Cultural Resources Mitigation: What Works and What Doesn't?

When a transportation project has an adverse effect on historic properties, under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act mitigation is required. Typical mitigation measures include Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record / Historic American Landscapes Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) completion, archaeological data recovery and associated research, and educational publications.  Mitigation is proposed and selected in consultation with Section 106 stakeholders. Increasingly, cultural resource specialists are considering implementing creative mitigation alternatives, such as establishing mitigation banks or the development of online or video interpretive content about the significance of a given resource that meet the expectations of the public, the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), and other consultation parties. However, practitioners are uncertain how to advance innovative mitigation measures for a given resource that would achieve broad public benefit and meet the expectations of the SHPO.   Research is needed to identify cultural resource mitigation measures that successfully achieve broad public benefit for cultural resource protection. This research would facilitate successful mitigation for environmental benefit and compliance with the National Environmental Protection Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. The objective of the research is to develop a guide for transportation cultural resource specialists and practitioners to mitigate the adverse effects of a project on cultural resources. The research should identify factors and conditions that create public benefit or otherwise create “success” with respect to mitigation measures proposed for a given category of resource and provide direction on how to evaluate and select measures for adoption.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5364
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $500000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 25-67

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Weeks, Jennifer

• Start Date: 20230327
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Best practices; Compliance; Cultural resources; Historic preservation; State departments of transportation
• Subject Areas: History; Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01846132
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 25-67
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: May 23 2022 4:41PM