|
Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office Federal Highway Administration, Oregon Division Wayne Kober Mason, Bruce & Girard NOAA Fisheries Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Oregon Department of State Lands Oregon Department of Transportation Oregon State Historic Preservation Office Parametrix US Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District US Environmental Protection Agency, Oregon Operations Office US Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Office US Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region |
For Excellence in Environmental Streamlining:The Oregon Bridge Replacement Environmental Stewardship ProgramOregon had hundreds of existing bridges on State highways that are also key freight routes in need of replacement or repair. Oregon DOT brought together its environmental regulatory and resource agency partners to develop a nationally innovative environmental streamlining approach to meet the goals of shortening and reducing administrative processes and procedures while achieving excellent environmental performance and community enhancement. Some of the innovations include preparation of an Environmental Baseline Report for every bridge to inform design teams of all opportunities to avoid or minimize impacts. Environmental Performance Standards that serve as a single, common set of terms, conditions and design targets that apply to all bridge projects and form the basis of programmatic or batched permits from multiple agencies, and the Comprehensive Mitigation and Conservation Strategy (CMCS) that integrates wetlands mitigation with habitat conservation. The CMCS allows impacts to be evaluated at the ecosystem level and uses a single accounting system for assigning mitigation credit and debit across all agencies. It establishes a program-level mitigation and conservation approach along with the establishment of specific conservation and mitigation banks that serve regional ecological priorities. The Oregon Bridge Replacement Stewardship program is an outstanding example of interagency coordination and collaboration that provides significant benefits to transportation and the environment by fundamentally changing how a major construction program and numerous State and Federal environmental laws are administered and implemented within existing legal frameworks. Project Contributors:
|
