SITE ASSESSMENTS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: A MODEL COOPERATIVE PROGRAM BETWEEN A GEOLOGICAL SURVEY AND A STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Since 1989, the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) has been involved in a cooperative program with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to conduct preliminary environmental site assessments (PESAs) for property to be used for road construction and improvement projects in Illinois. In the 1980s, the Federal Highway Administration and IDOT recognized the need to assess environmental risks and liabilities associated with such property for several reasons: (1) protect worker and public safety; (2) reduce IDOT's liability by conducting an investigation into the environmental condition of property prior to acquisition; (3) avoid delays and cost overruns in construction when environmental hazards are encountered unexpectedly; (4) decide what steps to take if an environmental problem cannot be avoided and construction must proceed.

IDOT required an objective external organization to conduct PESAs in a cost-effective and timely manner, and considered the multidisciplinary expertise of geoscientists and environmental scientists at the ISGS to be well suited for the multidisciplinary PESA process. Following completion of a pilot project by ISGS, IDOT contracted with ISGS to conduct all PESAs for the transportation process.

This contract is in its 12th year, and over 1500 PESAs have been completed, ranging in size from road improvements involving a single parcel to over 112 km (70 miles) of land to be acquired for a new four-lane highway with several proposed alternate routes. The primary differences between PESAs performed by the ISGS for IDOT and industry-standard Phase I site assessments are, first, that the scope of PESAs is larger (assessment of one parcel at a time is standard in the industry; IDOT PESAs may require assessment of hundreds or thousands of parcels); second, a hybrid Phase I-Phase II approach is utilized by ISGS, in which limited subsurface testing is performed rather than full Phase II testing, thus saving time. The ISGS-IDOT program can serve as a model for other departments of transportation that are interested in streamlining their environmental process.