ENVision, Volume 5, Issue 3, Winter 1999 Page: 1
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7A newsletter
from TxDOT's
Environmental Affairs
Division
Volume 5, Issue 3 Winter 1999 12 Pages
Pharr District process incorporatesenvironmental issues
I
nto PS&E
By VELMA GARCIA
Pharr District
During the past several years, the Pharr
District's environmental staff has
developed a process to incorporate
environmental issues into Plans,
Specifications and Estimates (PS&E). The
district has successfully used this process
on several projects.
So how does the Pharr District's
environmental staff incorporate
environmental issues into PS&E? By
involving the project designer. Designers
are invited to attend all field visits and
meetings with resource agencies so that
they receive first-hand information. The
project designer is asked to bring to
meetings preliminary drawings, such asschematics, right of way maps, aerial
photos, plan sheets and old sets of plans.
The location of wetlands, critical habitat,
proposed culvert locations are noted on
the drawings as they are discussed.
After meeting with resource agencies,
the environmental staff meets with the
project designer to discuss, from an
engineering and environmental
standpoint, feasibility and reasonability of
the recommendations made by the
resource agency. The environmental staff
and designer work together to develop a
mitigation plan and to determine the
appropriate drawings to use when
coordinating with resource agencies. The
experience the environmental coordinator
has in creating and enhancing wetlandsand the experience the project designer
has in excavation and construction
methods provides for a great combination
of expertise. Once resource agencies agree
to the mitigation plan, the drawings can be
easily inserted into the construction plans.
So what happens after environmental
commitments are incorporated into
PS&E? The environmental staff remains
involved by reviewing plans to ensure that
all commitments are incorporated. The
environmental staff also attends the pre-
construction meeting after the project is
bid for construction.
At the pre-construction meeting, all
environmental commitments are discussed
with the contractor and the inspector.
See PHARR, Page 4Five-year effort results in
TxDOT's 3rd mitigation bankBy RICHARD GOLDSMITH
Environmental Affairs Div.
When Gov. George W.
Bush and other state officials
dedicated the new Austin's
Woods Conservation Initiative,
it culminated a nearly five-year
effort that created TxDOT's
third mitigation bank.
The Austin's Woods
Conservation Initiative
includes a total of 6,745 acres.
TxDOT's part is 3,552 acres,
known as the Nannie M.
Stringfellow Wildlife
Management Area. Texas
Parks and Wildlife Department
(TPWD) will manage the site
for TxDOT for 20 years.
TPWD will own the land at theSee Photo, Page 10
end of the 20 years. TxDOT
calls the site the Coastal
Bottomlands Mitigation Bank.
The new mitigation bank
resulted from years of study
and negotiation between
TxDOT and the federal and
state agencies that regulate
wetlands and wildlife habitat.
The new Coastal Bottomlands
Mitigation Bank is unique in
that it includes not only
wetlands "preservation," but
also "restoration" and
"creation" components,
according to Tom Bruechert,
who handled much of the
project for ENV.TPWD as part of its role in
managing the property will
create approximately 40 acres
of emergent wetland marsh on
400 acres that are now pasture
land and potential foraging
area for bald eagles. The
restoration component includes
actively and passively
managing the entire tract in
perpetuity, generating some
additional 140 credits for
TxDOT use.
Bruechert said the Houston
District initiated the plan in
1994 and developed a
prospectus detailing how the
bank would serve a
transportation purpose. "The
(See MITIGATION, Page 7)
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Texas. Department of Transportation. ENVision, Volume 5, Issue 3, Winter 1999, periodical, Winter 1999; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth606836/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.