Environmental Compliance Construction Monitoring – Various Ohio DOT Projects
In 2020 STONE completed this statewide contract to ensure compliance with environmental permits and regulations. This included MAR-23-18.15 Env Monitoring, MAD-70-8.62 Env Monitoring, and FAY-62-4.65 Env Monitoring. This Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) task order involved the development and implementation of environmental commitment monitoring plans to improve and ensure compliance during construction of select projects statewide that include the avoidance and protection of sensitive environmental resources. Environmental commitments can vary in resource type (ecological, waterway impacts, cultural, Section 4(f), etc.), and come from programmatic agreements, ODOT Construction Materials Specifications (CMS) items, and project specific requirements. STONE was responsible for documenting compliance with all commitments, environmental-related CMS items, and any BMPs listed in the NEPA document. Once the environmental monitoring plan was developed for a project, an environmental kick-off meeting was coordinated in order to review the commitments with the ODOT and the Contractor. After this meeting, the plan was updated as needed with any new information gathered, including schedule updates. STONE then performed in-person monitoring when construction began. The environmental monitoring visits not only documented adherence to the commitments, but facilitated open communication between ODOT and the Contractor in order to best translate environmental commitments into successful field practices. In the event non-compliance was discovered, the field personnel and the district environmental coordinator was notified for further coordination. Typically, non-compliance could be resolved promptly at the field level, however in one instance where non-compliance was escalated to ODOT Central Office of Environmental Services, STONE was available daily for on-site monitoring to document the restoration and resolution of the non-compliance event.