NEPA • Tribal Issues • Context Sensitive Solutions • Reauthorization • Legal Issues • Indirect and Cumulative Impacts • Section 4(f)

  8. The Week in Review (cont’d) • Linking Planning and NEPA • Solutions to Delays Resulting from Section 7 • Public Involvement • Earth Fill and Water • Western Session • Big States Session • NAEP • AASHTO

  9. What’s New • Effective Practices • ReTRAC Compliance tracking system • ETDM • Tools and Technology • Geographic Information Systems • Negotiated Timeframe Wizard • Linking Planning and NEPA • New approach to EIS documentation

  10. What’s Ahead • Section 4(f) Policy Paper Revision • Litigation Overview Paper • Legal Sufficiency Guidance • Beneficial Uses Programmatic • Environmental Competency Building Program

  11. What We Heard • Friendly and dedicated group of people. • We are confronted by challenges and opportunities. • Environmental Stewardship can be viewed as a litmus test on environmental progress. • Find your own environmental ethic.

  12. What We Heard (cont’d) • Emphasize the role of the agency (FHWA) – not just the individual. • Successful dialogue with partners for one project will help future projects. • Keys to working with tribes are outreach, consultation, coordination, and communication. • Extra effort to involve the community early on will save time in the long run and will help the community develop ownership of the project.

  13. What We Heard (cont’d) • Everybody has a finance problem – have to form collaborative agreements to creatively deal with funding and staff shortages. • Keep informed, engaged, and do not relinquish control of the process. • Engage legal representation and opinions as early as possible in the NEPA process, especially if a suit is anticipated.

  14. What We Heard (cont’d) • We are always asked to provide more data – try to adhere to that which is required by law and regulatory statutes. • Document for making decisions not a document of the decision. • Need better record administration. • We need guidance and technical assistance.

  15. What We Heard (cont’d) • As the state of science changes, the documents need to reflect this. • The Environmental Competency Building (ECB) Program needs to address the environmental program – “beyond NEPA”. • Incorporate NEPA training into university curriculum for engineers. • Worst Case Scenarios are not reasonable considerations and do not inform decisions.

  16. What We Heard (cont’d) • There are many lower cost Context Sensitive Solutions. • Critter crossings should be included in CSS-speak and examples. • To better mitigate transportation projects, we need to understand the ecosystem. Avoid considering mitigation as a challenge and start thinking of it as an ecological problem to solve.

  17. What We Heard (cont’d) • Guessing is not allowed. Make assumptions based on facts, trends, and modeling. • Integrating planning and NEPA takes hard work, leadership, vision and fortitude.

  18. What’s Next • Stay the course with environmental streamlining, stewardship and the Vital Few Goals. • Get to Reauthorization, (please!) • Act on recommendations of the Executive Order Task Force Work Groups. • Think about and address questions and comments raised during the Conference. • Make proceedings available.

  19. Workshop Proceedings • Available in early Fall 2004 • Will include: • Session Summaries • Presentations • Participant List • Summary of Evaluations • Available: • www.environment.fhwa.dot.gov/conference • CD-ROM by request via website

  20. Next Conference • Should we do this again ? • … When? • … Where? • … What ? • …. Theme of the next Conference?

  21. Evaluation Forms Submit completed evaluation forms at the Registration Desk today by 4:00PM

  22. Thank you

More Related