Cooperative partnering is one of the keys to project success; without it, overall project benefit is limited. The Basin is home to a host of individual, private and public entities, all focused on enhancing the Lake Tahoe environment. However, as an individual entity, often the project focus is limited to improvements made within boundaries defined by regional or political jurisdictions. Consequently, adopting this focus hinders opportunities to provide additional benefit for little or no added effort to adjacent partners. Cooperative partnering, or teamwork is much more productive and beneficial for all parties.
What does teamwork accomplish? Many things – for instance, working together toward a common goal, collaborative project management and design, cooperation, shared responsibilities, ownership of outcome, and working in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect.
NDOT initiated its award winning partnering process in 1996 to enhance its commitment to help solve Lake Tahoe’s environmental problems. This approach was a fundamental change in the relationship between environmental regulators and highway agencies, and was a benchmark for context sensitive design approach. This partnership made significant accomplishments over the past 10 years.
President Clinton and Vice-President Gore visited Lake Tahoe on July 26, 1997, to confirm a national commitment to preserve and protect the environmental quality of this pristine, high alpine national treasure. The President had high praise for the efforts of the people of Nevada, California and the federal agencies who were working together to achieve this goal.
President Clinton's commitment to Lake Tahoe was, in part, a result of leadership efforts commenced by the NDOT's introduction of a partnering process with 19 different agencies. In this joint effort, public and private citizens are working together to improve the environmental quality of Lake Tahoe.
This approach represents a basic change in the relationship between environmental regulators and highway
agencies. For many years the "old way of doing things" slowed road repair and construction, increased
growth budgets, and even stopped projects entirely. The process of partnership greatly improved the
NDOT's interagency coordination. Currently, the NDOT is able to bring together more than 20 agencies
for regular meetings and continual coordination. Depending on the project and its location, the number
of different partnering agencies can range from 17 to 30 at a time including but not limited to:
- TRPA
- NDOT
- CalTrans
- Federal Highway Administration
- U.S. Forest Service
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Nevada Division of Environmental Protection
- Nevada State Parks
- Nevada Division of Wildlife
- Nevada Division of State Lands
- Nevada Tahoe Resource Team
- Nevada Tahoe Conservation District
- Washoe County
- Carson City
- Douglas County
- State Historic Preservation Office
- University of California Davis
- Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board
- Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California
- And Various General Improvement Districts (GIDs)
The NDOT also united all its interdepartmental activities in planning, transportation, transit, air quality, erosion control, storm water, water quality, design, right-of-way, construction, and maintenance. The NDOT internal agency partners include:
- Administrative Services
- Architecture
- Construction
- District II
- Environmental
- Financial Management
- Geotechnical
- Hydraulics
- Maintenance Divisions
- Planning
- Program Development
- Right-of-Way
- Roadway Design
- Safety
- Structural Design (Bridge)
- Traffic
- Training
- Utilities
For NDOT, working within a multi-agency regulatory environment, a partnering approach made sense. Regulatory agencies, NDOT's internal divisions, and the public are working together as partners in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect, committed to solving Lake Tahoe's environmental problems. Design and approvals are being expedited and environmental remediation is increased. This process has put to bed the old system of a tiered, rigid review and approval structure. All agencies are working together to communicate issues regarding funding, planning, design, construction, and maintenance and to seek immediate consensus. One of the positive results of this partnering effort is the successful completion of a preliminary Erosion Control and Water Quality Design and Master Plan on approximately 21 miles of Lake Tahoe roads.
The partnering process allows agencies to develop solutions that are agreeable to all involved and meet all environmental improvement expectations.
NDOT will continue the partnering process to assure the success of future projects within the Tahoe Basin.
