Outcomes of the Environmental Streamlining Pilot Projects

This digest describes the analysis of 10 environmental streamlining projects and suggests a "toolbox" of best practices for reducing the time associated with highway-project environmental reviews and approvals. The digest discusses the main points presented in the final report for NCHRP Project 25-24, "Monitoring, Analyzing, and Reporting on the Environmental Streamlining Pilot Projects" (published as NCHRP Web Document 79). NCHRP Project 25-24 looked at 10 projects in seven states in which a variety of streamlining approaches were taken. These approaches included promoting early consultation among federal, state, and local government entities; advancing concurrent rather than sequential review of plans and projects; fostering stakeholder participation; and shortening various steps in the environmental review process. The diversity and some delays in execution of projects made it difficult to draw general conclusions about the effectiveness of the various approaches to streamlining, but the assessments of individual projects will be useful to those concerned with maintaining timely project delivery schedules while ensuring that environmental concerns are addressed in the process. The digest is organized into four sections: Introduction, Key Conclusions, Pilot Project Outcomes, and Environmental Streamlining Best Practices.