Road construction suggestions
Answers
On the basis of its investigations and deliberations, the committee reached the following conclusions and recommendations.
CONCLUSION: Most road projects today involve modifications to existing roadways, and the planning, operation, and maintenance of such projects often are opportunities for improving ecological conditions. A growing body of information describes such practices for improving aquatic and terrestrial habitats.
Recommendation: The many opportunities that arise for mitigating or reducing adverse environmental impacts in modifications and repairs to existing roads should not be overlooked. Environmental considerations should be included when plans are made to repair or modify existing roads, as well as when plans are made to build new roads.
CONCLUSION: Planning boundaries for roads and assessing associated environmental effects are often based on socioeconomic considerations, resulting in a mismatch between planning scales and spatial scales at which ecological systems operate. In part, this mismatch results because there are few legal incentives or disincentives to consider environmental effects beyond political jurisdictions, and thus decision making remains primarily local. The ecological effects of roads are typically much larger than the road itself, and they often extend beyond regional planning domains.
Scientific literature on ecological effects of roads generally addresses local-to-intermediate scales, and many of those effects are well