Development of a Tool to Streamline and Expedite the General Permit Application

The Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) plays a vital role in developing and maintaining infrastructure projects that often intersect with environmentally sensitive areas such as wetlands and rivers. These projects are governed by Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which requires permits for discharging dredged or fill material into waters of the United States. Compliance with this regulation is essential to ensure responsible stewardship of aquatic ecosystems and adherence to federal environmental standards. Currently, the permit application process is highly labor-intensive, requiring extensive manual data entry that is both error-prone and time-consuming. Applications often demand significant input and corrections from NDOT, resulting in bottlenecks that delay approvals. The repeated back-and-forth communication between NDOT and consultants, along with the substantial effort NDOT must dedicate to guiding consultants—even after training—creates inefficiencies that strain resources for both NDOT and its consultants. These inefficiencies ripple outward, delaying infrastructure projects, inflating costs, and increasing administrative burdens on both NDOT and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which oversees the review of these applications. Modernizing the permit application process is not just an operational necessity but a strategic opportunity. Developing an electronic permitting (e-permitting) tool can transform the application workflow, ensuring timely, consistent, and compliant submissions. This initiative aligns closely with NDOT’s ongoing Nebraska Environmental Data System (NEDS) project, which provides a centralized platform for managing and analyzing environmental data. Integrating the e-permitting tool with NEDS offers the potential to enhance data sharing, streamline workflows, and create a cohesive system for tracking environmental resource reviews and compliance

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $180,000.00
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Nebraska Department of Transportation

  1500 Nebraska 2
  Lincoln, NE  United States  68502
• Project Managers:

  Halsey, Lieska

• Principal Investigators:

  Huynh, Nathan

  Vidal, Jose

  Zhao, Li

• Start Date: 20250701
• Expected Completion Date: 20270531
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Construction and maintenance; Environmental impacts; Permits; Wetlands
• Identifier Terms: Nebraska Department of Transportation
• Geographic Terms: Nebraska
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Data and Information Technology; Environment; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01945350
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Nebraska Department of Transportation
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Feb 10 2025 11:17AM