U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000


Skip to content
Facebook iconYouTube iconTwitter iconFlickr iconLinkedInInstagram

Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations

 
TECHNICAL REPORT
This report is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information
Back to Publication List        
Publication Number:  FHWA-HRT-17-036    Date:  March 2018
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-17-036
Date: March 2018

 

Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology Evaluation Final Report: Eco-Logical

Executive Summary

Purpose of the Evaluation

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has initiated an effort to evaluate its Research and Technology (R&T) Program. In order to do so, an evaluation team was established, made up of non-FHWA third party evaluators not involved in the research programs and projects being evaluated. For this report, the evaluation team conducted a retrospective evaluation of FHWA’s Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty Eco-Logical Program to understand the effects of FHWA’s R&T activities on the implementation of the Eco-Logical approach (i.e., ecosystem-based infrastructure planning and mitigation) to transportation project delivery by State transportation department and metropolitan planning organization (MPO) recipients of Eco-Logical funding.

Program Description

The Eco-Logical Program encompasses a vision for an infrastructure development process that endorses ecosystem-based mitigation through integrating plans and data across agency and disciplinary boundaries. Eco-Logical and related Second Strategic Highway Research Program products offer multi-step procedures to conduct integrated planning and avoid, minimize, and mitigate negative environmental impacts. The goals of the Eco-Logical Program are to improve conservation and connectivity of ecosystems as well as predictability and transparency in project development. The mission of the Program is for State transportation departments and MPOs to adopt Eco-Logical principles and methods as standard business practice with the participation of resource and regulatory agencies.

Methodology

The evaluation sought to understand the effects of FHWA R&T activities on the implementation of the Eco-Logical approach to transportation project delivery by State transportation departments and MPOs. The evaluation team collected information on FHWA’s efforts to disseminate information to stakeholders, the extent to which stakeholders have adopted the Eco-Logical approach, and stakeholder-identified process and environmental impacts obtained by agencies implementing the Eco-Logical approach. The following hypothesis was examined through this study: the Eco-Logical Program and approach have contributed to improved project delivery processes and environmental mitigation. Through this hypothesis, the following three evaluation questions were examined:

  1. How has FHWA enabled State transportation departments and MPO stakeholders to adopt the Eco-Logical approach?
  2. How are State transportation departments and MPO stakeholders incorporating the Eco-Logical approach into their business practices?
  3. How have the Eco-Logical Program and approach contributed to improved project delivery processes and environmental mitigation?

The evaluation team used the following five data collection and analysis methodologies to inform this evaluation:

Findings

Evaluation Question 1: How has FHWA enabled State transportation departments and MPO stakeholders to adopt the Eco-Logical approach?

As detailed later in chapter 3, findings for the first evaluation question include the following:

Evaluation Question 2: How are State transportation departments and MPO stakeholders incorporating the Eco-Logical approach into their business practices?

Findings for the second evaluation question are as follows:

Evaluation Question 3: How have the Eco-Logical Program and approach contributed to improved project delivery processes and environmental mitigation?

Findings for the third evaluation question are as follows:

Recommendations

Based on the findings of this evaluation, the following recommendations were made:

Recommendation: Provide additional support in the form of peer exchanges, webinars, and case studies on the Eco-Logical approach.

Funding recipients noted in interviews (which are detailed further in the body of the report) that they would like to get more information on quantifying the impacts of the Eco-Logical approach, overcoming challenges in implementing the approach, and learning from other agencies that have formalized the approach into their transportation planning processes.

Recommendation: Dedicate additional resources to the later project implementation steps of the Eco-Logical approach.

Transportation planning and project development processes occur over long time scales, and as the Eco-Logical Program reaches beyond its 10th yr, more agencies may have the ability to take on steps 5–9 of the Eco-Logical approach.

Recommendation: Identify additional opportunities to engage regional-level staff about the Eco-Logical approach, build awareness within signatory agencies, and ensure consistent information is provided to stakeholders about the program and approach.

Funding recipients expressed concern that regional staff from FHWA and other signatory agencies either did not appear to be aware of or buy-in to the approach or that they were not able to provide sufficient assistance to the recipients due to heavy workloads. However, regional staff can be invaluable to support coordination among partner agencies, provide insight to improve implementation, and lend credibility to the activity. FHWA should identify additional opportunities to engage regional-level staff in its program activities.

Recommendation: Investigate the challenges noted by recipients in obtaining buy-in for the Eco-Logical approach from local-level agencies that implement projects and share effective practices in overcoming these challenges.

In order to help boost the success of the Eco-Logical approach in project development, FHWA should explore how to engage local municipalities to consider the impacts of their projects beyond their jurisdictional boundaries. FHWA could also provide technical resources to MPOs and State transportation departments to help them overcome the challenges they face when working with their local stakeholders and document effective practices to share nationwide.

Recommendation: Further support agencies in adopting quantifiable performance measures and tracking progress over time in order to justify the benefits and advance adoption of the Eco-Logical approach.

Although FHWA has put more emphasis on tracking environmental and project delivery impacts over time, few agencies are tracking or quantifying the benefits of the Eco-Logical approach. Several funding recipients noted that quantified evidence of the benefits of an ecosystem-based approach would be useful to gain buy-in from stakeholders and justify the value of implementation. Agencies also should seek guidance on how to identify and track performance metrics.

Recommendation: Use a set of consistent questions or tracking methods to evaluate the progress of funding recipient agencies from year to year to ensure that overall progress on the Eco-Logical approach can be measured objectively in the long term.

FHWA gathers a wealth of information from funding recipients through annual interviews, which the evaluation team uses as source data to identify trends, benefits, and challenges faced by the recipients as they implement their projects. While the interview questions used by FHWA each year are generally similar, the question format and emphasis has changed slightly from year to year as the program has matured, and discussion appeared to be more freeform rather than structured. These aspects of the interviews have made it challenging for the evaluation team to assess trends over time. FHWA should consider developing a set of consistent measures or questions to track long-term progress of the Eco-Logical approach in order to analyze and communicate trends in implementation.

Conclusions

FHWA has consistently recognized the value of demonstrating its commitment to the Eco-Logical approach by providing funding and technical assistance to its stakeholders and encouraging practitioners to share results with their peers. Evidence from recipients of FHWA Eco-Logical funding indicates that the program and approach have contributed to improved project delivery processes and environmental mitigation. FHWA research and funding enabled recipients to adopt the Eco-Logical approach sooner and more comprehensively. In some instances, the agencies’ Eco-Logical projects even positioned them to attract additional funding from other sources outside of FHWA. Agencies are building relationships with partners, sharing and using data in better ways, and incorporating information gathered to inform project prioritization and to develop integrated transportation plans.

While agencies found success in using the Eco-Logical approach in planning, few recipients pursued the later steps of the approach, and few recipients identified or quantified impacts related to project delivery or environmental mitigation. In order to address these challenges, the evaluation team recommends that FHWA continue to provide technical assistance to its stakeholders and focus that assistance on specific topics such as how to quantify impacts and how to apply the Eco-Logical approach in project development. FHWA should consider opportunities to engage regional level staff within FHWA and partner agencies and to direct some technical assistance to building awareness with local agencies that implement projects. FHWA should further support agencies in adopting performance measures and tracking progress to quantify time, cost, and environmental benefits. Finally, FHWA should consider using a consistent set of questions or measures to evaluate the progress of recipient agencies each year in order to measure overall progress of the approach in the long term.

Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000
Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center | 6300 Georgetown Pike | McLean, VA | 22101