Home Historic Preservation Programs & Officers Federal FHWA Introduction: Transportation Enhancement Projects PA

On May 1, 1997, the Chairman signed a Nationwide PA with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers to address Section 106 consultation for Transportation Enhancement projects. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 contained several components designed to move the Department of Transportation out of the "interstate highway building age" and into an era of balanced initiatives which meet social and environmental goals, as well as those of transportation. Included among these initiatives was a 10 percent "set-aside," of the $24 billion authorized for Surface Transportation Projects, to be used for transportation enhancements.

Eligible activities include: acquisition of scenic or historic sites for conservation purposed; acquisition of scenic or conservation easements; scenic or historic highway programs; historic preservation; rehabilitation and operation of historic transportation buildings, structures, or facilities; preservation of abandoned transportation corridors, as in rails-to-trails programs; archeological planning and research; pedestrian and bicycle facilities; control and removal of outdoor advertising; and mitigation of water pollution due to highway runoff. Clearly, many of the proposals advanced under this program have the potential to affect historic properties; however, the net result of the program has been overwhelmingly beneficial to communities and historic properties.

In order to expedite environmental review and encourage development and funding, particularly for those projects benefitting historic resources, the Council entered into statewide programmatic agreements with a number of states. With a view to the re-authorization of ISTEA later this year, the National Highway System bill, passed in late 1995, directed FHWA to work with the Council and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers to develop a nationwide Programmatic Agreement to expedite the Section 106 process for qualified enhancement projects. The resulting nationwide agreement builds on statewide agreements already in place and provides for:

• Identification and evaluation of National Register eligible properties by qualified personnel from the respective State Transportation Agency (STA);

• Assessment of project effects by State Transportation Agency (STA) personnel in consultation with the State Historic Preservation Officer; and

• Advancement of the project without further consideration by the Council provided SHPO concurs with a finding of No Adverse Effect or that the net effect would be beneficial to historic property.

The agreement is not mandatory, but may be implemented or not at the discretion of each individual state transportation agency and FHWA division. It has been suggested by FHWA that some STA may wish to tailor the nationwide agreement to their individual states. The proposed agreement was published in the Federal Register on September 16, 1995, and received overwhelmingly favorable comments. Based on those comments, a few minor modifications have been made to clarify the final version. The final version of the agreement was published in the Federal Register by FHWA and is available here.

Updated April 30, 2002

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