The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) will continue their agreement for another five years in continuing the Center for Environment Excellence.
The program was authorized by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). FHWA and AASHTO established the center in 2001 as a means of promoting and supporting a “strategic national program” aimed at promoting environmental protective measures in surface transportation projects, programs and services, with an emphasis on assisting state transportation agencies and their partners.
The center provides technical assistance, information-sharing opportunities, data archives covering more than 20 environmental topics with a comprehensive library of programmatic agreements and how to develop them, as well as databases on case law and transportation and environment research.
AASHTO says the five-year agreement extension allows the center to expand into providing resources and information to cities, counties, metropolitan planning organizations, local planning organizations and surface transportation research organizations in addition to federal and state agencies.
