May/June
2002
A
Hallmark of Context-Sensitive Design
by
Steve Moler
Take
a drive north along U.S. 93 just outside Missoula, MT, and you'll
see some of the most breathtaking scenery in this country. But you'll
also see an odd-looking billboard for this rural two-lane road. Before
you go much farther, you'll pass some ominous markers scattered here
and there along this 56-mile (90-kilometer) corridor, which leads
from Evaro to Polson through the Flathead Indian Reservation. Each
marker signifies a site where someone perished in a fatal automobile
crash. The billboard? It reads: "Pray for me, I drive Hwy. 93."
This
stretch of U.S. 93 is a vital link between I-90, western Montana's
major east-west thoroughfare, and premier recreational sites at Flathead
Lake and Glacier National Park. But increased traffic volume, combined
with an absence of passing and turning lanes and adequate shoulders,
produced one of Montana's most dangerous roadways. From 1995 through
1999, for example, 42 people were killed and 727 injured along this
stretch of roadway, an unusually high rate of mortality and injury
for this type of highway.
But the
highway's reputation is about to change. After more than 15 years
of painstaking planning and negotiations, the Evaro-to-Polson section
is about to get a $120 million upgrade that's expected to improve
the highway's safety and performance significantly while minimizing
environmental impacts and
respecting Native American culture.
Historic
Agreement Reached
On December
20, 2000, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Montana Department
of Transportation (MDT), and the Confederated Salish & Kootenai
Tribes (CSKT) signed a historic memorandum of agreement that has ended
lengthy project delays and moved the project closer to construction.
The agreement outlines areas where the three groups could agree on
lane configurations, design criteria, and environmental impacts and
enhancements.
"We
wanted to create a highway corridor that everyone would be proud of,"
says FHWA Montana Division Administrator Jan Brown. "We used
a process that considered not only transportation needs but respected
cultural, community, and environmental values. I think this process
will become the way we do business in many of our future projects."
The Evaro-to-Polson
section is part of MDT's broader strategy to rehabilitate the entire
187-mile (301-kilometer) section of U.S. 93 from Idaho to British
Columbia. The south section, 33.4 miles (53.7 kilometers) from Hamilton
to Lolo just south of Missoula, will be upgraded to four lanes starting
in about 3 to 4 years. The north section, 20.6 miles (33.1 kilometers)
from Somers at the north end of Flathead Lake to Kali-spell, is being
upgraded already to a four- and five-lane divided highway.
MDT initially
proposed improving the Evaro-to-Polson leg, called the central section,
to a four-lane undivided highway. But the CSKT, the reservation's
tribal government, strongly opposed the plan because of concerns that
a four-lane highway would accelerate non-tribal development, adversely
affect wildlife and wetlands, and damage tribal cultural and spiritual
sites.
If the
highway was ever going to be improved, MDT and the CSKT had to overcome
one fundamental challenge: how to balance the route's safety and capacity
needs with the tribe's environmental and cultural concerns. The answer
ultimately was found in a relatively new and emerging transportation
approach called "context-sensitive design."
A
Brief History of Context-Sensitive Design
- The
seeds of context-sensitive design were planted during development
of the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act
(ISTEA). A coalition of environmental interests and other
groups formed the Surface Transportation Policy Project, which
sought to bring environmental, aesthetic, and cultural considerations
into ISTEA discussions. In its final version, ISTEA emphasized
"environmentally sensitive highway design" and increased
public involvement and collaboration with local communities.
-
Enactment
of the 1995 National Highway System Act put many of the
Surface Transportation Policy Project environmental and
aesthetic considerations into law as part of transportation
design of Federal projects. The National Environmental Policy
Act also requires Federal agencies to evaluate potential
environmental and social consequences of transportation
projects.
-
In July 1997, FHWA, in cooperation with the American Association
of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and
several related interest groups, published Flexibility
in Highway Design, which identifies and explains ways
to use flexible design standards to lessen the impacts of
transportation projects on the environment.
-
In
May 1998, the Maryland Department of Transportation hosted
a workshop called Thinking Beyond the Pavement, which brought
together State and Federal officials, academia, and the
public to discuss ways to integrate highway development
with communities and the environment while maintaining safety
and performance. The conference also focused on ways to
move environmentally sensitive design practices into the
mainstream of transportation design.
-
In
mid-1998, the National Training Steering Committee, consisting
of representatives from the Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland,
Minnesota, and Utah departments of transportation, was established
to develop training programs and review policy guidelines
for applying the principles of context-sensitive highway
design within State highway departments.
-
In
June 1999, a national Context Sensitive Highway Design Workshop
in Reston, VA, hosted by the American Society of Civil Engineers
(ASCE) and co-sponsored by AASHTO, the Institute of Transportation
Engineers (ITE), and FHWA, heightened awareness and increased
understanding of those working in context-sensitive design.
-
In September 2001, a national context-sensitive design workshop
in Missoula, MT, used the U.S. 93 project to illustrate
context-sensitive design.
|
What
Is Context-Sensitive Design?
This
new kind of planning has been defined as "a collaborative, interdisciplinary
approach that involves all stakeholders to develop a transportation
facility that fits its physical setting and preserves scenic, aesthetic,
historic, and environmental resources, while maintaining safety and
mobility." This kind of approach considers the total context
of a transportation project.
Highway
planners and engineers traditionally focus design objectives on obtaining
the highest levels of safety and capacity for a road at the lowest
cost, as outlined in the Green Book, the Policy on Geometric Design
of Highways and Streets. Planners and engineers accomplish these
goals by building wider lanes and shoulders, along with straighter
and flatter alignments. Engineering economics, a historical mainstay
of engineering schools, focuses on solving problems at the lowest
cost with little emphasis on cultural or other impacts.
But over
the past two decades, engineers have used more flexibility in highway
design guidelines to comply with current environmental laws and satisfy
historical, cultural, and aesthetic interests. Context-sensitive design
is the evolutionary change from a tradition of focusing almost exclusively
on engineering.
In response
to these changes, FHWA published in July 1997 Flexibility in Highway
Design, a guide that provides ideas, options, and examples of
ways to design more environmentally friendly highways without compromising
safety and mobility. The guide stresses the importance of early public
participation, identifying community interests, and fostering creative
thinking as an essential
component of achieving good highway design.
![This map shows that the 56.3-mile (90.6-kilometer) $120 million Evaro-to-Polson reconstruction project spans the entire length of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana](images/02map.jpg) |
This
map shows that the 56.3-mile (90.6-kilometer) $120 million Evaro-to-Polson
reconstruction project spans the entire length of the Flathead
Indian Reservation in western Montana. |
"Engineers
have to go out and talk to people, then address what they hear and
apply it to highway engineering," says Tim Neuman, chief
highway engineer and context-sensitive design expert with CH2M Hill.
"You've got to find out what's important to them, then design
the project around what people want."
Context-sensitive
design emphasizes four critical approaches:
- Actively
seeks public involvement from the outset.
- Develops
designs that meet the needs of specific sites rather than trying
to use centralized, standardized solutions, recognizing that different
communities may have different values and priorities.
- Engages
landscape architects, planners, and architects who can contribute
their skills to develop creative design solutions.
- Uses
the flexibility contained in the current design guidelines to balance
safety and capacity with environmental, cultural, and historical
concerns.
Almost
everyone who has worked on the Evaro-to-Polson project
agrees that these four basic principles of context-sensitive
design played a crucial role in ending
the project's stalemate.
The
highway's new design takes into consideration tribal spiritual and
cultural values, and includes a series of innovative "critter
crossings" to allow safe movement of fish and wildlife through
the corridor, all of this while significantly improving the route's
safety and capacity. In balancing all of these needs, the reconstruction
of U.S. 93 is emerging as one of the nation's showcases in context-sensitive
design.
"What
we agreed to is essentially the future in highway design," says
MDT Deputy Director Jim Currie. "The process has allowed for
some free thinking to minimize impacts on nature and tribal culture
but still provide service. This is a different way of doing business."
Cultural
Considerations
To grasp
the fundamental issues fully, one must first understand Salish, Kootenai,
and Pend d'Oreille history and culture. The tribes say their history
is not written in books but is etched into the landscape. Among the
ancient rock outcrops, mountain formations, crevices, forests, and
other natural features lay landmarks and sacred sites that have been
embedded into the minds of tribal members through generations of personal
experience and "coyote stories." The coyote represents the
link between tribal members and the natural and spiritual worlds through
which the highway will be constructed. All of this is contained in
what the tribes call the Spirit of Place, a continuum of everything
on the reservation that is seen and unseen, touched and felt, and
traveled through.
The reservation,
like a hometown, family farm, or childhood neighborhood, is a special
place, a land where tribal members have walked and lived for
centuries and where they derive inspiration and spirituality.
![Photoe of Indian tribal life in 1910](images/02flthdd.jpg) |
This
historic photo, from the Curtis Collection, illustrates what life
was like on the reservation in 1910. Tribal members are shown
performing what is believed to be a war dance. Understanding these
types of cultural rituals and the sites where they were performed
became important considerations in the planning and design of
the U.S. 93 reconstruction. |
Widening
the corridor to a full four-lanes would have had substantial impacts
on sacred sites and erased tribal history. Such changes would have
altered what makes the reservation important and unique. The new highway,
the tribes say, should be designed with the idea that the road is
a visitor and should respond to and be respectful of the land and
Spirit of Place.
![This conceptual drawing illustrates how a highway can be constructed with barrier fences to encourage wildlife to go under the road through a corrugated metal or concrete box culvert.](images/02mroada.gif) |
This
conceptual drawing illustrates how a highway can be constructed
with barrier fences to encourage wildlife to go under the road
through a corrugated metal or concrete box culvert. |
These
historical and cultural considerations were not well understood when
MDT and FHWA began planning the Evaro-to-Polson reconstruction in
the mid-1980s. MDT began by conducting a series of environmental assessments
along four separate sections of the corridor. But the tribes requested
a more comprehensive
approach using a corridor analysis through an environmental impact
statement, which MDT and FHWA began in 1990.
The six-year
study resulted in an unusual "record of decision" in August
1996. The three governments agreed that the highway alignment should
stay roughly the same with only a few minor adjustments. The parties
also agreed to come up with an access management plan, essentially
a method of reducing the relatively large number of frontage and local
roads and private driveways that accessed the highway.
![Photo of road cut](images/02rock.jpg) |
The
tribes consider road cuts such as this one to be culturally harmful
because the landforms that have been scarred are integral parts
of the tribe's creation stories, which explain the origins of
the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreille people. |
But that's
where the agreements ended. Significant differences remained between
the CSKT and MDT's preferred alternatives. MDT wanted a four-lane
configuration; the tribes wanted a two-lane highway with some passing
lanes. The record of decision deferred construction until both sides
could agree on the appropriate design and "a project-level environmental
document is completed that addresses social, economic, and environmental
impacts."
Back
to the Drawing Board
After
the record of decision was published in 1996, both sides began discussions
to resolve remaining differences, but without much success. MDT asked
the tribes what they wanted; the tribes wanted to know,
"What can you build us?" The tribes wanted a road that would
"allow them to continue practicing their tribal ways," but
MDT had difficulty determining exactly what that meant. MDT attempted
some new designs and alternatives for certain segments, but the tribes
found them unacceptable. A stalemate ensued for the next two years.
Why had
negotiations failed? All of the project's key players agreed that
numerous roadblocks had hindered progress, including a lack of trust,
entrenched positions that limited creative approaches, and lack of
a shared vision.
But the
project took a positive turn in fall 1998, when MDT hired Skillings-Connolly
Inc. of Lacey, WA, to develop access management and right-of-way acquisition
plans. During this process, Skillings-Connolly used a
crucial strategy from the context-sensitive design playbook—stakeholder
involvement. In addition to establishing local committees, the firm
met individually with more than 600 property owners along the corridor
in summer 1999. These meetings resulted in agreements that reduced
driveway access by 50 percent, from 700 to 350.
![Tribal drummers around a bonfire](images/02drummers.jpg) |
Drummers
around a bonfire are participating in a powwow, an important aspect
of tribal culture for the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes.
|
"We
were successful because we started talking to people," says Lyle
Renz of Skillings-Connolly. "We started meeting with stakeholders
and community leaders to discuss the highway. We eventually got buy-ins
from most of the property owners, which also set the stage for the
next step."
Liking these
results, the three governments agreed to retain Skillings-Connolly to
facilitate further discussions with the tribes, provide project management,
coordinate community involvement, and develop mutually acceptable engineering
and design concepts that would lead to a memorandum of agreement in
accordance with the record of decision.
![Conceptual drawing illustrating how quarried stone can be used in a road crossing structure](images/02bridge.gif) |
This
conceptual drawing illustrates how natural materials, such as
locally quarried stone, will help fit road crossings structures
into the existing landscape. |
Paris
Pike Project
Also
during this same period, the CSKT began looking at other projects
throughout the country where cultural preservation was a consideration.
One project in particular caught the tribe's attention.
The Kentucky
Transportation Cabinet (KTC) was upgrading a 17-mile (27-kilometer)
segment of U.S. 27/68 between Paris and Lexington in the heart of
Montana's Bluegrass Country. The two-lane rural highway extended over
rolling hillsides dotted with historic thoroughbred farms.
![A conceptual plan for the Evaro highway showing landscaping to enhance the appearance of the road](images/02evarog.jpg) |
A
conceptual plan for the Evaro highway shows how landscaping along
the road could help enhance the character of the town and serve
as a more attractive entrance to the reservation. |
The narrow
right-of-way was lined on both sides with old trees, wooden fences,
and stonewalls, some of
which dated back to the Civil War period.
But the
highway, which had minimal shoulders and no passing or turning lanes,
had become extremely congested and hazardous. So KTC proposed building
a four-lane highway. But, like U.S. 93, local communities objected,
claiming widening the road would do irreparable harm to the corridor's
history and landscape.
KTC hired
Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects of Seattle,
WA, to work with the project's engineering consultant to find ways
to build a four-lane highway with minimal environmental and cultural
impacts. After extensive evaluations and input from local communities,
Jones & Jones came up with a design for what is known as the Paris
Pike project.
The firm
looked beyond the existing right-of-way by incorporating "zones
of opportunity," areas along the corridor where the road could
be constructed without adversely affecting the environment, even if
it meant extending or moving the roadway outside the existing right-of-way.
The firm ultimately came up with an acceptable alternative: two completely
independent two-lane highways—one going northbound, the other
going southbound—that followed the contour of the land. In most
places, existing trees, fences, and stonewalls either were preserved
or moved and restored to their original condition.
![Aerial photo showing a section of U.S. 93 that cuts directly through a kettle pond in the Ninepipe wetlands complex](images/02aerial.jpg) |
An
aerial photo shows a section of U.S. 93 that cuts directly through
a kettle pond in the Ninepipe wetlands complex. This section will
likely be redesigned to respond more favorably to the land. |
"We
got away from this notion that the road is the important thing,"
says Jim Sipes, a Jones & Jones senior associate. "The road
is the visitor.
You've got to be mindful that there's a history to be respected. What
matters is not how you can go
through things but how you can
make the highway fit. Now we
have a road that fits the landscape."
Unique
Landscapes and "Big Rooms"
Impressed
with Paris Pike, the tribes asked MDT and FHWA for Skillings-Connolly
to hire Jones & Jones as consultants to develop concepts for landscape
architecture, roadway aesthetics, lane configurations, interpretive
areas, and wildlife crossings. Skillings-Connolly agreed, and in spring
2000, Jones & Jones joined the team.
"We
had to get inside the minds of the tribes and then come up with concepts,"
Sipes says. "We all have significant places in our lives that
we feel connected to, and for the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreille
people, that place is the reservation. We had to find out what was
important to them and then design a highway around that."
After
an extensive study of the land and tribal history, Jones & Jones
concluded that the broader environmental continuum of valleys and
mountain ranges contained large, definable spaces resembling large
outdoor rooms. In examining these "big rooms," the firm
identified 14 separate landscapes, each with its own unique physical
characteristics. To make the project more manageable, the 14 landscapes
were combined into five separate design segments. From these emerged
ideas for how the road should respond to the land.
One of
the 14 landscapes, called Pablo Pines, features pine-covered sand
hills formed when winds blew down off the glaciers that created Flathead
Lake. In this area, the road design favors keeping the pines and rolling
character of the sandy hills close to the highway to increase the
perception that the road is integrated with the land rather than slicing
through it.
In another
landscape, called Ninepipe, an area of wetlands containing numerous
turtle ponds and small lakes, the design calls for "dodging and
maintaining lake and pond integrity and restoring those that have
been divided by the existing highway." In the St. Ignatius landscape,
a broad valley etched with dentritic drainage patterns, the design
accentuates the drainage patterns that follow the streams. At Ravalli
Hill, where high rolling hills create a powerful divide between the
Mission Valley and Ravalli Canyon, the design calls for healing the
scars from road cuts by treating cuts or blasted rock faces with a
substance that gives the rock a natural weathered look.
To enhance
and preserve tribal culture, place-name and interpretive signs conveying
important cultural and natural landscape information will be in three
languages: Kootenai, Salish, and English. The borders of the signs
will illustrate traditional beadwork patterns. A logo depicting the
coyote, legendary hero of the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreille
people, will be featured on interpretive signs. Native materials,
such as quarried stone and rough-sawn lumber, will be used whenever
possible. Only indigenous plants and soils will be used to revegetate
disturbed areas.
![Photo of bear in the wild](images/02bear.jpg) |
Bears
like this one will be safer because wildlife crossing structures
incorporated into context-sensitive designs, will enable the animals
to move more freely over or beneath the highway. |
Critter
Crossings
Because
of their close ties to the land, the tribes are sensitive to the impacts
of roads on wildlife. Biologists estimate that 1 million vertebrates—amphibians,
reptiles, birds, and mammals—are killed on the nation's roads
and highways each day. Just last summer, for example, an adult female
grizzly bear was killed after being hit by a truck on U.S. 93 near
Post Creek at the southern edge of the Ninepipe wetlands complex.
The survival
of native animals such as grizzly bears, wolves, deer, elk, lynx,
and wolverine is dependent on their ability to move from one wilderness
area to another, according to wildlife experts. As humans have developed
the region, large habitats have been cut into smaller pieces, leaving
animals with fewer breeding areas. Their shrinking populations are
losing their genetic diversity because of inbreeding, which makes
them less resilient to environmental changes and challenges. As this
happens, animal populations begin to decline or disappear. Maintaining
connections between animal populations, called "linkage zones,"
enables endangered species to attain larger, more genetically diverse
populations.
![Project logo, a depiction of Coyote, legendary hero of the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreille people](images/02coyote.gif) |
The
project's design theme will be represented by this logo, a depiction
of Coyote, legendary hero of the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreille
people. |
U.S.
93's new highway design features 42 fish and wildlife crossing structures
that facilitate the movement of fish and wildlife through the corridor.
Among the 42 structures are eight open-span bridges, 33 corrugated
metal pipe or concrete box culverts of various sizes, and one 200-foot-wide
wildlife overcrossing, a structure that will allow bears and other
large animals to cross over the highway without coming into contact
with traffic. This structure will help link grizzly bear populations
of the Mission Range and Bob Marshall Wilderness Area to the east
with the Bitterroot Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone to the west. Wildlife
fences and cattle guards will funnel wildlife toward and through the
crossing structures.
"The
highway issue is really key," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
biologist Chris Servheen in a July 29, 2001, Missoulian newspaper
article. "What we see is increasing highway development and increasing
traffic volume on all these highways in Montana. Unless we build consideration
for wildlife into highway development, the highways in and of themselves
can pretty well fracture these habitats."
What
the MOA Stipulates
-
A
31-mile (50-km) section of existing two-lane highway between
Evaro to just north of St. Ignatius will remain primarily
a two-lane rather than a four-lane highway, with some passing,
turning, and climbing lanes in certain areas.
- A
10.6-mile (17-km) section from just north of Ronan to the
Montana Highway 35 intersection at the south end of Polson
will become a four-lane divided highway.
- A
supplemental environmental impact statement will be drafted
for the 11.2-mile (18-km) section in the environmentally sensitive
wetlands area known as Ninepipe.
- A
series of wildlife crossings will be built to allow safe passage
of deer, bear, elk, and
other wildlife across the
highway.
- A
four-lane divided highway will be constructed to move traffic
more efficiently through and around Arlee. In Arlee itself,
north and southbound traffic will use two parallel one-way
streets.
-
A method for continuing decision-making and discussion of
project details is provided. A Technical Design Committee,
consisting of representatives from each of the three governments
and other experts as needed, will work out details of the
design.
- A
Project Oversight Group, consisting of the original negotiating
team, will provide policy guidance and dispute resolution
for the Technical Design Committee.
- A
visitor's center will be built at Ravalli Hill, and displays
will interpret the reservation's traditional cultural landscape.
- The
cultural landscape will be restored along the project's entire
length with careful contour grading and installation of native
plants and soils.
|
Traffic
Safety
Part
of the project's shared vision was the understanding that environmental
and cultural issues have to be linked to highway safety and capacity.
In spring 2000, the Midwest Research Institute (MRI), of Kansas City,
MO, one of the nation's premier traffic operations and safety consultants,
was hired to assist in developing and evaluating a lane configuration
plan that all three governments could agree on.
In its
evaluation, MRI determined that the corridor's crash levels were not
only above statewide rates, but also the crashes themselves were more
severe than usual. For example, 4.8 percent of crashes between 1995
and 1999 led to fatalities, compared with 1.7 percent statewide. Additionally,
44.2 percent were non-fatal injury crashes, compared with 37.1 percent
statewide. The most common types of crashes were head-on, rear-ender,
and sideswipe collisions, suggesting that passing maneuvers were possible
causes of many of the more serious crashes.
![Members of the U.S. 93 project team evaluate a wildlife "jump-out"](images/02jump.jpg) |
During
a visit to Canada's Banff National Park, where extensive wildlife
crossings and other context-sensitive design features have been
built, members of the U.S. 93 project team evaluate a wildlife
"jump-out," which enables animals trapped between continuous
fencing to escape to safety. Jump-outs are proposed for use at
Evaro Hill, Ravalli Curves, and Ravalli Hill. |
Using
the TWOPAS computer traffic modeling system, which simulates how a
highway would perform under certain conditions and alignments,
MRI evaluated various lane configurations to ensure that the levels
of service would meet the criteria established by the three governments.
Instead of the four-lane undivided highway envisioned in MDT's original
preferred alternative, MRI was able to confirm that constructing a
two-lane highway with wider shoulders and some passing, climbing,
and turning lanes (with four-lane divided highway sections where most
needed) would meet project safety and capacity goals.
MRI predicted
that over the next 20 years the new design will reduce fatal crashes
by 70, injury crashes by 520, and property-damage-only crashes by
650, for a total of 1,240 fewer incidents. The new design also will
achieve an acceptable level of service through 2024.
"MDT
and the CSKT had vastly different visions of what the project should
look like," says Doug Harwood, an MIR traffic safety engineer.
"We had to work with the team to help determine what would work
from a safety standpoint. In the end, safety was an important part
of the agreement reached. No one wanted to miss the opportunity to
save 70 lives and prevent 520 injuries."
The three
governments eventually agreed to construct a combination of four-
and two-lanes with full shoulders and passing, turning, and climbing
lanes where appropriate; improved sight distance and access control;
and safer curves. The busiest section, a 10-mile (16-kilometer) leg
from Polson to Ronan, and two additional miles elsewhere, will have
a divided four-lane configuration with curves that respond to the
landscape.
Why did
a project that had been stuck in project quicksand for almost 15 years
suddenly flourish? What made the difference, according to those involved
in the project, was that all parties started listening to each other,
respected each other's differences, built trust, and used context-sensitive
design as a strategy to get the project moving.
"The
words in the MOA are about rebuilding a road," says Fred Matt,
the CSKT's tribal council chairman. "But the process leading
up to it was about rebuilding trust, honor, and mutual respect among
the governments."
What's
Next?
With
most major obstacles cleared, the project is now heading toward construction
as early as 2004. Eight consultants have been hired to begin final
design work under the oversight of Skillings-Connolly, Jones &
Jones, and Herrera Environmental Consultants. Right-of-way acquisition
also continues on various sections. The supplemental environmental
impact statement
required in the memorandum of agreement for the Ninepipe area also
is moving ahead, including completion of the initial public comment
period known as scoping and the initial phase of writing a draft environmental
impact statement.