As a leading environmental consultant in the region, MAP Environmental Inc. encourages our staff to remain ahead of the ever-changing regulations and protocols in the regulatory world. As this country rebuilds its aging infrastructure, most localities seek State and Federal funding, which means they are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. In order to provide efficient and effective consultation, MAP is proud to assist local cities/municipalities in navigating the complicated NEPA process. Consequently, it is essential for MAP to realize the appropriate training in order to remain a regulatory expert in this field.

On February 15^th, our staff attended the Introduction to NEPA workshop led by the UVA Transportation Training Academy. This training was very timely due to the recent Programmatic Agreement between FHWA and VDOT in October of last year. The areas of study necessary for a Programmatic Categorical Exclusion did not significantly change under the new agreement, but the agreement did increase the amount of documentation necessary for each study area to in order to qualify as a Programmatic Categorical Exclusion. Further, VDOT will now be assigning a Project Manager to each locally administered project in order to streamline project approvals. All coordination with VDOT should be done through the City/Municipality’s project manager and will be extremely helpful as VDOT’s project database will have access to an ample amount of information pertinent to obtaining NEPA approval.