Streamlining Environmental Project Clearance

Dan Jepson, Division of Transportation Development (DTD)

May 17, 2012

Background

CDOT’s Environmental Programs Branch (EPB) provides services to CDOT Regions regarding project development and implementation.  The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that all undertakings with a federal “nexus” must show that pertinent environmental issues specific to natural and cultural resources, as well as related subjects, have been adequately addressed and resolved prior to construction.

To do that, Regional environmental staff personnel submit project-specific requests to EPB specialists for “clearances” related to each subject area.  EPB staff then conducts the appropriate level of review, research, fieldwork, and interagency consultation, in order to provide a notice to proceed.  Regional personnel document these studies as part of the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) NEPA obligations.

Historically, each Region provided this data in a different fashion. This and other factors resulted in a lack of consistent, adequate project clearance requests to EPB. This, in turn, caused delays by central staff to provide timely clearance actions to their Region clients.

Lean Process Improvement Project to Address this

EPB initiated a process improvement project to standardize the environmental project clearance request process.  In consultation with Region representatives, EPB staff re-crafted and enhanced the existing project clearance request form.  Although each CDOT project is unique in various ways, a single request form — used in concert with associated information such as mapping and engineering plan sheets — was considered to be the most efficient method of transmitting all necessary data to EPB specialists.

The newly-designed single page form includes all subject matter necessary for EPB to address the needs of a transportation system project in an economical and timely way.  Comprehensively completed and provided to EPB staff at least 8-10 weeks prior to the requested due date, the form provides a broad array of data critical to ensuring the environmental project development process can move forward in a timely way.

This new form has been in use since mid-January 2013.  It immediately increased the reliability and consistency of information transmittal and thereby has become an effective streamlining tool in the Department’s NEPA clearance process.