RES2019-04 UTK-Advancing Urban Stream Restoration Enhancement Practices

Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) has a critical need for compensatory mitigation credits due to aquatic resource loss from highway construction projects. This need is in part due to limited availability of credits from mitigation banks and the state’s main in-lieu fee program. In addition, current stream restoration practices commonly used are expensive to construct, particularly in urban watersheds. However, the mitigation need is generally the greatest in urban areas because those are the locations where aquatic resource impacts occur most often from highway construction. New cost effective approaches for urban stream restoration/enhancement design and construction are needed that can be approved by both the federal and state environmental regulatory communities. The regulatory community has recognized the need for a more consistent approval process for compensatory mitigation credit ratios, thus TDEC has developed the Tennessee Stream Quantification Tool (TN SQT), and issued it for public comment in January 2018. Responses to public comments from TDEC were published in June 2018, and one concern reflect the additional time and cost to complete the TN SQT. Under a TDEC-sponsored research grant, Schwartz is currently reviewing the TN SQT as to its capability to cost effectively assess potential functional lift for a mitigation project. The proposed TDOT research specifically targets improving design approaches for urban stream restoration/ enhancement projects in order to maximize the potential function lift from the TN-SQT and generation of compensatory mitigation credits needed for highway construction impacts.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $104254
• Contract Numbers:

  RES2019-05

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Tennessee Department of Transportation

  James K. Polk Building
  Fifth and Deaderick Street
  Nashville, TN  United States  37243-0349
• Managing Organizations:

  University of Tennessee, Knoxville

  Center for Transportation Research
  Conference Center Building
  Knoxville, TN  United States  37996-4133
• Project Managers:

  Purnell, Paul

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Tennessee, Knoxville

  Center for Transportation Research
  Conference Center Building
  Knoxville, TN  United States  37996-4133
• Principal Investigators:

  Schwartz, John

• Start Date: 20181201
• Expected Completion Date: 20210531
• Actual Completion Date: 20230530
• Subprogram: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Construction projects; Stream restoration; Urban areas
• Identifier Terms: Tennessee Department of Transportation
• Subject Areas: Construction; Environment; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01896357
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Tennessee Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: RES2019-05
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Oct 17 2023 12:08PM