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Fact Sheet
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ENVIRONMENTAL STREAMLINING

Purpose

To coordinate Federal agency involvement in major highway projects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process to address concerns relating to delays in implementing projects, unnecessary duplication of effort, and added costs often associated with the conventional process for reviewing and approving surface transportation projects.

Key Elements [1309]

Establishes a coordinated environmental review process by which USDOT would work with other Federal agencies to assure that major highway and transit [TRA 9004(c)] projects are advanced according to cooperatively determined time frames.

Emphasizes using concurrent, rather than sequential reviews to save time.

Establishes a dispute resolution process between the Department and other Federal agencies.

Allows States the option of including their environmental reviews in the coordinated environmental review process.

Authorizes the Secretary to approve State DOT requests to reimburse Federal agencies for expenses associated with meeting expedited time frames.

Other NEPA Related Provisions

In addition to Section 1309, a number of other sections contain provisions relating to the applicability and administration of NEPA. These are summarized below.

Planning Decisions [1203 & 1204]

Planning Factors [1203 & 1204]

Contracting for Engineering and Design Services [1205]

Design-Build Contracting [1307]

Major Investment Study Integration (1308)

Real Property Acquisition and Corridor Preservation [1309]

Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation [1503]

High Priority Projects [1601]

September 14, 1998


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