Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Environmental
Analysis and Design
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Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Environmental Analysis and Design
Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Environmental Analysis and Design
CVEN 689CVEN 689
Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Environmental
Analysis and Design
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• Brian Bochner, P.E.– Texas Transportation Institute– Senior Research Engineer – Over 35 years experience in transportation
planning and engineering
• Beverly Storey, R.L.A.– Texas Transportation Institute– Associate Research Scientist– Manager of Environmental Management
Program– Over 16 years experience in roadside design
and transportation research
Course Instructors
Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Environmental
Analysis and Design
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• Describe the purpose and benefits of Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS)
• Provide an understanding of CSS principles• Provide knowledge of when and how to use
CSS • Identify and describe how CSS relates to
the transportation planning process• See how CSS works in actual practice• Identify how local, state, and federal
agencies can work together to effectively deliver CSS
• Provide encouragement to practice CSS
Learning Outcomes
Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Environmental
Analysis and Design
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• Lecture and discussion • Text-book readings • Review of relevant literature • Class exercises to illustrate
specific principles• Class participation
Course Format
Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Environmental
Analysis and Design
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• CSS Defined• Project Development Process• Environmental Analysis• Characteristics of Successful Projects• Physical Context• Social Context• Mock CSS Workshop• Multimodal Applications• Place-making with CSS• Developing Supportive Design• CSS in Construction, Operations and
Maintenance• CSS Project Approval Process• Using CSS in Professional Practice
Course Content
Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Environmental
Analysis and Design
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"CSS is a collaborative, interdisciplinary
approach that involves all stakeholders
to develop a transportation facility that fits its physical setting and reserves scenic, aesthetic, historic
and environmental resources, while maintaining safety and mobility. "
What is CSS?
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/context/
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• Transportation Stakeholders– CSS streamlines program
delivery• Community Stakeholders
– CSS improves the community’s quality of life
• Common to all Stakeholders– CSS forms partnerships out of
competing interests
Core Principles
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Context Integration
• Deals with "context" both as a constraint and an opportunity
• Requires sensitivity to the total context
• Federal executive orders, statutes, and regulations mandate protection of many contextual resource elements impacted by transportation projects
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Analysis and Design
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Context Integration
I-70 Glenwood Canyon, Colorado
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Analysis and Design
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Context Integration
Minnesota
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Analysis and Design
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Context Integration
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Analysis and Design
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Context Integration
The Lincoln Homestead State Park Bridge – Springfield, Kentucky
Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Environmental
Analysis and Design
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Context Integration
Main Street Square - Downtown Houston
Context Sensitive Solutions in Transportation Planning, Environmental
Analysis and Design
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Legacy Town Center Main Street, Plano
Context Integration
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Analysis and Design
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What is your favorite driving experience?
Why?
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• 1969 -The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
• 1991- Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) – transportation projects built in historic or scenic
value areas be designed to appropriate standards or to adopt mitigations to minimize impacts on those resources
– strengthened requirements for public participation
• 1998 - Thinking Beyond the Pavement: National Workshop on Integrating Highway Development with Communities and the Environment While Maintaining Safety and Performance
CSS Milestones
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Analysis and Design
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Thinking Beyond the Pavement• 1998 workshop introduces the term
Context Sensitive Design
• Results in the selection of six pilot states and agencies– Connecticut DOT– Kentucky DOT – Maryland DOT– Minnesota DOT– Utah DOT– FHWA Eastern Federal Lands
The Beginning
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Analysis and Design
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• 2003 – Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Performance Plan objective to incorporate context sensitive solutions into planning and project development in all 50 states by 2007
• 2004 - FHWA and partners launch CSS website http://www.contextsensitivesolutions.org/
• 2005 - Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) promotes consideration of CSS core principles in planning and project development processes
CSS Milestones
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FHWA Administrator Mary Peters in a January24, 2002 memo challenged her agency . . .“A transportation facility is an integral
part of the community’s fabric and it can help
define the character of a community or it can
destroy it.”“We should seek to institutionalize the
principles of CSD with the same commitment that drove
the implementation of the Interstate Highway
System.”
Federal Policy
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Analysis and Design
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• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) – requires federal agencies to integrate
environmental values into their decision-making processes by considering the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and reasonable alternatives to those actions
NEPA
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Project
Design
Safety
Physical Character
Cost
Environmental Quality
Natural & Human EnvironmentCapacity
Accessibility
MultimodalConsiderations
Historical and Scenic Characteristics
The Challenges
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Analysis and Design
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American Road Building Eras• The 19th Century
– Grassroots– Multimodal
• The 20th Century– Scientific– Standardization
• The 21st Century– Synthesis of 19th and 20th
Centuries– Context Sensitive Solutions
Before CSS
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Status quo ante
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• Thinking Beyond the Pavement
• Context Sensitive Design• Community Sensitive
Design• Customer Sensitive
Solutions• Common Sense Solutions• Place-making• Engineering Judgment• Right-Sizing Projects
CSS Synonyms
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• AASHTO, Guide for Achieving Flexibility in Highway Design, July 2004
• AASHTO, A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, 2004
• FHWA, Flexibility in Highway Design, 1997 http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/flex/
• ITE, Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares in Walkable Communities, March 2006 http://www.ite.org/bookstore/RP036.pdf
• NCHRP 480, A Guide to Best Practices for Achieving Context Sensitive Solutions, 2002. http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_480.pdf
• MassHighways, Project Development and Design Guide, 2006 http://www.mhd.state.ma.us/default.asp?pgid=content/designGuide&sid=about
• DVRPC, Smart Transportation Guidebook, 2008 http://www.dvrpc.org/asp/pubs/reports/08030A.pdf
• TxDOT Landscape and Aesthetic Design Manual, 2007 http://onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/txdotmanuals/lad/index.htm
Resources
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Analysis and Design
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Next Class Session– What is your
favorite street and why?
– Document with pictures, map, etc.
– List design elements
– Will share next class
Assignment
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Analysis and Design
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My Favorite Street
• Characteristics– Architecture– History– Scale– Urban vs. rural– Active vs. serene– Streetscape/landscape– People– View– Street/road
configuration
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• Chapter 1 - Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares in Walkable Communities, March 2006 http://www.ite.org/bookstore/RP036.pdf
• Section A NCHRP 480, A Guide to Best Practices for Achieving Context Sensitive Solutions, 2002 http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_480.pdf
Reading Assignment
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