Environme ntal Assessment Addendum

Size: px
Start display at page:

Download "Environme ntal Assessment Addendum"

Transcription

1 FI Improved Interchange at I-71 and Routes 36/37 and Proposed Sunbury Parkway Environme ntal Assessment Addendum DEL PID September 20, 2017 The environmental review, consultation, and other actions required by applicable Federal environmental laws for this project are being, or have been, carried-out by ODOT pursuant to 23 U.S.C. 327 and a Memorandum of Understanding dated December 11, 2015, and executed by FHWA and ODOT.

2 DEL PID Environmental Assessment ADDENDUM TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT As stated in the Environmental Assessment (EA) dated June 20, 2017, the project will involve construction of an interchange at I-71, south of the existing US 36/SR 37 interchange. This interchange will carry the new Sunbury Parkway over I-71 and run east and west of the interstate, operating in conjunction with the existing interchange to the north at US 36/SR37. The interchange will include a relocated I-71 northbound off-ramp which will provide access to both Sunbury Parkway and US 36/SR 37 and will occur south of the current northbound off- ramp. Access to US 36/SR 37 from northbound I-71 will be accommodated by a collector/distributor road. Access to I-71 northbound from Sunbury Parkway will also occur via the collector/distributor road. Southbound on-ramps to I-71 from Sunbury Parkway eastbound and westbound will be provided. The existing interchange at US 36/SR 37 will remain, but as stated above, the northbound exit from I-71 to access both Sunbury Parkway and US 36/SR 37 will be at the same exiting point. The project will also construct Sunbury Parkway from Africa Road at US 36/SR 37 east to Wilson Road as a six-lane road with a median, multi-use path and sidewalk. The Africa Road intersection with US 36/SR 37 will be realigned to create a four-legged intersection with Sunbury Parkway. 3B s & K Road south of Sunbury Parkway will be relocated to create an intersection with Sunbury Parkway and the future Fourwinds Drive, which will be extended south by others. A cul-de-sac will be constructed on 3B s & K Road, north of Sunbury Parkway. The extension of Wilson Road south from its current terminus at the Tanger Outlet Mall to the future Sunbury Parkway will be constructed with two lanes in each direction by Northgate Development, LLC. East of Wilson Road, a new arterial roadway, also identified as Sunbury Parkway, will be constructed by the Village of Sunbury New Community Authority 1 (NCA1). This project, the Committed Sunbury Parkway, will be built with two travel lanes (one in each direction), with left turn lanes at the intersections with South Galena Road, Domigan Road, and US 36/SR 37 (Cherry Street). Because a five-lane corridor will eventually be necessary to meet the future traffic needs of development, all the right-of-way and grading along the Committed Sunbury Parkway will be for the ultimate (five-lane) configuration. All culverts and the bridge over Little Walnut Creek, will also be built wide enough for the ultimate (five-lane) configuration. The project will widen on the inside of the Committed Sunbury Parkway in order to provide five lanes with a grass median from Wilson Road to US 36/SR 37 (Cherry Street) along with constructing additional turn lanes to accommodate the future traffic demands at Galena Road. The project, east of Wilson Road, will not involve construction of bridges or culverts or include any earth disturbing activity outside of the right-of-way previously established for the Committed Sunbury Parkway. The EA was provided to the public on June 20, 2017 and a public hearing was held on July 11,

3 DEL PID Environmental Assessment Subsequent to the distribution of the June 20, 2017 EA and the July 11, 2017 public hearing, several roadway design features were altered to improve roadside safety. These alterations were related to roadway and interchange ramp embankment fill slopes and the need to eliminate fragmented residual parcels. Refer to Figure 1. As a result of these changes, ODOT reevaluated the findings in the EA and have identified the additional project impacts as the following: No additional homes or commercial operations will be impacted. The project will require 13 additional acres of new permanent right-of-way making the total impact 78 acres from 20 parcels. One additional Stream (Stream 3) was impacted and the total linear feet of impact has increased by 324 feet (total project impact is now 4,823 linear feet). Wetland impacts increased by 1.86 acres (total project impact is now 4.57 acres). The project will now impact one additional pond (Pond 11) by 0.01 acre. The project s total pond impact has increased 0.29 acres. The project will directly impact an additional 1.82 acres of Suitable Wooded Habitat (SWH) for the Indiana Bat and Northern Long-eared Bat. The project s total impact to SWH is acres. ODOT coordinated this change with USFWS and their approval, as stated in the project s EA as May Affect, and is Likely to Adversely Affect remains valid. The project will impact an additional 2.28 acres of active farmland. This brings the project s total to of farmland acres impacted. In addition to the above change, in an dated July 28, 2017, the FHWA, Ohio Division, upon review of the project s Interchange Modification Study, notified ODOT that the project s preferred alternative constituted the creation of a new interchange, not a modification of the existing US 36/SR 37 interchange. FHWA also determined that the preferred alternative is a partial interchange as a direct connection from I-71 southbound to Sunbury Parkway is not provided. As part of the required documentation to obtain FHWA approval of the interchange study, ODOT was required by FHWA to consider a full interchange that provided all movements, even though it would not be constructed. ODOT wanted assurances that the environmental studies took into account the impacts necessary to construct a full interchange, should a full interchange be required in the future. The full interchange alternative was laid out in a conceptual form and evaluated based on the area being cleared for the current project. The full interchange will fit within the footprint of the NEPA study area, therefore no additional NEPA studies were required. Please see Figure 2 that shows the conceptual layout for the full interchange. 2

4 DEL PID Environmental Assessment ODOT reconsidered the above changes and compared them to the findings in the EA. All environmental areas that were studied in the EA were reconsidered based on the above changes. Most areas had no changes in impacts (Cultural Resources, noise, etc,). However, the only area that rose to the level of requiring re-coordination was impacts to the natural environment (streams, wetlands, endangered species) and on August 11, 2017, a Level 2 Ecological Survey Report (ESR) Addendum was provided to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Ohio EPA (OEPA), Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for their review and comment. The Addendum presented the altered construction and right-of-way limits along with the additional impacts. That same Level 2 ESR Addendum was provided to the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) on August 15, 2017 for their review and comment. Comments were received from the USFWS, OEPA, ODNR and USACE on or before August 28, As a result of the agency coordination on this Addendum, one Environmental Commitment has been revised: To offset the removal of acres of Suitable Wooded Habitat (SWH) beyond 100 feet from the edge of the existing pavement plus acres of SWH that is likely to be indirectly affected by the project at the 3.5:1 replacement ratio, ODOT will deduct acres of credit from the Sunday Creek Coal Company 2 pooled conservation area. This increase of 9.52 acres of credit will offset the additional 1.82 acres of directly impacted SWH and additional 0.90 acres of indirectly affected SHW. Based upon ODOT s review and consideration of the analysis and evaluation contained in the EA and the Addendum to the EA for this project, and after careful consideration of all social, economic, and environmental factors, including input from the state/federal agencies, ODOT has determined that the changes contained within this document do not rise to the level of significance and therefore do not required the recirculation of the EA nor the creation of a supplemental EA document. ODOT will inform the public of these minor changes with release of the Finding of No Significant Impact and in the response to public comments from the EA. 3

5 N. 3 B 'S & K? I Figure 1 DEL PID $ a " WD-E 0.05ac Impact (EA CL) 0.05ac Impact (ROW Limits) Stream 6a 275 LF Impact (EA CL) 287 LF Impact (ROW Limits) LF Impact Change Stream 4 20 LF Impact (EA CL) 20 LF Impact (ROW Limits) WILSON Pond ac Impact (ROW Limits) ac Impact Change FOURWINDS Berlin Townshi p Berkshire Town ship Stream 3 37 LF Impact (ROW Limits) LF Impact Change Stream LF Impact (EA CL) 240 LF Impact (ROW Limits) Alum Creek State Park WD-D No Impact (ROW Limits) Stream 10c 150 LF Impact (EA CL) 123 LF Impact (ROW Limits) LF Impact Change Stream LF Impact (EA CL) 230 LF Impact (ROW Limits) Stream 6b 130 LF Impact (F/S CL) 130 LF Impact (ROW Limits) Pond Stream LF Impact (EA CL) 200 LF Impact (ROW Limits) WD-BB 0.02ac Impact (EA CL) 0.03ac Impact (ROW Limits) ac Impact Change AF RI C A Stream 10b 550 LF Impact (EA CL) 550 LF Impact (ROW Limits) S. 3 B'S & K Stream 10d 42 LF Impact (EA CL) 156 LF Impact (ROW Limits) LF Impact Change ALUM CREEK Pond WD-FF 0.02ac Impact (EA CL) 0.02ac Impact (ROW Limits) -- Tanger Outlet Mall Pond ac Impact (EA CL) 1.79ac Impact (ROW Limits) ac Impact Change WD-K2 1.02ac Impact (EA CL) 1.44ac Impact (ROW Limits) ac Impact Change Stream LF Impact (EA CL) 110 LF Impact (ROW Limits) WD-X 0.23ac Impact (EA CL) 0.33ac Impact (ROW Limits) ac Impact Change WD-K 0.12ac Impact (EA CL) 0.12ac Impact (ROW Limits) Displacements $ Endangered Species Habitat (Indiana Bat and Northern Long-eared Bat) Residential Relocations j k Commercial Relocations Potential Maternity Roost Trees Indirectly Impacted SWH Directly Impacted SWH Ecological Resources Suitable Wooded Habitat (SWH) Streams Ponds Cultural Resources Wetlands Historic Site 100 Year Floodplain Traffic Noise Benefitted Receivers Impacted Receivers ( Existing Receivers WD-Z 0.81ac Impact (EA CL) 1.36ac Impact (ROW Limits) ac Impact Change Barriers Considered WD-H 0.01ac Impact (EA CL) 0.01ac Impact (ROW Limits) Preferred Alternative Stream LF Impact (EA CL) 127 LF Impact (ROW Limits) Proposed Right-of-Way Limits ( ) Environmental Assessment Construction Limits Stream 14b 155 LF Impact (ROW Limits) LF Impact Change Pavement Farmland to be converted Easements Study Area I Stream LF Impact (EA CL) 100 LF Impact (ROW Limits) Section 4(f) Resources Farmland 250 WD-EE 0.02ac Impact (EA CL) 0.02ac Impact (ROW Limits) -- Revised Fill Slope Construction Limits ( ) Alum Creek State Park 0 Stream 15a 440 LF Impact (EA CL) 440 LF Impact (ROW Limits) Stream 15b 720 LF Impact (EA CL) 753 LF Impact (ROW Limits) LF Impact Change 500 SHE N A RM WD-J 0.13ac Impact (EA CL) 0.73ac Impact (ROW Limits) ac Impact Change WD-W 0.14ac Impact (EA CL) 0.14ac Impact (ROW Limits) Stream LF Impact (F/S CL) 1165 LF Impact (ROW Limits) - WD-GG 0.14ac Impact (EA CL) 0.32ac Impact (ROW Limits) ac Impact Change Ditch ac Impact (EA CL) 0.002ac Impact (Rev F/S CL) - Feet Environmental Resources (EA v. ROW Limits) T he e n vi r o n m e n t a l re v i ew, c o n s ul t a t i o n, a n d o t he r a c t i o n s r e qu ir e d b y a p pl ic a b l e Fe de r a l en vi r o n m e n t a l l a w s f o r t hi s p r o j e c t a r e b e in g, o r h a v e b ee n, c a rr i e d- o u t b y O D O T pu rs u a n t to 2 3 U.S. C a n d a M e m o ra n du m o f U n d er s t a n di n g d a t e d D e c em b e r 1 1, , a n d ex e c u t e d b y F H WA a n d O D O T.

6 FIGURE 2: Sunbury Full Interchange Alternative Conceptual Design for I-71 Southbound Northbound direction matches Build Condition SUNBURY PARKWAY CHESHIRE ROAD Revised Fill Slope Construction Limits from the Revised ESR, 8/9/2017 Existing right-of-way September 18, 2017