Environmental Impact Monitoring for the Federal Highway Administration

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has awarded Battelle a $20 million, 5-year environmental research and technical support contract to provide assistance to FHWA’s Office of Planning, Environment & Realty. Technical support will be provided in 11 task areas related to environmental impacts of transportation systems, including transportation and air quality; transportation, energy, and environment; wetlands, wildlife habitat, and other ecological resources; highways and water resources; brownfields and other hazardous waste sites; highway traffic noise; environmental stewardship and streamlining; historical and archeological preservation and aesthetics; transportation enhancement areas; bicycle and pedestrian programs; and information dissemination.

One of Battelle’s initial tasks under the contract involves assisting FHWA in meeting a court-ordered deadline for developing an air toxics monitoring plan.

The objective of the monitoring plan is to determine mobile source air toxics (MSAT) concentrations and variations as related to highway traffic flows including traffic count, vehicle types, and speed; distance from the highway; and meteorological conditions such as wind speed and wind direction.

Battelle is developing the protocol for measuring the production and behavior of fine particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM_2.5) and six primary MSATs near highways. The protocol addresses all aspects of the research program, including selection of the study location; placement and setup of sampling sites; application of appropriate sampling and analysis methods, including monitoring of surrogate or indicator compounds; coordination of chemical sampling with meteorological and traffic monitoring over defined sampling periods and study durations; quality assurance activities; and analysis of the study data. The primary goal of the protocol is to provide understandable and readily implementable procedures and guidance that can be used by any organization carrying out a mobile source field study.

Battelle provided recommendations for the selection of monitoring methods, monitoring schedules, and monitoring site locations. In general, the recommendations call for continuous monitoring of a few select surrogate species throughout the monitoring study, augmented with integrated sampling of MSATs at certain times throughout the study period. The approach was designed to provide sufficient data to assess diurnal variations of MSAT concentrations at major highway locations in the United States.

Another task under this contract involves identifying historically significant features of the Interstate Highway System. Battelle is working with FHWA Division offices, state DOTs, and state historical preservation offices in all 50 states to identify the Interstate features (e.g., bridges, tunnels, rest areas) that are nationally or exceptionally significant, and, thus, should be protected by the National Historic Preservation Act.

This contract will involve Battelle offices throughout the country, as well as key subcontractors.

For more information about this program, please contact Mr. Joseph Carvitti at (614) 424-4843, carvittij@battelle.org, or Mr. Alan Pate at (614) 424-7611, patea@battel.