Thursday,
October 31, 2002
DOT
100-02
Contact: Bill
Outlaw
Telephone:
202-366-0660
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mineta Announces List of Infrastructure Construction Projects For Accelerated Environmental Review
U.S. Transportation
Secretary Norman Y. Mineta today announced an initial list of seven
transportation construction projects around the country that will receive
accelerated environmental review under President Bush’s executive order last
month on environmental stewardship.
The executive order called for a Cabinet-level task force to ensure that
projects are not unnecessarily held up by inefficient review procedures.
“President Bush asked his cabinet to help states cut through federal bureaucratic inertia to help them complete sound transportation projects more quickly and at less cost,” said Secretary Mineta. “This important initiative will help us do just that.”
Secretary Mineta added, “We will not, however, sacrifice environmental standards in this effort.”
Today’s announcement represents the first in an ongoing
series of important transportation infrastructure projects chosen for
accelerated environmental review.
These
projects illustrate for potential state and local applicants the kind of
projects that would benefit from this initiative. The Department will build on this
initial list of projects by reviewing the numerous nominations it is receiving
from governors and local officials, and announcing on a regular basis those
projects selected by the President’s task force on environmental
stewardship.
The projects on the Department’s initial list included one
airport and six surface transportation projects. They include the Philadelphia
International Airport runway construction; Community and Environmental
Transportation Acceptability Process in Riverside County, CA; Interstate 93 in
New Hampshire; Chittenden Circumferential Highway in Vermont; Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River
Bridges project; St. Croix River Crossing at Stillwater, MN; and
Interstate 69 in Texas.
The President’s task force will begin the process of soliciting, receiving and evaluating transportation projects nominated for expedited environmental review by governors from around the country, with input from metropolitan planning organizations, airport authorities and other local transportation leaders, and will announce selected projects on an ongoing basis. Projects on the priority list would be required to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and all other environmental statutes.
Earlier this month, the Department invited state and local officials to recommend projects for a “Project Review Register.” Nominations are due Nov. 12. The register serves as a source from which new projects will be added to its priority project list. The priority project list will be a rolling list, with new projects added and others dropped as the task force completes its work on them.
Tomorrow, Nov. 1, 2002, the
department will conduct a workshop for key national transportation and
environmental organizations at which it will exchange ideas for additional
criteria to be used in selecting projects.
Workshop participants will also discuss best practices in environmental
stewardship and recommendations received for project selection criteria.
The cabinet level task force,
formed as a result of the President’s executive order of Sept. 18 and chaired by
Secretary Mineta, will review projects on the project priority list and work to
expedite environmental reviews.
In addition to Secretary Mineta, task force members include the U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, the Interior and Defense, as well as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality.
Additional information about implementation of the President’s executive order, Environmental Stewardship and Transportation Infrastructure Project Reviews, is on the Internet at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/stewardshipeo.
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