U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Washington Division
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Washington Division has developed the following Project Delivery Report which highlights some of the broad array of activities / initiatives / approvals we perform to assist the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and local agencies in delivering projects.
Presented below and herein are charts / graphs of project delivery measures. Additional charts / graphs will be added in future reports as new data is gathered for supplemental measures. On the last page we highlight other project delivery challenges.
We will continue to add to / revise the performance measures for future reporting and welcome any suggestions. Our goal is to continue to set the standard for excellence in FHWA in project delivery.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Activity
In a typical year, we review and approve about 10 amendments to the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). WSDOT sends these amendments to FHWA and FTA for joint review and approval on a monthly basis.
The Recovery Act has resulted in almost twice the number of projects that need to be amended into the STIP. We have worked closely with FTA and WSDOT to shorten the review and approval time from 1 month to 2 weeks for each amendment.
As of the end of March, we have approved STIP Amendments with a total of 112 ARRA-FHWA projects and 40 ARRA-FTA projects.
The chart shows the timeliness of approval of project authorization for the Recovery Act projects.
We approved all 13 authorizations within the first 5 days of receipt.
| With-in | 2009 |
|---|---|
| 0 to 5 Days | 13 |
| 6 to 10 Days | 0 |
| 11 to 15 Days | 0 |
| 16 to 20 Days | 0 |
| 20 + Days | 0 |
| Totals | 13 |
| * | Approval of certifications 1 and 2 have been delegated to WSDOT. |
| ** | In order to authorize the advertisement of a project for construction, the State must certify the R/W has been cleared, per 23 CFR 635.309. |
| *** | Certification 3s are to be used infrequently. |
Timeliness of Authorizations / Modifications
| With-in | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 5 Days | 208 | 780 | 858 | 724 | 1327 | 1463 | 1456 | 943 | 1451 | 1645 | 979 |
| 6 to 10 Days | 24 | 241 | 307 | 121 | 90 | 101 | 103 | 68 | 175 | 128 | 52 |
| 11 to 15 Days | 12 | 77 | 109 | 39 | 10 | 22 | 24 | 13 | 37 | 12 | 4 |
| 16 to 20 Days | 9 | 29 | 34 | 21 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 18 | 5 | 0 |
| 20 + Days | 31 | 152 | 68 | 98 | 52 | 15 | 17 | 8 | 16 | 13 | 5 |
| Totals | 284 | 1279 | 1376 | 1003 | 1484 | 1604 | 1608 | 1033 | 1697 | 1803 | 1040 |
This table reflects the number of authorizations / modifications approved within certain timeframes since 1999.
(Note: the FY begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following year.)
This chart shows the timeliness of approval for emergency relief (ER) damage inspection reports. Our goal is to approve 90% of these reports within 10 days of receipt.
We are pleased to announce that we have hired Ms. Cindy Callahan to help develop programmatic approaches to ESA consultation, with a particular focus on consultations with National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). In her previous job, Cindy was the primary author of WSDOT's Programmatic Biological Assessments (PBA) for the USFWS in eastern and western Washington. She will be continuing to assist with the completion of the western Washington consultation in her new role with FHWA. Our decision to add a biologist to our staff came out of a series of discussions with executive management at the four agencies involved (USFWS, NMFS, FHWA and WSDOT) in ESA consultations to reduce consultation timeframes.
These four agencies have pursued other initiatives in the last year, aimed at tackling complex issues that have surfaced during consultations and which have delayed project delivery. The initiatives included, 1) developing methodology for the prediction of the concentration and dispersion of pollutants in stormwater, 2) reaching agreement on how the effects to fish from hydroacoustic sound pressure levels from pile driving will be measured and mitigated, and 3) improving the existing guidance on indirect effects analysis. As a result of these efforts, consultation timeframes are expected to be reduced thereby minimizing project development delays. In addition, an interagency Program Management Team provides a forum for addressing emerging issues, checking on project status, and resolving issues on specific consultations.
Also to improve ESA consultations and thus project delivery, FHWA HQ has developed a web-based Biological Assessment (BA) tool that WSDOT NW Region and H&LP have been pilot testing for 16 months. The web-based BA tool is intended to streamline the consultation process by allowing BA authors to submit, amend, and append BA's online facilitating direct review/ download by NMFS and USFWS. The Washington Division recently arranged for users participating in the pilot to speak to the web-based BA development team to enhance the system. The enhanced web-based BA will become available nationwide in July 2009.
| Dan Mathis Division Administrator FHWA Washington Division 360-753-9480 Daniel.Mathis@dot.gov |
Megan P. Hall Local Programs/Research & T2 Engineer FHWA Washington Division 360-753-9480 Megan.Hall@dot.gov |
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