Thinking Beyond the Pavement with
Context Sensitive Design
Ensuring safety and mobility are of
primary importance when designing and building a road. Today for a
growing number of highway agencies, preserving environmental, community,
scenic, and historic resources at the same time is another goal that's
getting top billing.
Known as Context Sensitive Design (CSD), this approach represents
an important evolution in the development of highways. The initial
impetus for CSD came from the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation
Efficiency Act. CSD was then further encouraged by a 1994 American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
National Highway System Design Standards policy statement, as well
as the 1995 National Highway System Designation Act. This legislation
called for designs that take into account "the constructed and
natural environment of the area; the environmental, scenic, aesthetic,
historic, community, and preservation impacts of the activity; and
access for other modes of transportation."
The movement took a leap forward in 1998, when the Maryland State
Highway Administration (SHA), in cooperation with AASHTO and the Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA), hosted "Thinking Beyond the Pavement:
A National Workshop on Integrating Highway Development with Communities
and the Environment While Maintaining Safety and Performance."
The workshop presented several principles of CSD, including the importance
of establishing a multidisciplinary team to plan projects; maintaining
open and continuous communication with all stakeholders; and understanding
the landscape involved, the neighboring community, and the area's
valued resources before starting the engineering design.
After the Maryland workshop, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota,
and Utah agreed to serve as pilot States for implementing the CSD
principles developed at the workshop. FHWA's Federal Lands Highway
Office is also participating in the pilot program. Each State is incorporating
the CSD approach through new policies on such things as project development,
staff training, and community outreach. For example, the Connecticut
Department of Transportation (DOT) has held training courses for its
managers and has collaborated with the University of Connecticut's
Engineering Department on providing CSD training to transportation
engineering students, while the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has
held workshops geared towards all participants in the project development
phases. Kentucky has also presented its CSD workshop in Arkansas and
Georgia and is now making plans to take the whole workshop to Montana
and Utah, as well. The workshops include discussion of Kentucky's
Paris Pike reconstruction project, which is an example of achieving
CSD through partnerships with landowners and other community representatives.
Reconstruction of this section of US 27 between Lexington and Paris
became possible, ending a 20-year court injunction, after the Kentucky
Transportation Cabinet committed to involving landscape architects,
historic preservationists, and environmental specialists in all aspects
of project development so as to minimize disruption to the surrounding
areas.
The Maryland SHA has several initiatives aimed at better utilizing
CSD in the development of transportation projects. These include holding
community involvement skills training for SHA staff and consultants
and establishing teams to review and implement project improvement
strategies. The Utah DOT, meanwhile, is focusing on community outreach
during the project development process and has held CSD interactive
training sessions at its annual Transportation Engineers Conference.
And the Minnesota DOT is using a number of visualization tools, such
as 3D conceptual model building, animation, and interactive CDs, to
study preliminary design alternatives and impacts and better present
this information to stakeholders and customers during the decisionmaking
process.
Although the pilot States have led the way, "we're now seeing
other States with interest in context sensitive design," says
Marvin Bell of FHWA.
The pilot States, as well as other States with CSD initiatives, will
have an opportunity to share what they've learned at a workshop scheduled
for September 2001 in Missoula, Montana. "Context Sensitive Highway
Design: Transferring Lessons from Our Collective Experiences,"
is being sponsored by the Montana DOT, FHWA, and the Western Transportation
Institute. For registration information, contact Meetings Northwest
at 406-273-7224 (fax: 406-273-2494; email: csdworkshop@meetingsnorthwest.com).
Information can also be found on the Web at www.fhwa.dot.gov/context/.
For CSD pilot State contacts, see sidebar on page 5. You can also
contact Bill Fitzgerald at FHWA (410-962-0720) for more information
on CSD, or visit FHWA's and AASHTO's CSD Web site at www.fhwa.dot.gov/csd/index.htm.
|
CSD Pilot State Contacts
Connecticut
Simone Cristofori, Connecticut DOT
Phone: 860-594-3155
Kentucky
Bill Gulick, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
Phone: 502-564-3280
Jerry Pigman, University of Kentucky Transportation Center
Phone: 859-257-4513
Maryland
Wendy Wolcott, Maryland SHA
Phone: 410-545-0365
Fax: 410-209-5010
Email: wwolcott@sha.state.md.us
Minnesota
Carol Braun, Minnesota DOT
Phone: 651-296-1648
Email: carol.braun@dot.state.mn.us
Timothy Quinn, Minnesota DOT
Phone: 651-296-8650
Email: tim.quinn@dot.state.mn.us
Utah
Randy Park, Utah DOT
Phone: 801-965-4190
Fax: 801-965-4564
Email: rpark@dot.state.ut.us
|
Other
articles in this issue:
In
brief
States
focus on erosion control in construction and maintenance activities
Recycle Texas: A success story
Thinking
beyond the pavement with context sensitive design
Highway Technology Calendar
The headquarters for quality
