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What's New

Postings on this page will be highlighted for 90 days.  Postings older than 90 days can be accessed on the Posting History page.

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  • 03-25-20  The Division of Environmental Analysis and the Division of Design have provided guidance on addressing FHWA's updated "Policy on Access to the Interstate System."  This guidance is outlined in a letter from Phil Stolarski and Janice Benton to FHWA and can be found on the SER Policy Memos page.

The purpose of the updated FHWA policy was to streamline the requirements to obtain an FHWA "Determination of Engineering and Operational Acceptability," and reduced the number of policy considerations and requirements in an Interstate Access Change Request from eight to two.  The policy considerations that have been eliminated from Design's request to FHWA are related to social, economic, planning, and environmental impacts and are adequately addressed either through NEPA compliance or in Corridor System Management Plans, Transportation Concept Reports, the Regional Transportation Plans, and other long-range planning documents.

The only change is that for projects that include new or modified access to the Interstate System and require FHWA approval, the “Final Determination of Engineering and Operational Acceptability” from FHWA needs to be included as an appendix in the final document (EAs and EISs) or as an attachment to CEs.  More information can be found in the letter to FHWA.

In addition, each of the Environmental Document Annotated Outlines has been updated to include this new appendix.  The updated AOs are located on the SER Forms and Templates page.

  • 03-02-20   The Environmental Management Office (EMO) has updated the following forms for compliance with the Americans with Disability Act (ADA):
    • Internal Quality Control Certification Sheet
    • External Quality Control Certification Sheet
    • District Quality Control Checklist (previously named Quality Control Checklist)
    • Notice of Availability – FONSI
    • Negative Declaration (ND)
    • Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND)

    They are located on the SER Forms and Templates page.  As our forms will be continually updated for ADA compliance, please make sure to always download the most recent version.  If there are any problems with the forms, please contact jennifer.clark@dot.ca.gov.

     

  • 12-10-19  The Environmental Management Office has updated the Annotated Outlines (AOs) to include various updates and to reflect recent changes to the CEQA Guidelines.  A summary of the changes and grandfathering guidelines has been posted.  The ED Review Checklist has also been updated to reflect changes made to the AOs.

    In order to improve efficiency, the required text for the Climate Change section for ISs and EIRs has been relocated and can now be found as two separate Climate Change AOs, one for capacity increasing projects and one for non-capacity increasing projects.  Please choose the outline most appropriate for your project and include in your environmental document.

    All of the above mentioned files can be found on the SER Forms and Templates page.

    In addition, Chapter 13 of the SER, Energy, has been updated to reflect recent changes to the CEQA Guidelines.