Federal Highways Administration (U.S. Department of Transportation)

Investments in green infrastructure

The Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) within the Department of Transportation (DOT) has both programmatic and geographic efforts in green infrastructure. Programmatically, FHWA is the convener of the Integrated Planning Workgroup (IPWG), an interagency effort which aims to more effectively link transportation system planning with natural and cultural resource planning. FHWA also led development of the interagency document "Eco-Logical: An Ecosystem Approach to Developing Infrastructure Projects," published in 2006. The report introduces ecosystem-based planning for infrastructure project development and mitigation of impacts. This framework can serve as a starting point from which ecosystem-based project development and mitigation decisions can be considered and made. FHWA and partners are implementing the Eco-Logical concept at the national level through outreach and training.

On the ground, FHWA is funding $1.05 million in projects to field test Eco-Logical principals with a focus on complying with the SAFETEA-LU (current transportation bill) planning and environmental linkages provisions. FHWA also supports hands-on workshops on Linking Conservation and Transportation Planning. Four workshops have been held to date in Arkansas, Colorado, Arizona, and Texas. The workshops are intended to assist State DOTs, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), and State and Federal resource agencies better coordinate and integrate transportation and conservation planning data and activities.

We have organized all of these various planning and environmental linkages activities into a larger umbrella we call the Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) initiative.

Collaboration

Eco-Logical was developed in collaboration with the US Forest Service (FS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The Integrated Planning Work Group consists of members from FHWA, Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), EPA, FWS, Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), FS, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), Department of Defense, and ACOE.