Thursday, February 27, 2003                                                               
DOT 15-03
Contact: Leonardo Alcivar

Telephone: 202-366-5580

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mineta Announces Second List Of Construction Projects for Accelerated Environmental Review

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta today announced a list of six transportation construction projects nationwide that will receive accelerated environmental review under President Bush’s executive order on environmental stewardship.  The projects were selected from among 70 projects nominated by governors and local officials.

“President Bush asked that we facilitate the environmental review process for transportation investments so that they could be completed more quickly, at less cost, and without damaging the environment,” said Secretary Mineta.  “This initiative is a pioneering effort in transportation that will benefit taxpayers and help build a better future for Americans.”

Secretary Mineta underscored the Administration’s commitment to environmental stewardship and said the selected projects will be required to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and all other environmental statutes. “We will not sacrifice environmental standards in this effort,” he said. 

The projects added today to the Project Priority List include five surface transportation and one airport construction project.  They are as follows:

• Lower Manhattan recovery effort in New York, a series of projects to rebuild the transit system in the wake of the terrorists attacks on Sept. 11, 2001;
• Interstate Highway 66 between Kentucky Route 80 and Interstate 75 in Kentucky;
• Intercounty Connector connecting Interstate 270 with Interstate 95 in Maryland;
• U.S. 93 corridor in Montana;
• Interstate 80 upgrade between Lincoln and Omaha, NE;  and
• Los Angeles World Airports master plan and environmental impact statement.

Today’s announcement brings the total number of selected projects to 13.  The Department will continue to build on this project priority list by reviewing nominations received by the President’s task force on environmental stewardship from governors and local officials and announcing selected projects on an ongoing basis.  Among the criteria for projects selected by the President’s task force include those of national or regional significance that have experienced or are likely to experience delays from lack of federal interagency coordination, those that have support of local officials, and those likely to benefit from innovative coordination strategies. 

The first group of selected projects, announced Oct. 31, were 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 Department said that since these projects were announced the President’s executive order process has already resolved long standing interagency disagreements that blocked progress on three projects; Riverside County, Stillwater Bridge and the Chittenden Circumferential Highway. 

In Riverside County, all involved federal agencies have agreed to identify and approve two specific transportation corridors, one north-south, the other east-west, by February 2004. This decision will enable Riverside to plan long-term growth around the transportation corridors, and protect other sensitive areas.  The agreement includes additional studies to incorporate watershed information into the necessary environmental impact statements. 

Differences were resolved among federal agencies over mitigation for induced growth that had stalemated review of the proposed Chittenden Circumferential Highway.  An environmental assessment is underway with final approval to be granted as early as May. Disagreements over mitigation requirements for the proposed Stillwater Bridge in Wisconsin have similarly been resolved, allowing the environmental review process to move forward. 

Following the President’s executive order on Environmental Stewardship and Transportation Infrastructure Project Reviews on Sept. 18, the Department invited state and local officials to recommend projects for a “project review register.”  The register serves as a source from which new projects will be added to its priority project list.  The priority project list is a rolling list, with new projects added and others dropped as the task force completes its work on them.

Seventy projects were in the Project Review Register as a result of being nominated for expedited environmental review by governors from around the country, with input from metropolitan planning organizations, airport authorities and other local transportation leaders. 

The Cabinet-level task force formed as a result of the President’s executive order is chaired by Secretary Mineta and will 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 the project priority list and implementation of the President’s executive order is on the Internet at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/stewardshipeo.

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Briefing Room