The New Hampshire DOT joins with other state Departments of Transportation from across the country in objecting to the impact of the proposed rules from the US Department of Transportation addressing both the transportation planning process and the process for environmental review of proposed transportation projects.
Without getting into detail, as some of my colleagues are effectively making the argument against the proposed rules revisions before you today, we believe these rules would be contrary to the spirit of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) and would further set back efforts aimed at making these processes more timely and efficient.
The New Hampshire DOT is concerned about the adoption of any one-size-fits-all approach to the transportation planning and environmental process across the country.
In spite of noble intentions and considerable efforts, the current project development process remains complicated, overly burdensome and frustrating. Objective reviews of project impacts, and consensus building, are often severely hampered by the failure of resource agencies to be appropriately represented at meetings during project development. This results in the need to revisit issues, which leads to delays and additional costs. Also, resource agencies often defer decisions until very late in project development, rather than sign off at major milestones.
The current process is not very good, but it remains better than what is being proposed. We are all in the business of serving the public. Yet this process is viewed by the public as very complex and frustrating, sort of an endless series of loops. The proposed rules do nothing to relieve these frustrations and in fact will make them worse.
I would like to focus for a few minutes on the direction where we believe the transportation planning and environmental process should be heading to better serve the American people.
TEA-21 espouses the concept of environmental streamlining, emphasizing the need for timely and responsible decision-making. This is a concept that I know Chairman Smith strongly supports. The goal of environmental streamlining is to advance worthy transportation improvement projects that support and nurture the economy, without unnecessary detrimental effects on the environment.
Environmental streamlining is not foreign to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. A number of initiatives have been advanced through the years to facilitate project development and expedite interagency coordination. Monthly project review meetings with the resource and regulatory agencies have been in place for more than a dozen years. These meetings afford the opportunity for the project purpose and need, alternative courses of action, environmental effects and mitigation strategies to be discussed in open forums. It's about building trust to get all agencies and parties involved sooner.
I would offer two examples in New Hampshire of how we see the concept of environmental streamlining improving quality of life in the state. The first, in which Senator Smith has taken a leadership role, is the proposed expansion of 18 miles of Interstate 93 from the Massachusetts border north to Manchester, the state's largest city. This busy stretch of four lane, divided highway handles 100-thousand vehicles a day and experiences serious congestion during peak driving hours.
In early August, Senator Smith coordinated a meeting of state and federal regulators aimed at streamlining the approval and construction process for the I-93 project. Among those attending the meeting were representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Transit and Federal Highway Administrations, the Army Corps of Engineers, US Fish and Wildlife, and state Departments of Transportation, Environmental Services, Fish and Game, and the Of rices of Emergency Management and State Planning.
Senator Smith made it clear that he wanted regulators to come up with transportation and environmental goals, to establish timelines and milestones for the project, and to establish a dispute resolution process. All of the agencies in attendance signed a "partnering agreement" pledging mutual cooperation, open and honest communication towards delivering a safe, effective, environmentally sensitive solution for transportation in the I-93 corridor. This is a very positive step that we hope will expedite the review of this project.
Another example is in Concord, the state capital, where a project called "Concord 20/20" is an effort by the city to look at a vision for the future of the city 20 years from now. This project includes three quality of life issues - economic development, the natural environment, and transportation. The goal is to look at the interaction of those issues and achieving improvements within each without negatively affecting one of the others.
It is time to work towards building these kinds of cooperative efforts when it comes to reviewing proposed transportation projects. It is not in the public interest to delay, frustrate and increase the price tag of worthwhile transportation projects.
To be effective, incentives for resource agency involvement and cooperation must be tangible. The threat of the "big stick" may bring short-term results, but will only engender mistrust and resentment. Through interagency forums, cross training of agency personnel is essential to develop a mutual understanding and appreciation of agency initiatives, plans and goals. The aim is not to convert each other, but to work collaboratively and responsibly to pursue our separate, yet related public mandates to integrate them effectively. Again, the key is building a trust between all parties.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I will be glad to answer any questions you may have.