After the recommended strategy is put into the HSP and the Preliminary Engineering Funding is secured from the legislature, the environmental process is started. Currently, transportation project planning does not include the environmental studies until the end of the process, after decisions have been made.
Several problems occur as a result of leaving out the environmental process until such a late stage.
Resources may also suffer as decisions made under the current system may not be those which best balance environmental, social, and economic factors. The proposed NEPA Process Improvement includes NEPA and agency coordination early in the planning and decision making process. It involves moving NEPA into early project planning so the planning document and the NEPA document are melded into a single product.