BACKGROUND

When a transportation project has an adverse effect on historic properties, under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act mitigation is required. Typical mitigation measures include Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record / Historic American Landscapes Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) completion, archaeological data recovery and associated research, and educational publications. 

Mitigation is proposed and selected in consultation with Section 106 stakeholders. Increasingly, cultural resource specialists are considering implementing creative mitigation alternatives, such as establishing mitigation banks or the development of online or video interpretive content about the significance of a given resource that meet the expectations of the public, the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), and other consultation parties. However, practitioners are uncertain how to advance innovative mitigation measures for a given resource that would achieve broad public benefit and meet the expectations of the SHPO.  

Research is needed to identify cultural resource mitigation measures that successfully achieve broad public benefit for cultural resource protection. This research would facilitate successful mitigation for environmental benefit and compliance with the National Environmental Protection Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the research is to develop a guide for transportation cultural resource specialists and practitioners to mitigate the adverse effects of a project on cultural resources. The research should identify factors and conditions that create public benefit or otherwise create “success” with respect to mitigation measures proposed for a given category of resource and provide direction on how to evaluate and select measures for adoption.

RESEARCH PLAN

The research plan should (1) include a kick-off teleconference with the research team and NCHRP convened within 1 month of the contract’s execution; (2) address how the proposer intends to satisfy the project objective; (3) be divided logically into detailed tasks necessary to fulfill the research objective and include appropriate milestones and interim deliverables; (4) include robust engagement of appropriate stakeholders in data collection and product validation; (5) incorporate opportunities for the project panel to review, comment on, and approve milestone deliverables; and (6) include an interim report and panel meeting scheduled to transition the project from data collection and analysis to production of the final deliverables.  

It is expected that the research will:

• Focus on surface transportation project cultural resource mitigation;
• Identify and organize commonly used and creative or innovative cultural resource mitigation strategies and techniques for different categories of cultural resources;
• Address how to identify a “successful” cultural resource mitigation strategy or measure;
• Identify how to assess the public benefits of cultural resource mitigation strategies within different project types and affecting various cultural resources to understand the varying levels of impact and/or value of each;
• Identify and provide guidelines and tools that facilitate the selection and implementation of effective processes and practices for identifying and implementing cultural resource mitigation; and
• Identify and address institutional barriers (staff, time, political will or executive direction) that limit or otherwise influence the selection and implementation of cultural resource mitigation.

FINAL DELIVERABLES

The final deliverables expected will include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• A guide to facilitate an agency’s efforts to identify and implement effective cultural resource mitigation tailored for a specific resource or context. 
• An interactive compendium of cultural resource mitigation strategies that can facilitate analysis and decision-making on the selection of mitigation measures to implement in various contexts, including specific strengths and weaknesses of the measures in practice and project examples or types where the measures have been successfully implemented.
• A stand-alone technical memorandum that identifies implementation pathways, key implementers of the results, and well-defined scopes of work for product dissemination and pilot implementation of the research products. 
• A conduct of research report that documents the entire research effort.

STATUS: Proposals have been received in response to the RFP.  The project panel will meet to select a contractor to perform the work.