On August 4, AGC of America submitted detailed comments on the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) new Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts. AGC previously reported on the government-wide effort to streamline the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and highlighted DOT’s efforts to speed up the process for infrastructure contractors.
Among the key changes are a rigorous commitment to page and time limits, new procedures for project sponsors to prepare their own documents, and a new framework for evaluating what actions do and don’t require compliance with NEPA.
In formulating our comment, AGC spoke to members at our July 31 In-House Environmental Mangers Meeting. At the meeting, members highlighted the need for each project to have an agency point of contact for handling issues and conflicts with other statutes and agency requirements. We learned that the alternative analyses have continued to expand and that much of the risk taken on in the NEPA process could be mitigated with early contractor involvement. Thank you to our members who participated in that meeting, your input had a major impact on our comments.
For more information, contact Spencer Phillips.