Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) is an approach in transportation planning for establishing the purpose and need as well as the reasonable range of alternatives in environmental documents prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). TRB hosted a webinar on Tuesday, August 30, 2022 from 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. Eastern to cover various aspects of the PEL process, including public involvement, agency involvement, developing purpose and need, screening alternatives, implementation plans, and transitioning to NEPA. Presenters reviewed case studies to help the various aspects come to life.

This webinar was sponsored by TRB’s Standing Technical Committees on Environmental Issues in Transportation Law and Environmental Analysis and Ecology.

The slides are linked in the meeting materials. View the recorded webinar below.

Webinar agenda and presenters

• State department of transportation (DOT) lessons learned and case studies - Troy Halouska, Colorado DOT
• Practitioner case studies and lessons learned – Gina McAfee, HDR
• PEL legal perspectives - Fred Wagner, Venable
• Question and answer session moderated by Diane Nulton, HDR

The first 60 minutes of the webinar will be for presentations and the final 30 minutes will be reserved for audience questions.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify critical elements of public and agency involvement for PEL studies
• Understand the documentation requirements for purpose, need, and alternatives development and screening
• Determine key points in the PEL process where the U.S. Federal Highway Administration or the U.S. Federal Transit Administration involvement is needed in the process

American Institute of Certified Planners Certification Maintenance Credits

This webinar was approved by the American Institute of Certified Planners for 1.5 Certification Maintenance Credits. Please visit the Certification Maintenance section of APA’s website to claim your credits: https://www.planning.org/cm/. If you have problems reporting your CM credits or have general questions about the CM program, please contact the APA.

Continuing Legal Education Credits

TRB offered 1.25 CLE credits for this webinar. TRB did not seek approval for this workshop from the state board. Registered webinar attendees who signed in and viewed the entire webinar received a link to a certificate that they can fill out and provide to the appropriate MCLE Board(s) or Commission(s) within 30 days of activity.