Solutions Development

Introduction

OVERVIEW

Solutions Development is UDOT’s planning process that seeks to capture the unique context of an area or corridor and develop a set of solutions to meet its transportation needs. This process supports a strong connection between Utah’s Transportation Vision and Project Delivery.

The process involves taking information from the Long Range Plan and/or Regional Transportation Plans and working with local governments and agencies to better inform and refine the transportation vision and needs from a regional and local system standpoint. The Solutions Development process also integrates with the work of other UDOT divisions, such as Environmental, Operations, and Performance Management. Integrating with these other areas helps ensure holistic solutions that match the area’s unique context and needs, gains local support and agreement prior to funding, and identifies a scope within a context of multi-modal solutions.

Some of the identified solutions will be included for consideration in UDOT’s prioritization process, which in turn informs the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). Other solutions may be needed further in the future or would be implemented by other partners, in which case those solutions would be incorporated into long range plans or passed on to local governments and partner agencies.



SOLUTIONS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

As part of UDOT’s mission to enhance quality of life, Solutions Development was developed as a planning process that aims to clearly understand the unique context of a focused area and develop tailored solutions that align with the community’s vision and needs. Solutions Development was created with input from UDOT’s regions and divisions and has been refined through pilot projects and discussions. Overall, this process is intended to benefit UDOT and all partners by:


  • Learning with a variety of stakeholders to understand goals and objectives.

  • Defining problems, opportunities, and performance measures to inform potential strategies and solutions.

  • Developing custom solutions sets and moving them toward implementation.


The outcome of the process develops tailored solutions that align with the community’s vision and needs.

The typical time horizon for solutions that are defined in this process is about 5 years to 15 years prior to implementation of a project. Coordinating with all partners early in the planning process facilitates open communication that results in a collective vision.

Solutions Development is broken up into three phases that allow for careful consideration of all stakeholders’ interests. The first phase is set up for listening and learning from the study participants and the public to identify challenges, concerns, and clearly outline combined goals and objectives. The second phase identifies the study area’s needs and opportunities and develops evaluation criteria to ensure the solutions meet the goals, objectives and needs. The last phase develops solution sets based on the information gathered and evaluates those solution sets against the criteria identified in the previous phase. Solution sets could include roadway improvements for cars, freight or heavy trucks, transit and/or active transportation; travel demand management; Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) improvements; land use changes (to be implemented by local government partners); and so forth.



LINKING THE PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES

Coordination is a critical element of effective planning. A benefit of the Solutions Development process is the ability to streamline a future environmental study by coordinating it with activities in the planning phase, creating planning and environmental linkages (PEL).


PEL is a concept forwarded by USDOT that allows decisions made in the planning phase to be incorporated into a future environmental study (such as an EA or EIS), provided that certain requirements are met. The Solutions Development process purposefully takes those requirements into account, giving UDOT the option (though not the obligation) to use decisions made in planning and avoid duplication of effort in an environmental process.


Based on the requirements from 23 CFR § 450.212, the planning study should address coordination with agencies and opportunities for the public to comment throughout the process. Materials produced by, or in support of, the transportation planning process may be incorporated directly or by reference into subsequent NEPA documents if:


  • The NEPA lead agencies agree that such incorporation will aid in establishing or evaluating the purpose and need for the Federal action, reasonable alternatives, cumulative or other impacts on the human and natural environment, or mitigation of these impacts.

  • The systems-level, corridor, or subarea planning study is conducted with:

  • Involvement of interested State, local, Tribal, and Federal agencies;

  • Public review;

  • Reasonable opportunity to comment during the statewide transportation planning process and development of the corridor or subarea planning study;

  • Documentation of relevant decisions in a form that is identifiable and available for review during the NEPA scoping process and can be appended to or referenced in the NEPA document; and

  • The review of the FHWA and the FTA, as appropriate.


These studies may result in producing any of the following for a proposed transportation project:


  • Purpose and need or goals and objective statement(s)

      • In Utah, the focus in this process as described is in identifying the need, goals, and objectives, but not the purpose.

  • General travel corridor and/or general mode(s) definition (e.g., highway, transit, or a highway/transit combination)

      • It is anticipated that potential projects resulting from this process could be of various modes that could be addressed in mode-specific environmental studies.

  • Preliminary screening of alternatives and elimination of unreasonable alternatives

      • This would require an appropriate level of detail and close coordination with the UDOT Environmental group.

  • Basic description of the environmental setting

  • Preliminary identification of environmental impacts and environmental mitigation


The public outreach activities and the determination of the goals, objectives, and needs identified during this process should provide adequate information for the development of the purpose and need in a subsequent environmental study. These efforts will be coordinated with the UDOT Environmental group and should be incorporated into the scope as applicable.

BETTER INFORMATION FOR BETTER DECISIONS

Better decisions are made when better information is available. The intent of the Solutions Development process is to gather more complete information early on and evaluate it in a systematic way so that UDOT can make better, more informed decisions about how to solve transportation problems in the communities we serve.