Highway Location and the Environment

IN TR O D U CTIO N For decades the highway location team has based consideration of alternatives on such basic factors as right-of-way and construction costs, length of alternative routes, number of structures required, number of homes displaced, benefit cost ratios and other traditional considera­ tions. This approach, originally applied to rural projects, gradually crept into use in urban highway location studies. At first the methods were not challenged but eventually the public began to become discontented. In the early 1960’s we began to lose our credibility. Indiscriminate use of park lands, recreation areas, historic sites and other environmentally-significant lands was taking place. The attention that was being focused on economic and social impacts of public works projects was a manifestation of growing public concern over the quality of our environment and our way of life. The list of major parks and historic areas that were threatened was a long one and includes many sites of national significance: