“Little Rock was exactly what you

look for in a summer workshop….”

-Muggs Stoll, Chair, TRB Committee on Environmental Analysis in Transportation

ROCK LITTLE

ROCKS

The Junction Bridge framed by a gazebo along the River Trail is one of two “railroad turned pedestrian” bridges crossing the Arkansas River in Little Rock.

The River Market offers a number of tempting lunch choices just a short walk from the Arkansas River.

The Clinton Presidential Library is touted as one of the finest in the country. It contains memorabilia of his presidency and contains a replica of the oval office.

The Old State house, now used as a museum, is right next door to the Peabody Hotel and our workshop. It is the original state capitol and the oldest surviving capitol building west of the Mississippi River.

The State Capitol Building is 230 feet high and built as a replica of the national Capitol in Washington, DC. Construction started in 1899 and was completed in 1915. It houses the Arkansas State Supreme Court in addition to both chambers of the state legislature.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) has hosted our committee’s mid-year workshops in 1982, 1990, and 2012. The AHTD is second only to the Washington State Department of Transportation for the number of times hosting the summer workshop. Little Rock is not only the state capitol but also boasts a presidential library and a rich historic

heritage making it an excellent choice for the summer workshop.

the sunday research workshop was the first event of the committee’s 32nd mid-year

workshop. It was well attended for being held the Sunday prior to the main events—a travel day for most people. The five presenters in a two-hour interactive session focused on six emerging topics at the intersection of transportation and the environment: 1) Public Health at the Project Scale; 2) Public Health at the Planning Scale; 3) Broad Scale Indicators and Public Involvement; 4) Interagency Coordination; 5) Reaching a balance between the missions of resource and transportation agencies; and 6) Port development and expansion—Holistic Transportation and Environmental Planning and Impact Analysis—Look beyond the footprint.

Dr. Lisa Gaines and Jimmy Kagan presented at the Sunday Research Workshop. Dr. Gaines is the Interim Director of Oregon State University’s Institute for Natural Resources. Jimmy Kagan is the Director of the Institute for Natural Resources at Portland State University.

Dr. Carissa Shively-Slotterback, an Associate Professor and Director of the Urban and Regional Planning Program at the University of Minnesota is chair the research subcommittee for ADC10. She led the Sunday Research Workshop as well as organizing and moderating two sessions on Health Impact Assessments the next day.

Christine Gerencher, TRB Senior Program Officer - Aviation & Environment section, stressed (among several items) the need to consider your audience when writing research statements. The statements need to consider people both familiar and unfamiliar with the area considered.

The key themes that came from the Sunday Research Workshop were:

a need for metrics and indices to guide decision-making

the importance of agency/disciplinary/committee/NGO coordination

a need for research to address new issues The Sunday Research Workshop was followed by the committee business meetings and a hosted reception at the hotel.

the monday morning host session marked the official start of the 2012 mid-year

workshop and at 104 degrees Fahrenheit marked the warmest day ever in the city of Little Rock in the

month of June. Our workshop theme was “Research to Results: Better Delivery through Best Practices”.

Hosts do a great job and the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department did not disappoint us. Inside the sometimes chilly conference rooms, our host gave us a compelling overview of their Information, Planning and Consultation System (IPaC) for endangered species consultation and use of

GIS for cursory environmental reviews and as a geospatial project screening tool for expediting the environmental review process. After the host welcome and introduction, each of the four TRB committees (Environmental Analysis in Transportation, Air Quality in Transportation, Ecology and Transportation, and Environmental Justice in Transportation welcomed the people with their own perspective on the workshop. While we have

had the privilege to meet every other year with Ecology and Transportation (as they meet with ICOET on the odd numbered years), it was a rare honor for us to meet with the Air Quality in Transportation and Environmental Justice in Transportation Committees. Their involvement enhanced our

presentations and added insights to other environmental processes. The breakout sessions followed the Monday lunch-on-your-own and continued through Tuesday morning. The sessions covered emerging topics—among them the policy and project aspects of Health

Impact Assessments, the data needs for and implementation of EPA’s latest emissions model—MOVES (MOtor Vehicle Emissions Simulator), and the overwhelming challenges for MPO’s regarding development of GHG inventories, integration of environmental justice issues, and conducting vulnerability assessments—all own infrastructure assets that they neither own or control.

“We heard from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation

Department regarding many of their projects and initiatives and it provided that local angle we all expect in the summer.”

The large screen provided detailed information during Mitch Wine’s thought-provoking presentation on interagency consultation tools. Mitch Wine is a biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and is based in Little Rock. His presentation showed how spatial display of the proposed project helped assess the effect of the project on species, and helped deliver avoidance, minimization and mitigation measures early in the project planning phase.

Lynn Malbrough, Division Head of Environmental Division at the AHTD and ADC10 committee member helps open the workshop. Lynn was the main contact at AHTD for the mid-year workshop. He and the others at AHTD did a phenomenal job getting everything in place in a brief period of time.

David Kuehn, program Manager for FHWA’s Exploratory Advanced Research Program, does his welcome as the co-chair of the Environmental Justice in Transportation Committee. His committee is one of four at the workshop.

Dr. Lisa Gaines studies an informational handout during the Monday morning plenary session. Dr. Gaines is the interim director of the Oregon State University’s Systems Institute for Natural Resources. The Institute focuses on overcoming challenges in natural resource management and support informed decision-making through their policy research program.

Shireen Malekafzali is an Associate Director at PolicyLink, a national policy and research institute dedicated to economic and social equity. She presented Monday afternoon on the health and economic benefits of a new transit line connecting downtown Minneapolis with downtown St. Paul. The transit line will pass through economic disadvantaged areas and home to one of the largest Hmong population in the United States. Her presentation pointed out key findings and recommendations, and highlighted to role of research regarding community needs issues.

Madhusudhan Venugopal, an Air Quality Specialist with Providence Engineering moderated and presented at the Tuesday morning session titled “Continuing Research with the EPA MOVES Mobile Emissions Model. The session focused on recent tools aimed at helping agencies transition from EPA’s older MOBILE 6 to the newer MOVES model.

tuesday afternoon was the time of our transportation tour to Hot Springs, AR. In 2005, the

Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department evaluated a proposed eastern bypass of Hot

Springs, Arkansas which resulted in the selection of a preferred alignment through the EA/FONSI process. This highway alignment was located in the recharge area of the thermal springs located within the Hot Springs National Park in downtown Hot Springs. The discovery of thermal waters in a domestic well adjacent to the proposed project resulted in the need for a cooperative research effort between the Federal Highway Administration, the National Park Service, and the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department with the US Geological Survey to conduct a three year study of this recharge area.

Alex Levy and others listen carefully as Tim Kresse a water quality specialist with the US Geological Service gives an intriguing presentation on the need for and the compelling conclusions of the three year study to determine if nearby highway improvements would have an adverse effect on the national landmark—the final answer—“no”.

The Ozark Bathhouse, reopened as a Museum of Contemporary Art, is one of many of its kind along Hot Spring’s Park Avenue. Though bathing in the often-stated therapeutic waters has declined, it remains a popular pastime for many. Bathing in the spring’s water is known to have occurred as far back as the 1700s among Native Americans.

Just one of many ornate features adorning the historic bathhouses along Park Avenue. The bathhouses saw their heydays in the 1920s.

The Visitor Center’s lobby provides people with a sense of how the historic bathhouses looked and operated.

wednesday morning marked the close of the 2012 mid-year workshop. Marsha Guffey a

planner at Metroplan and Mark Asher, an engineer with Jacobs presented on the 34-mile long Arkansas River Trail that extends from the Clinton Presidential Library east of Little Rock to Pinnacle Mountain State Park west of the city. This had been set as a tour but we canceled it as too few people had signed up. Following the River Trail presentation, the committee chairs made their closing remarks. The workshop concluded about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The workshop had a total of 95 attendees. They came from 25 different states and one person from

Canada. We had 11 sponsors. Though this workshop had one of the shortest planning periods in recent times, it was nevertheless a success as described by those who attended.

“In short, we came away with fresh new ideas for our committee to focus on – new research ideas, implementation

of existing research products and Annual Meeting session ideas.” -from Muggs Stoll in an email to the ADC10 Committee

2012 The TRB Committees on Environmental Analysis, Air Quality, Ecology and Environmental Justice

Research to Results: Better Delivery through Best Practices

Acknowledgements: Writing from Martin Palmer, Lynn Malbrough, Joe Shalkowski; Quotes from Muggs

Stoll; Editing by Meridith Krebs; Photos by Martin Palmer

The sponsors who made the workshop possible