Compendium of Best Practices for Incorporating Environmental Commitments into Transportation Construction and Maintenance Contract Documents

Environmental commitments made by Departments of Transportation (DOT) arise from public and agency scoping meetings, inter-agency agreements, commitments made to avoid, minimize or mitigate impacts, and many other sources. Commitments may be voluntary or they may be a condition of a permit or other regulatory approval. Typically, environmental commitments are documented in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document – the Record of Decision (ROD), the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) or a Categorical Exclusion (CE), -- memoranda of understanding/memoranda of agreement, and permits issued by federal and state regulatory and resource agencies as products of their environmental reviews and approvals that occur during project planning and design. The project manager (PM) or project engineer (PE) may make additional commitments, environmental and otherwise, as the project progresses. Such commitments may arise in meetings after the NEPA process is complete or in discussions with landowners or other stakeholders post-NEPA and may only be captured in trip notes or a PM’s memory. The DOT then needs to integrate the commitments into project design plans and construction contract documents to ensure the commitments are implemented during construction and maintained in the long-term. DOTs have found that incorporating commitments into the contractual documents is one of the best ways to ensure performance of environmental commitments. Many commitments are executed through incorporation of environmental elements in the design and construction of projects. Provisions for implementing the environmental commitments are usually incorporated into the project construction plans developed in the design phase. Through the design plans, project specifications, and special provisions, commitments and permit requirements later become part of the contract documents for construction of the project. This project, NCHRP project 25-25(47), focuses on how the majority of environmental commitments are incorporated into construction and maintenance contract documents.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/archive/NotesDocs/25-25(47)_FR.pdf
• 
• Summary URL:
  • http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=2380
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This study was requested by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and conducted as part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 25-25. Project 25-25 is intended to fund quick response studies on behalf of the AASHTO Standing Committee on the Environment.
• Corporate Authors:

  Venner Consulting

  Lakewood, CO  United States  80232

  ICF International

  9300 Lee Highway
  Fairfax, VA  United States  22031
• Authors:
  • Venner, Marie
  • Paulsen, Chris
• Publication Date: 2009-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References;
• Pagination: 208p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Best practices; Construction; Contracts; Environmental impacts; Environmental protection; Maintenance; Regulation
• Identifier Terms: National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
• Subject Areas: Construction; Environment; Law; Maintenance and Preservation; Transportation (General); I50: Construction and Supervision of Construction; I60: Maintenance;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01497416
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NCHRP Project 25-25, Task 47
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 1 2013 8:56AM