10. Tiering is not new in the federal NEPA process.

It was developed in the 1970’s and has been used successfully on many complex projects.

In the tiered approach, projects are developed in tiered steps, beginning with the basic planning level decisions in tier 1, followed by the detailed fully developed design and analysis studies in tier 2.
It is almost always done sequentially, i.e. tier 1 EIS followed by tier 2 EIS.

This is unique because we will advance the tier 1 transit simultaneous with the tier 2 highway and bridge analysis.

This single document will result in a tier 1 transit record of decision and a tier 2 record of decision in early 2010.

This allows advancement of the critical bridge and highway work, which will make accommodation for the transit system while the detailed development and community coordination of the transit component advances.  The tier 2 transit study will begin immediately upon receipt of the tier 1 transit record of decision.  This also preserves our options for federal transit funding

We believe that the timing of the highway bridge work in advance of the transit works ideally.  It is expected that development and finalization of the transit components will be ready for implementation as work on the highway bridge reaches completion. (10 of 33)