Inclusive Infrastructure | THINK

Issue 21

2022

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INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS

INCLUSIVE INFRASTRUCTURE

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Issue 21

2022

INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS

INCLUSIVE INFRASTRUCTURE

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TOPICS This edition of THINK demonstrates how leaders are creating equitable transportation systems — and building value in the process.

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Creating a Transportation System for Everyone

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Louisiana: Mobilizing a Capital City

What does it mean for infrastructure to be inclusive? Industry leaders share their innovative approaches to increasing inclusivity and creating equitable solutions for their communities.

Sharon Weston Broome, Mayor of Baton Rouge, tells how the city is listening to diverse voices to drive more equitable investments in roads, transit and stormwater management.

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Michigan: Taking It to the Next Level Terri Slaughter, Chief Culture, Equity and Inclusion Officer, and Tony Kratofil, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Engineer, tell how Michigan’s DOT is integrating inclusion and equity into its DNA.

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North Carolina: Squaring the Circle Dennis Jernigan and Rodger Rochelle, the NC Turnpike Authority engineers leading the completion of Raleigh’s outer loop highway, have made inclusion a top priority at every turn.

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Maryland: Leveling the Playing Field Ricky Smith, Executive Director at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, reveals how culture change is advancing diversity, inclusion and opportunity.

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California: Fast-Tracking Equity Sadie Graham, Acting Director of Link21, explains how BART is prioritizing equity and inclusion as it strives to extend services to every community in the Northern California Megaregion.

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Ohio: Building Opportunity and Economic Vitality Matt Wahl, Senior Project Manager at HNTB, explains how ODOT’s ambitious multimodal project in Cleveland is advancing opportunity and economic vitality in a “forgotten triangle.”

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Creating a Transportation System for Everyone As the nation debates how best to address social and economic inequities, leaders across the transportation arena have been taking bold action to create more inclusive infrastructure — by reshaping their planning strategies, operational approaches, workplace cultures and community engagement activities.

America’s transportation infrastructure provides mobility options that generate economic opportunity and enhance quality of life for everyone. Yet, despite efforts to create a uniformly responsive and resilient system, many communities remain underserved. People living in these communities feel excluded — not only from the processes that create the transportation infrastructure around them, but also the benefits received.

Fortunately, a confluence of factors is accelerating efforts to create more inclusive transportation infrastructure. What does it mean for infrastructure to be inclusive? And how is this concept being applied by cities and states as they embark on new transportation projects? Through this issue of THINK, HNTB reached out to decisionmakers coast-to-coast — from engineers to elected officials, and planners to diversity pioneers — and they agreed to share their innovative approaches to increasing inclusivity and creating equitable transportation solutions for their communities.

The articles featured in this edition explore a total of 28 strategies, ranging from successful and ongoing programs to newly launched initiatives. We hope that these concepts and ideas will serve as inspiration and direction for what’s possible.

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Improving lives in a capital city with more equitable investments in roads, transit and stormwater management A vision for improved mobility, safety and opportunity is taking shape across the diverse city of Baton Rouge, drawing on the involvement and ideas of citizens themselves.

By Sharon Weston Broome, Mayor-President | City of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, is a city on the move, making unprecedented investments in improving public safety, economic development and infrastructure. Importantly, since our administration began its work in January 2017, we have made an unprecedented commitment to ensuring that every community participates in our success, especially the poorest of our neighborhoods, which have been left behind due to disinvestment across many decades.

We have embarked on a broad-based program that, among other things, is improving our transportation system and how we deal with the escalating risks posed by flooding from hurricanes and other now all-too-frequent intense storms. We are investing in ways that will have a multi-generational impact on our communities — with a focus on inclusion and opportunity for all of our citizens. These are some of the strategies we are pursuing.

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Establishing a framework for action with insights from hundreds of stakeholders We have made inclusion a centerpiece of the administration, beginning with the hundreds of diverse stakeholders on our transition team who helped to shape our vision for the future. The ideas and insights people shared were voluminous and they continue to help us fully understand what the community needs. We started out by working on several issues we could immediately address, but also began moving forward on issues such as infrastructure, which we knew would take longer but needed serious attention. We have been very intentional about reiterating the goals that came out of those early days, and we provide regular updates on our progress all across the city. We can’t have one part of our community at an A grade and another at a D grade and expect it to be a thriving community. We’re determined to elevate all communities as we keep moving forward.

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Creating an ambitious transportation initiative 2. aimed at advancing equity and accessibility We have a plan called MOVEBR that represents a billion-dollar investment in roads and infrastructure, and is funded by a 30-year, half-cent sales tax that voters approved at the ballot box in December 2018. It involves about 70 projects across the city to improve roads, make streets more accessible for drivers and public transit users, create bike lanes and make sidewalks safer and more ADA compliant.

MOVEBR is advancing both access and equity on all fronts, particularly in areas that have been marked by disinvestment in the past. We have ensured the plan transcends every council district in the city and parish and engages a diverse group of businesses in terms of contracts and business opportunity. People will not only benefit from improvements taking place in their communities, but also in the economics of a massive program like this. We broke ground on our first construction project last year and will have 21 projects underway by the end of 2021.

Creating data-driven approaches to address 3. stormwater threats that affect every city sector Flooding and drainage issues have been front and center here since August 2016, when a 100-year flood affected virtually every part of the city including areas that had never flooded before. This is why we have been developing Baton Rouge’s first comprehensive plan to mitigate drainage issues in our community. Our Stormwater Master Plan is collecting data on drainage infrastructure across the parish, so we will know where the major issues are and create a road map for addressing them. Of course, a project of this scale takes time to implement, and the weather doesn’t wait on our projects. The frequency of major flash floods coupled with an increased number of hurricanes — like Hurricane Ida in August — and tropical storms have our citizens and elected leaders on high alert. But we are moving in the right direction. Using the master plan’s drainage data and cutting-edge computer modeling, we’ll be able to move forward with work that will deliver a more effective drainage system for our city’s future.

Broadening the impact of public transit with the 4. state’s first bus rapid transit system In recent decades, there has been significant growth in south Baton Rouge as north Baton Rouge has continued to decline economically. At the time I took office, there was a plan to connect the Louisiana State University campus and downtown Baton Rouge with a new streetcar system, which has its merits. However, we saw that an alternative approach — bus rapid transit — could meet those same goals and have a greater impact on mobility while also serving as anchor for reinvestment in north Baton Rouge, one of the community’s major areas of disinvestment. Many cities around the country are favoring the BRT concept because it can connect nodes across distances greater than 10 miles, which is something modern streetcars can’t achieve cost-effectively. We believe that the BRT system will provide a reliable, attractive and efficient way for people to access vital services and job opportunities. Significantly, Baton Rouge’s BRT project will be the very first in the state of Louisiana but certainly not the last.

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Advocating for passenger rail to spur economic opportunity 5. and regional vitality Prospects are brightening for transformed travel between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, including a passenger rail project that’s been talked about for decades. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many displaced New Orleans residents relocated to communities northwest of the city, along Interstate 10, including to Baton Rouge. A good number retained their jobs in New Orleans, so since 2005 we’ve seen tremendous growth in daily commutes between these cities, in both directions, which has made driving times unpredictable. The good news is that the conditions for advancing a new passenger rail service along I-10 have improved significantly. Amtrak is including this envisioned rail line in its long-range plan, and there are ongoing negotiations between two major railroad companies that will affect rail operations between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Importantly, political and business leaders in both cities and the parishes along the line are united in their support to move the project forward, and Governor John Bel Edwards has publicly voiced support, as well. So, we are hopeful that our region will soon enjoy improved economic benefits, development activity and quality of life improvements that a modern passenger rail system can support.

As we pursue all of these initiatives, we are striving to earn the public trust by not only keeping our promises but also maintaining good communications. This has been challenging because major infrastructure work takes time, and we know that people want and need improved mobility, safety and opportunity right now. So, we are working closely with federal, state and local officials and with community stakeholders and citizens to move as quickly as possible. We are confident that the coming months and years will bring exciting, positive improvements to this great city — particularly in those areas that have been waiting so long for change to come and deliver the benefits that the people of this great city deserve.

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Taking inclusion to the next level in Michigan Building on years of work to strengthen connections between communities and transportation programs, Michigan’s DOT is now integrating inclusion and equity into its DNA.

By Terri Slaughter | Chief Culture, Equity and Inclusion Officer and Tony Kratofil, PE | Chief Operations Officer and Chief Engineer Michigan Department of Transportation For DOTs across America, the need to revolutionize how we envision, plan and develop transportation infrastructure so it serves all communities equitably, particularly those that have not shared in the benefits of — or have even been harmed by — system investments in the past is strong. At MDOT, we have implemented many programs over the years to advance equity through our planning and contracting processes.

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In the past year MDOT has committed to taking our equity and inclusion efforts to the next level.

Some of our activities are brand new, and others build upon models that have shown promise in the past. Here are some of the strategies we are pursuing:

1. Focusing first on culture change and engagement We want to move the needle in a way that will be sustainable over time. It would be a missed opportunity to merely react to what’s happening in society today, only to end up returning to business-asusual later on. We started by considering how to adapt our internal culture to meet the challenges facing us today and tomorrow. This included our employee engagement surveys to better understand people’s experiences working in the organization. Then, we created safe platforms for conversations about what’s going on in society and how we can help to address different issues. Our executive team members are among the most engaged and committed in this conversation. This important work is setting the foundation for creating a more inclusive organization, which is essential before progress on increasing diversity can be made. We’re intent on ensuring that everyone feels like they belong here and are valued for their contributions. One part is what we call the MDOT House, which is a system-wide process for workforce development, involving employees in setting and achieving performance goals, being clear about our expectations for leaders, engaging in shared learning and improving how we manage succession. It’s about putting people first, since they are the ones who deliver our mission and deliver our transportation programs and services.

2. Making equity and inclusion sustainable by fusing it with core operations Many diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives create a unit or a small workgroup, and the focus is on creating change by influencing the organization. They work to get executives’ attention and buyin, but even when they succeed, that progress can be lost when leaders change. So, we chose to reorganize to create a new deputy director role — one of only three — that would lead a significant part of the organization. The resulting equity and inclusion “core” encompasses transportation planning, organizational development, business development, economic development and equal employment opportunity. These units are involved in long-range planning, investment decisions, public involvement, DBE programs, and workforce development and succession planning, among other things. They influence everything MDOT does. And the professionals in these groups, which had formerly operated more independently, are very excited to be collaborating within this new, cohesive unit. We believe that this kind of approach will make our inclusion and equity work more sustainable because it is imbedded in our business model, systems and processes — threaded into our DNA.

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3. Innovating in our contracting approach to spark greater opportunity Like a lot of states, Michigan has a prequalification program for contractors, which helps to shorten the procurement cycle. But, an unintended consequence is that you can’t get prequalified without demonstrating MDOT-level experience, but it’s not possible to get such experience without having the prequalification. This conundrum made it very hard for small businesses and minority-owned businesses to break into our market. Several years ago, we began to address this issue as part of a $2.5 billion mega project to rebuild part of I-94 that runs through the heart of Detroit. We worked with city officials and neighborhood representatives to re-envision the originally approved project to create a smaller footprint and to better reconnect neighborhoods divided by freeway. As an outgrowth of this, we grouped a number of related bridge projects into packages that were small enough that contractors could compete based on business and financial soundness, without MDOT prequalification. HNTB, our owners representative, helped us create a small business initiative that provided training to local contractors, many of which were minority-owned and who brought a lot of insight and value to the work. Since then, we have tried to integrate such an approach into more projects.

The lessons MDOT learned are helping us frame a new statewide Mentor-Protégé program, which will give large contractors extra credit for working with and guiding small and minorityowned contractors, who will be able to attain technical and business skills as they are growing.

4. Cultivating diverse talent for MDOT and the industry One of MDOT’s signature initiatives is the Transportation Diversity Recruitment Program, which was created eight years ago under the leadership of Paul Ajegba, now our State Transportation Director, to help overcome some of the systemic barriers in our industry by reaching out to Historically Black Colleges and Universities that had not previously been engaged by our recruitment practices. Each summer, the program brings diverse engineering students to Michigan for a 10-week summer internship to work with our teams and learn about our business and organization. The intent is that ultimately these interns will join the MDOT team once they’ve graduated. This program, which started with four interns, attracted nearly 60 interns last summer, and was expanded in cooperation with ACEC/Michigan to place interns with our consultant partners as well. We keep setting our recruitment goal higher every year, even during this pandemic. Importantly, interns aren’t the only people transformed by this program: MDOT employees gain direct experience with interns, learn from them and teach them, and more clearly see how diversity and inclusion add unique value to our organization.

5. Harnessing data to drive conversations, commitments and results In the transportation sector, where a project management approach prevails, it’s natural to question whether you can set meaningful metrics for things like diversity and inclusion. But, the reality is that we can and must. Good intentions can only reach full potential if we set and achieve measurable outcomes. We recognize that we’re creating next-level transportation systems that must perform in an increasingly complex environment. So, this requires setting

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goals, measuring progress and accepting accountability for results, with both an internal and external focus. We need to get better data to drive decision-making around how to be inclusive, and how to deal with equity issues. Good data lets the organization have productive conversations about change from a basis of facts, rather than assumptions or emotions. Also, data confirms when you’re moving in the right direction, such as with our expansion from four to 60 diverse interns in just a few years. Those metrics serve as proof that we can achieve aggressive goals, and they form a growing number of success stories we share inside and outside of our organization.

As another example, the COVID-19 pandemic placed an increased emphasis on our ongoing work to improve practices and tools for virtual public involvement. Our concurrent emphasis on equity and inclusion informs and shapes MDOT’s public involvement process. The virtual tools we are now employing are helping us reach a broader stakeholder community. These tools also provide better data about the communities with whom we are connecting and more importantly those who we aren’t reaching so we can craft strategies to engage all people, especially those often disadvantaged or disenfranchised.

We are proud of our progress, but realize that there is much more work to do. In particular, we must ensure that the infrastructure we create is better attuned to community needs, and to ensuring greater inclusion and equity in every aspect going forward. Like many other DOTs around the country, we’re making it a priority to restore our credibility among communities who have been adversely impacted by infrastructure projects in the past.

We’ve got a steep climb to rebuild the trust and level of engagement and sense of enfranchisement with these communities, but we’re working on it, and that’s a critical part of demonstrating our commitment. Years from now, we want to look back at this time as when there was a major opportunity to create a more equitable transportation system and organization, and know we seized that opportunity.

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Squaring the Circle in North Carolina’s Capital Region As plans took shape to finish Raleigh’s outer loop highway, the state turnpike’s authority Complete 540 inclusion strategy was guided by a time-honored principle: Being a good neighbor.

By Dennis Jernigan, PE | Deputy Chief Engineer for Highway Operations and Rodger Rochelle, PE | Chief Engineer for North Carolina Turnpike Authority Glance at a road map of Greater Raleigh and you will see a vast, semicircular highway — called the Outer Loop — surrounding the capital region. This highway project, which broke ground in 1992, has been gradually expanding its circle ever since. As members of the North Carolina Turnpike Authority, we are part of a huge team of public and private entities that is committed to completing the circle — and doing it in ways that expand opportunity and strengthen our communities.

Phase one construction of this $2.2 billion, two-phase project began in November 2019 and comprises 18 miles of the loop. We are employing a design-build process, which means we are working on an accelerated timeline with a strong interest in innovation and collaboration. Among our top priorities is to be highly inclusive at every stage of the project. Here are four of our key strategies:

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E ngaging the public holistically, consistently and personally

From the very start, our approach has been guided by a simple principle: the people who benefit from and are impacted by this highway are our neighbors, and we treat them as such. We began by conducting meetings in towns along the route, presenting plans, answering questions and giving people printouts of the planned route in the vicinity of their specific addresses. We spoke with people at large neighborhood meetings, on their front lawns and on the phone. When we were able to modify our plans to meet a certain need, we did; and if that was not possible, we at least explained why and that was always appreciated. This dialogue has been continuing during the pandemic, through a great virtual platform that lets hundreds of our neighbors join to see project updates and pose questions. Also, we have kept in touch with the realtor community so they can align their efforts with the project as it evolves.

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Partnering with the industry to achieve inclusive DBE goals

It is very important to be a good partner to the industry: it strengthens our working relationship and impacts bid prices at both the contracting and sub-contracting levels. We aspired to have a very inclusive contracting process, but we had to ensure that Disadvantaged Business Enterprise goals could be achieved by the contractors in the region. We listened to industry leaders, and used their input to formulate meaningful DBE inclusion goals, which translated into contract amounts in the $75 million range.

Also, we felt it was very important to connect prime contractors with DBE firms proactively and early. So, we held a pre-bid informational event for prime contractors and designers and, for the first time, also hosted a DBE forum in the same location that day, which sparked connections that have led to mutually beneficial partnerships. This worked very well, because all goals were met in terms of committed work, and we have had a very good experience with DBEs across the board.

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D ividing the project into three sections to expand opportunities for all

We determined that we could meet two objectives — speed and inclusion — by breaking the phase 1 work into three sections.

These sections were supported by different contracts, which were staggered to reflect the sections’ state of readiness. The first two sections (R-2721A and R-2721B) are smaller than the third (R-2828), but all are obviously substantial. Importantly, this approach allowed for a more diverse pursuit of each project because each section had its own discrete DBE goals. This also allowed companies to evaluate their workload capacity and make educated decisions as to whether to pursue work in each section as they knew the outcome of one bid before the next bid was due.

We are grateful to the North Carolina Turnpike Authority for giving Vistabution the opportunity to participate in the largest project in NCDOT history. We also appreciate the Turnpike Authority’s forward thinking and innovative approach to the design-build contracting process.

— Vistabution

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Packaging right-of-way acquisition services creatively to emphasize DBE leadership opportunities

Typically, with right-of-way acquisition, different firms handle different parts of the process, such as appraisals, negotiations, asbestos inspection and abatement and other steps. But we saw an opportunity to approach it differently — to create a one-stop-shop that brought numerous related activities together. So, for two of the three contracts, we packaged and advertised the right-of-way work and we really wanted DBEs not just to participate but to have an opportunity to lead in these contracts. And that is exactly what happened. One DBE presented a winning plan that emphasized teamwork and focus, with agents handling no more than two dozen parcels in a “divide and conquer” effort. Not only did the DBE get the prime contract, which made it a 100% DBE contract, but they also were a subcontractor on the other right-of-way contract.

Their achievement contributed to NCTA’s success, too: it meant an additional $6 million of work going to DBE firms, beyond the $75 million noted above.

After winning the two contracts and beginning to work with us, the leader of the DBE firm told us that the contract awards truly made the difference for his firm and its employees during a rough year. Hearing such comments is extremely rewarding, and we are proud to be advancing such opportunities for firms like his in our region. But it is important to note that the pursuit of inclusion — welcoming people into the process, listening and learning is a win for everyone, delivering extraordinary value to this project, to the NCTA and to communities across our great state.

We are proud to work with all our neighbors to deliver the kind of transportation system that everyone deserves, and to build greater opportunity in the process.

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Leveling the Playing Field So Opportunity Can Thrive At Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, advancing diversity and inclusion is all about creating a culture that connects people to the mission and removes barriers to opportunity and growth.

By Ricky Smith, Executive Director and CEO | Baltimore Washington International (BWI) Thurgood Marshall Airport and the Maryland Aviation Administration (MAA) Among the industries devastated economically by the pandemic, few can compare to the aviation sector. Last spring, thriving airports nationwide suddenly became ghost towns. Here at Baltimore/ Washington International (BWI) Thurgood Marshall Airport our passenger traffic dropped to about 3% of normal. And although we’ve seen a rebound to about 65% of normal traffic, and are reopening food and retail outlets at a record pace, there’s still much work to do to restore the momentum we had in early 2020.

However, what the pandemic has not disrupted is BWI’s absolute focus on expanding opportunities for minorities and women, both as employees and business partners. This is because we have created a foundation for diversity and inclusion that is not a program but rather a performance-driven culture that aims to offer everyone a fair chance to contribute and advance. Here are a few aspects of that culture we are using to cultivate opportunity and inclusion across our organization.

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Building diversity at the top and letting it flow throughout the organization After returning to BWI in 2015 following several years in Cleveland, I remember meeting with BWI’s executive management team. To be successful we knew we needed other voices in the room. We brought diverse perspectives into conversations and at the leadership level.

With a diverse leadership team we have been able to increase diversity throughout our organization. It’s nothing magical — it’s about casting a wider net, bringing in new voices, and then removing all unnecessary barriers so people can compete for different opportunities on a level playing field.

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Establishing a culture that connects everyone to the mission We all are very proud of the awards that we win for our projects, programs and customer service quality. But to me the biggest victory is how we’ve changed the culture at the airport.

It’s a shift from taking a kind of shotgun approach — reacting to whatever issue we were facing on any particular day — to becoming a performance-driven organization. We have worked together to create a strategic plan that serves to drive work planning throughout the organization. This is not a glossy document on a shelf — every employee has an individual work plan that connects them with the strategic plan on an annual basis. So, people feel part of something bigger than themselves. When they’re at home having dinner, and a story comes on TV about the airport having the most passenger traffic in the region, they can say, “I had something to do with that. Even though my job is to maintain vehicles.”

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Advancing inclusion and opportunity by fostering cross-organizational innovation One strategy we’ve employed to help BWI advance inclusion for many employees is through fostering innovation. We call it our Council of Committees, which is made up of 11 different cross-organizational committees. Each of these committees focuses on matters such as safety, sustainability, diversity, etc. which impact the organization across the board. Anyone can volunteer for a committee, and we have just two basic rules. First, only one person on each committee can be a specialist in that area (and not the top manager, either), to allow for free discussion of ideas; and, second, all committee recommendations come directly to me, so I can discuss them with the senior management team to determine how to implement. These committees have helped us innovate and have offered professional development opportunities for many employees. Imagine someone in custodial services or some other role who is an enormous talent but isn’t really recognized outside of his or her department. This gives them an opportunity to broaden their skills and increases their visibility to other departments.

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Engaging diverse business enterprises in the airport’s success in a sustainable way BWI has long been a thought leader in reducing the barriers of entry for diverse business enterprises. BWI’s concessions program has always been managed by a developer rather than by a master concessionaire. This means that each store is individually owned and operated, which we believe allows for better service quality and drives positive sales and customer perception. It also gives us flexibility to be innovative. It’s why we were able to partner with

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the developer in 2017 to create a program called LaunchPad, which encourages new small, minority businesses to launch operations at the airport. Since it began, the program has helped nine minority- and women-owned businesses open at the airport. In April 2020 we relieved subtenants of the requirement to pay a minimum annual guarantee rent, so they just had to pay a fraction of their sales, a comparatively small amount. We also let them flex their operating hours, so they weren’t obligated to stay open during hours when there were no flights. Also, we extended their leases for two years to give them more time to service any debt.

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Sharing our experiences and energy to drive change in the industry As leaders, we all are striving to advance diversity, inclusion and opportunity within our organizations. Many of us also are contributing our knowledge and experience to industry groups that share these ideals. I personally have been active for years in the Airport Minority Advisory Council (AMAC), which is the only national group that aims to expand participation of minorities and women in the aviation and aerospace sectors. AMAC members have mentored and supported me and inspired me throughout my career. As chair of AMAC, I collaborate with the board of directors to keep AMAC focused on its mission in the midst of this pandemic. We also have been very engaged with leaders on Capitol Hill, putting programs in place to alleviate the severe economic impacts on women and minorities in the airport industry. And, finally, we were fortunate to have the ideas and energy of so many talented industry professionals who helped to propel AMAC forward through this period.

I believe the engagement in AMAC is strong and makes me confident in our future and advancing our mission.

Let me close by saying that my role is that of an airport manager, but my ministry is making sure that women and minorities have fair access to employment and business opportunities in this industry. I look forward to my old age when perhaps I will see a commercial on TV that features a minority-owned company that we provided with an opportunity early in their startup.

That achievement will make me as proud as any other thing I have accomplished and that’s what my ministry is all about.

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Fast-Tracking Equity in the Northern California Megaregion With a massive upgrade to the Bay Area’s rail network in the planning phase, BART is prioritizing equity and inclusion to create a system that serves every community.

By Sadie Graham, Acting Director of Link21 | San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District

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The 12 million people who live in the 21-county megaregion surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area are poised for transformative passenger rail travel as planners map out the ambitious new Link21 Program. Introduced by the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) and the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA), Link21 will revolutionize how BART and regional passenger rail systems connect, make travel easier and more efficient, improve access to jobs and affordable housing and reduce environmental impact.

A critical goal of Link21 is to ensure that the transformed system serves the needs of everyone in all communities. When BART was launched 50 years ago, its primary focus was on commuting efficiency in and out of San Francisco’s financial district. Today, as we collectively envision BART’s next 50 years, we are putting transportation equity at the forefront of the planning process by engaging a range of stakeholders on how to better serve a diverse and ever-growing population.

Some of our key strategies for making good on that commitment include:

1. Co-creating to understand the needs of priority populations and how best to meet them Defining equity and what it means for Link21 is a key component of the program. We are facilitating a robust community collaboration and outreach program to ensure all voices have a chance to be heard. As planners, we realize it is important to ensure everyone is part of the conversation including our most impacted communities. The Link21 approach to equity is working to engage diverse stakeholders so we identify the critical elements.

Within the Link21 context, we are calling these communities our priority populations and are partnering with them to define who should be prioritized by the program. The program involves 21 distinct counties, and local or regional agencies have various ways of assessing communities’ needs. Our team initially defined priority populations by conducting a GIS, census-based analysis of impacted communities. But we’re digging deeper into this data and other equity questions by conducting regular co-creation workshops with community-based organizations (CBOs) and their constituents across the megaregion. Co-creation brings different perspectives to the table to generate ideas and solutions. Co-creation goes beyond traditional community engagement designed to inform the public by collaborating directly with community members to co-design the project itself. We see this proactive engagement with CBOs as the beginning of an ongoing dialogue that keeps us attuned to community needs as the project advances and continues to rebuild trust with impacted communities.

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2. Building alignment with regional transit agencies through data-driven dialogue Our team is looking at the Northern California passenger rail network as a whole. We are analyzing service needs and opportunities across a geography served by multiple agencies. There is a shared appetite for a more integrated transit network that might include a unified payment system and coordinated schedules. But each agency has its own initiatives, including some with rail projects underway or planned. With that in mind, we must work collaboratively to benefit these agencies and the communities they serve.

To this end, we are conducting an extensive market analysis to identify unmet transit needs or where people could be better serviced by rail. We’re looking across different populations to identify and address potentially competing needs. Taking it a step further, we hope to understand how people want to travel, not just for their jobs but to attend college, meet their daily needs, visit family and friends, or explore the region.

Having the right data and analysis in place enables us to have focused and nuanced conversations with transit leaders about how people are currently traveling within the region across all available modes, and how those travel patterns may change in the future. Establishing relationships with our partners early will benefit everyone when we begin to identify rail station locations and work through related land use and displacement risks. Our business case framework also aims to provide rich information for stakeholders to make informed decisions and clearly understand the benefits and the burdens of those decisions.

3. Balancing the pursuit of the long-term vision with the need to take short-term actions The BART team has been engaged in Link21 planning for two years now, and we anticipate that it will take until 2028 to identify the program alternatives and advance the project(s) through environmental review(s), and depending on funding, into the project delivery phase. With this kind of timetable our program needs to highlight the ways BART is acting on the district’s equity commitment — right now, every day.

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For example, BART partnered with several CBOs to address women’s safety concerns when using the BART system. Specifically, BART worked with the CBOs to engage local girls and gender-expansive youth to learn more about their personal experiences on the system.

We drew upon those testimonies to create BART’s first sexual harassment prevention campaign: Not One More Girl. This multifaceted campaign, which launched in April, is designed to raise awareness of this pressing issue and to educate bystanders on how to take appropriate action when they see situations that make them uncomfortable. This important, grassroots-driven initiative shows how BART cares and is taking action about the safety and well-being of these young people who are poised to be our next generation of riders and advocates. The Link21 Program will work with BART to advance similar efforts in response to what we hear from other priority populations about their near-term needs, while keeping an eye on our long-term vision.

4. Working to address inequities that expand beyond the bounds of our system The lack of affordable housing and growing homelessness rates are major issues across the Bay Area. Homelessness represents one of BART’s biggest opportunities to respond to inequities that originate outside of our immediate jurisdiction. Unhoused people often turn to our facilities as warm and relatively secure places to be, versus being on the streets.

BART, in partnership with local counties, has done exceptional work to bring resources to these individuals, whether bathroom facilities or access to community-based support.

BART has supplemented the system’s police units with BART Ambassadors, who interact with and support the needs of the unhoused population, recognizing them as individuals in need of resources, instead of criminals or nuisances.

We cannot solve the homelessness issue by ourselves, but we are committed to doing our part to respond to this complex social problem that crosses the invisible boundaries of jurisdictional control. A major contributing factor to homelessness is the lack of affordable housing in the Bay Area. As the Link21 Program becomes more defined, we will work with our jurisdictional partners and local communities to prevent displacement, limit negative impacts to existing communities and ensure any transit-oriented development provides affordable housing.

One final point: although we have created a preliminary framework for pursuing equity in our work, we must remain flexible and responsive to community needs and priorities over the coming years. Having a framework that is somewhere between “set in stone” and “dry-erase board” will let us keep our minds open as we ask, analyze and iterate to learn more about our community’s needs and to build the quality system they deserve.

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Building Opportunity and Economic Vitality in a “Forgotten Triangle” In Cleveland, an ambitious multimodal and new roadway connector project is advancing rapidly, with a mission of improving transportation linkage with neighborhoods and businesses, improving mobility between the Interstate Highway System and a major health, cultural and educational district and supporting economic development in the adjacent neighborhoods.

By Matt Wahl, PE, Senior Project Manager | HNTB In 2000, the Ohio Department of Transportation began studying the possibility of creating an “Opportunity Corridor” in Cleveland, in response to comments the public shared during the city’s earlier I-90 Innerbelt Modernization Study. As the Opportunity Corridor concept took shape, it became more than a project to improve a roadway system and mobility.

Here are a few highlights about ODOT’s approach to planning and building this innovative corridor.

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Engaging a Wide Range of Stakeholders and Earning the Community’s Trust As with many projects, success is dependent upon the community’s support and involvement. At one time, a new interstate highway was planned through this area.

So the community initially saw the new Opportunity Corridor roadway cutting through and dividing their community rather than supporting its revitalization. Thus, it was a challenge to gain public trust regarding the new urban boulevard and how it would improve access for cars, bicycles and pedestrians between the neighborhoods, as well as support economic development.

From the start, ODOT engaged local stakeholders through a steering committee made up of federal, state, regional, county, city and neighborhood representatives.

There were numerous individual and group meetings with residents and businesses to better understand each neighborhood’s strengths, challenges and opportunities.

The project team drew on this early input to further develop the project’s alternative routes before presenting the information to the broader community. Public meetings were held subsequently at critical decision points to seek the community’s comments and questions. This kind of engagement continued throughout construction, with quarterly project newsletters being distributed, dedicated public involvement staff attending community events to share project information, and contractors becoming involved in the community, developing partnerships and working to improve the neighborhoods.

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Creating Partnerships and Programs to Generate New Job and Career Opportunities In discussions with residents of the area, many expressed the need for jobs and job training so that those living in the community could get the qualifications necessary to obtain work.

In response to this feedback and as an environmental mitigation measure, the project committed $500,000 to Ohio Means Jobs, a collaborative workforce system that helps local employers meet their talent needs while also helping job seekers find success. The funding is making on-the-job training opportunities available to residents within the impacted neighborhoods. Two community ambassadors were also brought in to identify and assist those interested in job training. Importantly, this training has not been restricted just to construction trades — and it has resulted in hundreds of job placements for area residents in fields such as health care and social services, manufacturing, administrative, sales, customer service, general labor and more.

Additional project specific on-the-job training hours were set aside for the design and construction for all three sections of the Opportunity Corridor project which totaled approximately 40,000 hours. These on-the-job training goals have been exceeded for Sections 1 and 2 of the project, and have already exceeded Section 3 goals with several more months of construction work remaining.

In response to this feedback and as an environmental mitigation measure, the project committed $500,000 to Ohio Means Jobs, a collaborative workforce system that helps local employers meet their talent needs while also helping job seekers find success.

Collaborating with Private-Sector Partners To Spark Sustainable Economic Development The steering committee mentioned above included leaders from the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP), the local chamber of commerce, which funded a project representative position to participate in numerous aspects of the project. This person provided coordination activities that included transportation, outreach, land assembly, workforce development and diversity and inclusion sub-committees. GCP worked with philanthropic organizations that funded both an economic development analysis and a greenway study. The GCP also worked with the city to support land acquisition strategies and to market parcels for redevelopment.

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Turbocharging Diversity and Inclusion Through an Innovative Funding Strategy The Cleveland Opportunity Corridor project is uniquely funded with proceeds generated from Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission revenue bonds as well as funding from county and city sources. Because the project is using no federal dollars for construction, ODOT was able to establish unique contractor participation diversity and inclusion requirements. These requirements established four specific subcontractor participation categories working on the project: new contractor, small contractor, local contractor and designated state EDGE (Encouraging Diversity, Growth & Equity) program contractor. ODOT is proud of the success they have seen in subcontractors’ participation as each section of the project has progressed.

It is an impressive trajectory: Section 1 Prime Contractor utilized 10 different subcontractors; Section 2 Prime Contractor utilized 36 subcontractors; and Section 3 Prime Contractor so far has utilized 86 subcontractors.

Transforming the Environmental Impact Statement into a Powerful Communication Platform In support of the community engagement efforts, the Opportunity Corridor Environmental Impact Statement was developed in a way to better communicate project details and the decision-making process to all stakeholders. Due to the project’s urban setting and the fact that its primary impact would be to environmental justice populations, ODOT realized that the EIS had to be readily understandable to the general public. Therefore both the draft EIS and final EIS were developed in a reader-friendly format that provided technical information in clear, visually appealing ways that could be easily read. The EIS was shared online as well as in public places such as local community development corporations, public library branches, recreation centers and other locations. Based on the nature of comments residents shared about the Draft EIS, it was clear that they understood the information presented in the document.

ODOT and its partners envision that this project will not only improve the transportation system, but support planned economic development in the area. As new businesses come into the Opportunity Corridor area, and existing ones expand, it is anticipated that the residents will begin to see this economically depressed area transition to a new chapter in its history. It will be an area with shops, restaurants and many other necessities — in particular, good jobs — only a short walk, bike or drive away.

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The HNTB Companies Infrastructure Solutions

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