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Identifying and Implementing a Refined Mitigation Approach for Transportation Projects in Coastal Habitats

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) identified mitigation needs for upcoming transportation projects that included seagrass beds, tidal freshwater, and mangrove wetlands that can be difficult to mitigate. By implementing mitigation projects up front, the federal permitting process is streamlined and money is saved due to reduced time lag and risk. The current practice is to design roadway plans, and submit a permit application that has a project specific mitigation plan. A refined approach is to consolidate the mitigation for several projects resulting in efficiencies and streamlining. This could be implemented as a statewide or nationwide programmatic approach to coastal mitigation. The presentation will discuss the refined method. FDOT analyzes their work program on a year-to-year basis to identify region specific mitigation needs and presence of unique coastal habitats. FDOT solicits input from stakeholders and federal and state resource agencies early to collaborate on a programmatic mitigation approach. A single mitigation project is identified to offset similar impacts within the watershed with buy in from stakeholders. FDOT proceeds with concept, programs money, identifies site specific functions and services to be restored, prepares plans, and submits a permit application for the mitigation project. This may occur one to five years before a permit application is submitted for the construction projects. FDOT identified mitigation needs for a suite of projects in Southeast Florida that includes new roads, new bridges, and roadway expansion. These projects span many ecotypes and watershed boundaries. For instance, FDOT identified five projects that included nine bridge replacements that could be mitigated with a single regional mitigation plan known as Snook Islands Phase II in Palm Beach County, Florida. In 2011, FDOT obtained an individual permit to construct the mitigation project. In the same year six bridges entered the construction phase, two of those bridges avoided all aquatic resource impacts, and four bridges required mitigation and utilized the functions provided by the authorized mitigation site. Of the remaining three bridges, one was permitted in the summer of 2012, and the two remaining are entering the permitting phase. The implications of taking this programmatic approach to mitigation are that upfront planning, dedication of resources and staff time to investigate alternatives will be needed. In the specific example above, the planning and permitting of the mitigation site took five years. The benefit was that permitting of the individual bridge projects took relatively little time due to the advanced mitigation. The FDOT’s ability to consolidate individual mitigation funds from multiple projects benefits the environment by having a contiguous aquatic ecosystem done in advance of the impacts. Surplus mitigation can be used for future projects. This regional approach has greater value for the habitat. This approach results in FDOT meeting schedules, reducing cost, benefitting the environment, achieving watershed restoration goals, and meeting criteria of the Section 404 (B)(1) Guidelines and Section 373.4137, Florida Statutes. This approach removes the uncertainty from mitigating hard to replace coastal functions and expedites project delivery by introducing a statewide programmatic approach.

  • Summary URL:
  • Supplemental Notes:
    • Abstract used with permission from the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation, organized by the Center for Transportation and the Environment, Institute for Transportation Research and Education, North Carolina State University.
  • Corporate Authors:

    North Carolina State University, Raleigh

    Center for Transportation and the Environment
    Raleigh, NC  United States  27695-8601
  • Authors:
    • Howard, Brandon
    • Lips, Garett G
  • Conference:
  • Publication Date: 2013

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Pagination: 13p
  • Monograph Title: Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET 2013)

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01558113
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Mar 27 2015 5:02PM