The Federal Highway Administration, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 3 office in Philadelphia are cooperating on a new “Green Highway” initiative that will certify highway projects as sustainable and environmentally sound.

The new program is modeled after EPA’s Performance Track Program and will provide regulatory flexibility for environmentally beneficial practices in highway planning design, construction, and maintenance.

The Performance Track program recognizes facilities that consistently meet their legal requirements and have implemented high-quality environmental management systems. In addition to recognition, benefits of the program can include a low priority for environmental inspections and regulatory flexibility in meeting permitting, monitoring and reporting requirements under various environmental laws.

The Green Highway certification program similarly could provide recognition as well as flexibility for exemplary practices in limiting the environmental impacts of highways using practices like:

· Coordination of green infrastructure, land use and transportation planning;

· Watershed-based mitigation approaches;

· Context-sensitive solutions;

· Ecologically based mitigation;

· Use of environmental management systems;

· Innovative stormwater management programs and techniques;

· Use of bio-fuels in road construction; and

· Use of bioengineering approaches to protect resources during road maintenance.

Many of these practices were contained in a report from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), which is sponsored by AASHTO and administered by the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council, entitled, Environmental Stewardship Practices, Procedures, and Policies for Highway Construction and Maintenance.

EPA, FHWA, and AASHTO will sponsor a Green Highway Forum in September to further develop this program.

For more information visit the AASHTO Center for Environmental Excellence.

(Reproduced with permission from Transportation Watch, "'Green Highway' Certification Promoted By Transportation, Environmental Agencies" (Jan. 18, 2005). Copyright 2005 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033))

1/28/2005