Companion Guide to Video February 2019

www.fhwa.dot.gov/federal-aidessentials

The life cycle of a transportation project begins 

with the transportation planning process and is 

followed by environment, design, right-of-way, 

construction, ending with maintenance and 

operations. The traveling public and taxpayers 

are challenging agencies to accelerate the 

project delivery process and improve efficiency 

without compromising public input, safety, and 

environmental laws. 

Planning and Environment Linkages, known as 

PEL, promote the use of the information, 

analyses, and products developed during the 

transportation planning process to inform the 

environmental review process, including the 

National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. 

This collaborative and integrated approach 

leads to better environmental results, considers 

environmental, community, and economic goals 

early in transportation decision-making and 

helps decrease project cost, schedule times, 

and redundant efforts.

Let’s explore two examples. 

During the transportation planning process, 

how does your agency coordinate with external 

stakeholders such as State, local, Tribal, and 

Federal agencies? 

To explore the potential environmental impacts 

of future projects, some agencies start engaging 

external stakeholders during the transportation 

planning process. They might ask, can we avoid 

disrupting a wetland or minimize impacts? If 

avoidance or minimization of impacts is not 

possible, how we can mitigate any potential 

damage? By discussing environmental topics 

with external stakeholders during the 

transportation planning process and then 

documenting key decisions, the agency may 

accelerate the subsequent environmental 

review and permitting processes. Also, early 

robust public involvement may even reduce the 

Federal-aid Program Overview

Planning and Environment Linkages (PEL)

Efficient practices enhance project delivery.
Federal-aid Essentials for Local Public Agencies

occurrence of eleventh hour surprises and their 

potential for controversy. 

During the environmental process, does your 

agency use the analyses conducted during 

planning to eliminate unreasonable 

alternatives? 

Typically, during the environmental process, 

transportation and resource agencies review all 

the alternatives developed during the planning 

process, including the ones determined to be 

unreasonable. The level of resource agency and 

public involvement, the conditions that have 

been met for documentation and detail, 

methodology, quality and timeliness of the 

analysis will determine how the elimination of 

alternatives can be used in the NEPA process. 

PEL offers the flexibility for agencies to select an 

approach for using planning phase activities to 

identify reasonable alternatives and reduce the 

range of alternatives to be evaluated during 

NEPA. This may save significant time during the 

environmental review process.

Accelerated project delivery is important to all 

stakeholders of our transportation system. Our 

examples show that PEL approaches assists the 

environmental review process because it: 

• Reduces duplicative efforts

• Contributes to cost and time savings;

• Improves documentation of processes and 

decisions;

• Improves interagency relationships and 

coordination; and

• Enhances community involvement. 

Your agency may already be using PEL on a 

regular basis, but is it doing enough to meet the 

challenge of improved efficiency and 

accelerated project delivery? 

Here are a few questions to assess whether or 

not you are optimizing your PEL opportunities:

• Have your agency’s planning and 

environmental teams met recently to 

discuss opportunities for process 

improvement? 

• How can your agency make planning 

studies more useful? 

• How can outdated institutional barriers 

that prevent or limit the use of planning 

studies during the environmental process 

be overcome? 

The Congress has amended legislation to 

improve the integration of transportation 

planning and environmental review. 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) 

actively promotes PEL. Every State Department 

of Transportation, metropolitan planning 

organization, and local public agency can utilize 

PEL approaches to provide more efficient and 

effective decisions. To explore opportunities for 

enhanced linkages, please coordinate with the 

appropriate FHWA Division Office.
Federal-aid Essentials for Local Public Agencies

The content of this 

document is not a 

substitute for 

information obtained 

from State departments 

of transportation, 

appropriate FHWA 

Division Offices, and 

applicable laws. 

Scenarios have been 

simplified for emphasis 

and do not necessarily 

reflect the actual range 

of requirements 

applicable to the 

scenario or this topic. 

This document was 

created under contract 

number DTFH61-13-A00001 by the Federal 

Highway Administration, 

U.S. Department of 

Transportation, and is 

offered to the public to 

heighten and focus 

awareness of Federal-aid 

requirements within the 

local public agencies 

community and 

reinforces the 

importance of these 

necessary policies, 

procedures, and 

practices.

This Companion 

Resource is the script 

content for the video 

production of the same 

name. 

Additional Resources

FHWA page providing background and guidance for implementation of PEL.

https://www.environment.fhwa.dot.gov/env_initiatives/PEL.aspx

View this page for some of the most often asked questions about PEL.

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep/guidance/pel/pelfaq16nov.cfm

The Federal Register notice dated May 2016 that addresses use of planning products 

in project development. 

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/05/27/2016-11964/statewideand-nonmetropolitan-transportation-planning-metropolitan-transportation-planning

FHWA report dated October 2015 on the benefits of PEL. 

https://www.environment.fhwa.dot.gov/env_initiatives/pel/pel_benefits_report.aspx