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Title: INTEGRATING MAJOR METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION INVESTMENT STUDY PROCESS WITH NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT PROCESS
Accession Number: 00711762
Record Type: Component
Availability: Find a library where document is available Abstract: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) recently adopted statewide and metropolitan planning regulations in response to the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991. These regulations, in part, created a process known as the major metropolitan transportation investment study that was designed to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of alternative transportation investments. One of the intents of this process is to integrate it with the environmental review process required under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The implications of integrating the two processes and the differences between each approach are explored. Specifically, review agencies and the general public must be given adequate opportunity to evaluate the consequences of alternative actions at several levels, an activity that is often implemented most successfully through the NEPA process. The two processes must also be integrated in recognition of differences in level of detail available at various stages of analysis, since major investment study appropriately would be performed at a broad, conceptual level for a variety of modal and intermodal alternatives, whereas NEPA requires enough design detail for fully assessing the environmental impacts of a specific project. Finally, the integration approach must account for timing differences between actions at the metropolitan planning organization level and the project design level. It is suggested that the tiered or programmatic environmental impact statement (EIS) be applied as an approach to integrating major investment studies with NEPA under certain circumstances. The tiered EIS approach has the potential of providing a structure that enhances the cooperative process specified in the planning regulations, avoids redundant analyses, and accounts for differences in timing between planning and design efforts.
Supplemental Notes: This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1475, Environmental Issues: Energy, Water, Noise, Waste, and Natural Resources. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
Monograph Accession #: 01399800
Language: English
Authors: Hess, Kenneth JPesesky, Lawrence EPagination: p. 50-56
Publication Date: 1995
Serial: ISBN: 030906113X
Features: Figures
(1)
; References
(3)
TRT Terms: Identifier Terms: Old TRIS Terms: Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration
Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
Created Date: Sep 18 1995 12:00AM
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