Review priorities for Project Memos and federal plans at Central Office
By: Angela Murphy, Federal Plans Engineer, Chris Nobach, Assistant Project Development Engineer, and Dale Gade, Project Development Engineer
Environmental documents
First and foremost, completed environmental documents will be reviewed based on date received in our Electronic PM Submittal Folder. Most files are dropped here by your district after they are reviewed by the District State Aid Engineer (DSAE). If files were placed here and they are still waiting on correspondence from any environmental agencies (MnDOT CRU or MnDOT Endangered Species, for example), we will now be placing them in a “Secondary Priority” Folder and focusing our attention on completed Project Memos (PM). Once all completed submittals are processed, PMs in the “Secondary Priority” will be reviewed. Upon receipt of the missing correspondence, the document should be updated and will be approved as appropriate. We feel this will better serve our local partners and allow for more productive project feedback in the process. We will contact you directly if your project is incomplete and needs more work before it is reviewed. Please see Dale Gade at dale.gade@state.mn.us with any questions regarding this process.
Federal plan review
Similar to the process outlined above for environmental documents, plans submitted to Central Office for review will be queued for review dependent on readiness for FHWA authorization. Plans submitted for review that have all the items needed for authorization will be reviewed first. This includes an approved PM, approved Right of Way Cert No. 1 or No. 1a, and approved STIP modification or amendment, if needed. After the plan has been reviewed and approved, including final plan signature, the plan/project will be submitted for FHWA approval. Upon FHWA approval, the plan/project may be advertised for bid. Plans submitted for review to Central Office that are not ready for FHWA authorization will be moved to the bottom of the review list, and reviewed after all FHWA authorization ready plans are reviewed. Please contact Angela Murphy at angela.murphy@state.mn.us if you have any questions.