Expedited planning and environmental review of highway projects

This report will be of interest to practitioners who are expediting the delivery of transportation projects in the areas of long-range planning, corridor planning, programming, and environmental review. It describes constraints on expediting project delivery and useful strategies for achieving expedited delivery. While the strategies and constraints are associated with planning and environmental review, many of the strategies are applicable to design and construction. In this report, 16 common constraints on project delivery are identified from the literature and case studies. Twenty-four strategies are discussed for addressing or avoiding the constraints. These strategies are grouped into six expediting themes: improve public involvement and support; improve resource agency involvement and collaboration; demonstrate real commitment to the project; improve internal communication and coordination; streamline decision making; and integrate across all phases of project delivery.