DESIGN MEMORANDUM NO. 6-98

TO:                                           Chief District Engineers
                                                  Design Engineers
                                                  Active Consultants

FROM:                                     John B. Sacksteder, P.E.
                                                  Director, Division of Highway Design

DATE:                                      January 28, 1998

SUBJECT:                               Environmental Checklists

Effective immediately, environmental checklists will no longer be required to be attached to the inspection reports. Checklists will now be required to be submitted with Right-of-Way Plans and Final Plans submission on federally funded projects. The checklist will be mailed directly to the Director, Division of Environmental Analysis in both cases. Copies of the checklist will be sent to the Central Office Location Engineer and the Central Office Programming Staff. A copy will also be sent to the Director, Division of Right-of-Way with the Right-of-Way Plan submittal. Desirably the checklist should be sent 30 days prior to the actual Right-of-Way Plan submittal to allow review time in advance of the actual demand for the federal funding.

This new submission schedule in no way relieves the Project Development Team (PDT) from recognizing significant project changes during earlier project stages, such as inspections, that may have an impact on the environmental process. The PDT must have an awareness of the environmentally sensitive issues on each project and must notify the Division of Environmental Analysis immediately of any significant changes or awareness of any new previously unidentified environmental issues. Early identification of environmental issues will allow lead time to address the concerns and will avoid delays in obtaining funding that may occur later if the issues are not yet resolved.

JBS:jad