Rivers and Roads Training Program in Massachusetts

The EPA awarded MassDOT and SLR a 2020 New England Environmental Merit Award for their work on the Rivers and Roads Training Program.

Challenge

Wherever a roadway engages with a river or stream, there will be a need for environmental experts to assess the needs of both the road and the river. SLR is helping state governmental bodies understand that to build better, more resilient infrastructure that benefits wildlife, they must approach these projects with a holistic view of both the construction design requirements and the needs of the river. These are known as river-road conflicts.

In Massachusetts, SLR collaborates with MassDOT through an on-call contract to provide fluvial geomorphic services when road, bridge, and culvert projects take place over and adjacent to waterways. The goal of this work is to reduce river-road conflicts as a means for preserving the environment while also protecting the transportation asset.

Solution

One of our early joint successes with the Department was the development and implementation of a Rivers and Roads Training Program across the state, which was given to designers, structural engineers, hydraulic engineers, resident engineers, permit staff, and project managers. This training, which was structured in a three-tier system, helped explain the key principles of fluvial geomorphology, bank and channel stabilization, and the use of natural materials to help design and implement resilient projects with online and in-person physical examples.

The training program is being implemented across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where topography and environments vary greatly between the western, central and eastern parts of the state. The team worked to adjust the training materials for each part of the state.

Impact

Now that the state is educated in the needs of their streams and rivers next to infrastructure, this education program has resulted in continued projects for SLR in the region as the on-call environmental support for MassDOT. SLR employees regularly go out to the locations of transportation projects and provide assessments and construction oversight, ensuring that river/road conflicts are naturalized and can accommodate flooding and maintain fish and wildlife passage.

Our team estimates that the team has performed nearly 50 small projects for the state to date, often times going out to see up to 5 projects at a time with a group of MassDOT experts.