Prior to the site visit, an interview guide was developed to help facilitate discussions with staff members involved in the project. The questions in the guide were developed after reviewing project documents such as the Environmental Assessment (EA), Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), Noise Report, and Traffic Operations Report. These documents, and the initial phone conversations that were held to discuss the project, did not immediately reveal the extent to which CSS principles were incorporated throughout the project. Thus, a large set of questions was developed to gather as much information as possible so that it could later be distilled into a cohesive case study. The questions were broken down by the following categories:
Each person interviewed was asked the questions most relevant to their involvement in the project. While the interview questions served as a guide, each interview was allowed to progress as naturally as possible based on where the conversation led. For example, during the initial interview with Watford City officials, they described the massive influx of traffic that inundated their town during the oil boom, as well as the associated safety consequences. Thus, several follow up questions were asked to solicit further details about the context prior to the Watford City bypass being proposed; these questions were not originally included in the interview guide. By the time all of the interviews were completed, all questions in the guide were addressed. The complete list of questions is included in Appendix B.
Although all questions in the interview guide were addressed, an analysis of the responses received revealed the key themes that would convey a compelling story through a case study. These themes are listed in the Key Takeaways section above. Having the wide array of interview questions in the guide prior to conducting the interviews was extremely helpful and suitable in this case since there was limited information about the incorporation of CSS aspects in the project prior to the interviews. By addressing a wide variety of topic areas, the interviews helped filter the most pertinent information to include in a CSS case study. For example, one of the interview questions addressed the pedestrian and bicycling issues in Watford City prior to and after completion of the bypass. When this question was posed to the Project Manager for the bypass project he indicated that pedestrian and bicycle facilities were not considered a priority due to the rural nature of the project. Thus, these issues were not prominently highlighted in the case study other than to document pedestrian-related information revealed through the interview process. However, the interviews revealed that when heavy truck traffic was diverted from downtown Watford City to the Hwy 85 bypass, this helped to facilitate a more welcoming and safer environment for pedestrians throughout the downtown area.
