The right-of-way of I-40 west of Needles, Calif., included a stand of rare cholla cactus described by one biologist as a “motherlode.” The stand was placed under the protection of the California Natural Lands and Water Reserve System as an outdoor ecological laboratory.
The other environmental responses, while varied in their approaches and methods, are alike in certain respects. They do not, for one thing, attempt to impose regulations or standards aimed at individual projects, presumably reflecting a concensus that any such effort would be cumbersome or otherwise impracticable. They are oriented, rather, to procedures, organization, and personnel in the expectation that the right processes will lead to the right decisions on individual projects.
Virtually all of these process-oriented responses are based upon one or more of a small group of fundamental principles:
- The need for identification and evaluation of all significant factors.
- The importance of wide participation in the highway development process by other agencies, officials, and disciplines and by the general public.
- The value of careful consideration of all feasible alternatives, including, where appropriate, other modes and the option of not proceeding with the project in question.
- The need for widespread dissemination of information to other agenices and to the public.
The application of these principles will not directly solve environmental problems. But taken together, they establish a process which goes a long way to assuring maximum compatibility between highways and the environment.
Conclusion
In the development of the highway system of this Nation, the original motivating factor in the roadbuilding was to be able to move quickly from one point to another. All too often in the early years, the detrimental sociological and environmental impacts that occurred as a result of highway construction were ignored or treated only when it became obvious or hazardous, as in the case of the health problems raised by horses.
The development of an awareness of the sociological and environmental aspects of roadbuilding was a gradual, evolutionary process. The separation of State and Federal functions allowed the development of this awareness and of the tools to correct the situation. But the Federal-State partnership evolved such programs as appraisal, appraisal review, negotiation, relocation assistance and payment, replacement housing, highway beautification, environmental protection, joint use of highway rights-of-way, and many more.
There are yet many problems which affect man’s total environment that have to be solved. However, mechanisms have been created in the interrelated, yet independent, nature of the Federal-State partnership and in the establishment of independent offices of right-of-way and environment to assure that these concerns receive their full consideration in the building of a highway. The existence of these mechanisms do not guarantee the successful solution to all the problems affecting man’s total environment. However, their existence does provide a well-founded hope and does go a long way in assuring that the creation of the highway system and the well-being of our total environment will exist compatibly.
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