Most people hear “sustainable” and “roadway” and think there’s no way the two go together – how is it possible to build a sustainable roadway? Sustainable roadways are a newer concept and a developing field of engineering and construction that has resulted from a general agreement that roadways by themselves, as traffic facilitators, are greenhouse gas generators.

Now, that’s not to say that the Connector will be a roadway that does not produce greenhouse gas: that would be nearly impossible with current technologies. But there are many things we can do when designing and building the Connector to be sustainable.

We would like to build the Connector as a green transportation corridor. We do that by respecting the environment and doing what we can to be as recyclable and sustainable as possible. We may use all recycled materials; use cool pavement design (pavement that reflects heat instead of absorbing it, as most pavement does); use porous pavement that actually absorbs water and waste products from engines and filters the runoff before it enters the groundwater; set up solar stations to store power to use at night to generate the light for off-ramps, overcrossings, information signs and traffic signs; and even include “critter crossings” so we don’t impact the migration paths of animals.

We are planning to make the Connector friendly for multiple modes of transportation, from bicycling to transit to equestrian. We hope the design, when it is approved, will make people feel that including other travel options wasn’t an afterthought but was integral to the overall viability and mission of the roadway – because that is genuinely our goal. We have the opportunity, because we are looking at different modes of travel from the beginning, to have different multi-modal elements in different areas of the alignment. It doesn’t have to be “one size fits all,” but can be flexible based on what people would like to see in a certain area.

The list of sustainable elements we can use is growing, and President Obama’s desire to “go green” with infrastructure projects will no doubt lead to more research and development. I’m looking forward to helping develop new, creative approaches that will enable us to build a sustainable roadway in our region.

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