Delay in delivering new transportation projects is a national concern because it increases costs, prolongs congestion, and denies the nation the economic and mobility benefits of added transportation capacity. Congress charged the SHRP 2 Capacity focus area with producing “approaches and tools for systematically integrating environmental, economic, and community requirements into the analysis, planning, and design of new highway capacity” (emphasis added). Strategies to expedite project delivery, therefore, must reflect this broad mandate. Further, to have an impact on the nation, they must become standard practice. This report identifies strategies that have been successfully used to expedite planning and environmental review of transportation and some non-transportation projects within the context of existing laws and regulations. In this report, 16 common constraints on project delivery are identified from the literature and case studies. Twenty-four strategies are discussed for addressing or avoiding the constraints. These strategies are grouped into six expediting themes: • Improve public involvement and support; • Improve resource agency involvement and collaboration; • Demonstrate real commitment to the project; • Improve internal communication and coordination; • Streamline decision making; and • Integrate across all phases of project delivery. The report catalogs the constraints, their potential severity, and the effect they can have on project delivery. Since it is not always clear to practitioners that they are facing a constraint, leading and lagging indicators are provided. The likely effects of not addressing a constraint are categorized as low, medium, and high; multiple strategies are suggested for each severity category. The report describes each mitigation strategy, links it to the constraints, and references cases where the strategy was used and to what effect. A significant but perhaps obvious finding is that benefits do not always accrue in the stage of a project to which a strategy is applied. For instance, making up-front commitments to environmental enhancements does not necessarily expedite planning but will likely expedite later phases, such as NEPA compliance, permitting, design, and possibly construction. Strategies such as programmatic permits or regional analysis frameworks can expedite project delivery but must be established before the project begins. All these strategies are associated with cases in which projects were advanced through the planning and environmental review process faster than usual. Cases for analysis were found through a review of transportation and non-transportation literature, award programs, projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and a review provided by the Federal Highway Administration of its internal Environmental Document Tracking System. The cases were searched using terms associated with expediting delivery. Analysis of the cases focused on application of a specific expediting strategy, including project attributes that influenced success; constrains that were addressed or proactively avoided; and lessons learned by the project team through follow-up interviews. The information in this report and its companion website will be useful to planners and engineers in state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, special transportation authorities, environmental resource agencies, and local governments. The strategies have broad applicability and, although applied to expansion of highway capacity, are relevant to adding capacity to any transportation mode or major infrastructure development. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting