S. Barnum

DSPL 7686

Assignment 11

Title: The Changing Role of Ecology in Highway Design

Abstract

The non-urban, pre-1930s American road system was largely unpaved, local in nature, and had minimal ecological impacts. A road designer’s primary concern was how existing landscapes effected road buildabilty, not how the road would effect the landscape. However, the advent of the automobile and the accompanying economic and political forces that created its ascendancy also created a demand for an extensive national road system. By the 1960s, the Interstate System, commissioned in the 1940s and funded in the 1950s, was complete in some parts of the U.S. As the road system grew, so to did negative highway-related impacts to surrounding landscapes. In reaction, highway agency policy, local and federal regulations, the vision of individual highway project managers, and pressure from citizens groups have brought ecological and environmental considerations to bear, in varying degrees, on highway project design since the mid-1960s. Reducing the environmental impacts of highways in the future will require redesigning and retrofitting existing alignments, reducing travel demand, and exploring the possibilities of a new sub-discipline that has been dubbed “road ecology”.

Keywords: Highway design, ecology, environmental impacts, history of

Outline

Abstract

Introduction

Overview

Terminology

History of Non-Urban Road Systems in the U.S.

Prior to 1920, Serving Local Interests

1920 –1955, Influence of the Automobile

1956 – Present, the Interstate Era

Bringing Ecological Considerations to Bear on Highway Design

Ecological Impacts of Roads Prior to the Interstate Era

Ecological Impacts of the Interstate System

Public Reaction

Regulatory Reaction

Agency Reaction

Project Specific Reactions

Future Directions

Prospects for Up-Grading Current Alignments

Improving Roadway Design Versus Reducing Travel Demand

Road Ecology

Introduction

Appendix

a. Research Question: Since the advent of the Defense Highway Act (1941), how have ecological and environmental considerations shaped the design of non-urban transportation projects in the U.S.?

i. A discussion of terminology will frame the research question. Ecology/Environment will be defined and discussed in terms of the natural, not the built environment, and the discussion will also emphasize that transportation project planning is not synonymous with transportation planning.

ii. The paper will focus on road building since the advent of the interstate highway system. However, a brief history of road building in the US prior to the 1940s will help to give insight into the problem of highway-related environmental impacts

iii. Comparisons between non-urban projects and urban transportation planning/design will be made as useful, especially were the same piece of legislation has had similar or different effects in the two realms.

b. Conversants

Forman, R. T. T., 1998. Road ecology: a solution for the giant embracing us. Landscape Ecology 13:iii-v.

McHarg, I. L. 1967. Design with Nature. John Wiley and Sons, 197 pp.

c. Exemplars