The Maryland Department of Transportation, through its Commuter Choice Maryland Program, recently launched a new transportation demand management initiative designed to promote alternative transportation options for businesses and commuters along a five-mile segment of MD 295 – helping improve travel reliability amid impacts from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2024.
[Above photo by the Maryland DOT]
Commuter Choice Maryland is a statewide Maryland DOT program dedicated to reducing traffic congestion and improving commutes for all Marylanders. The program supports employers and commuters with resources that make commuting easier, safer, cheaper and more sustainable.
The agency said that the MD 295 pilot program will partner with employers to encourage alternatives to driving alone; with Maryland DOT using targeted outreach and employer engagement to educate businesses and employees on available commuting options and incentives. The initiative is designed to help employers along the corridor, between West Nursery Road and I-95, provide best-in-class commuter benefits that support employee retention while identifying which strategies have the greatest impact on easing congestion.
[Editor’s note: This is the latest of several new initiatives launched by Maryland DOT under this program to encourage alternative commuting options in the City of Baltimore and other areas of the state.]
The MD 295 corridor is home to a diverse mix of work sites, including schools and medical facilities that support essential services. However, since the Key Bridge collapsed nearly two years ago, that corridor has experienced reduced travel reliability and slower speeds.
As a result, Maryland DOT adjusted construction schedules, modified traffic patterns, plus introduced new incentives to ease congestion and improve safety – with this corridor pilot program building on those efforts by promoting commuting alternatives.
“It is critical to help commuters find solutions to reduce stress and congestion – both after the Key Bridge collapse and during the rebuild,” said Katie Thompson, Maryland DOT’s acting secretary, in a statement. “That includes providing real-time information, expanding travel alternatives and connecting commuters with new resources and incentives.”
Environmental News Highlights – January 21, 2026
Transportation Archaeologists Dig into History: Part 1
Before a construction crew can build a road, a transportation archaeologist often must reconstruct the history of the ground it’s being built upon. This is the first of a two-part series that digs into that process.
[Above photo courtesy of the University of South Alabama Center for Archaeological Studies.]
The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 mandates that states must consider a federally funded transportation project’s effects on any site that is listed or may be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Usually, the only way to find out if a site is eligible is through an environmental assessment, which includes a survey of cultural resources.
“We first do a literature review and check the historic preservation office – all states have a historic preservation office,” said Erica Schneider, assistant environmental administrator for the Ohio Department of Transportation. “We’ll go out and do an archaeological survey of the area – that’s called identification. If we find sites, we have to determine if they’re eligible and if they’re significant, and what effect the project would have on the site.”
While this process has been characterized by some as a speed bump to faster project delivery, many of the United States’ artifacts and history would have remained buried if not for state department of transportation archaeologists.
Image by Georgia DOT
[Editor’s note: Many state DOTs seek to engage the public more deeply in their archeological work. For example, in November 2025, the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Forest Grove Preserve hosted a “Public Archaeology Day” at the historic Harper House in Sandersville, GA, to offer new insights into the daily lives of people who lived and worked in rural Georgia over the past 150 years.]
“There’s a huge value in this, giving us a bigger, broader picture of what’s out there,” explained Schneider, who also serves as chair of the Cultural Resources Subcommittee within the Committee on Environment and Sustainability for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
“I think transportation archaeology contributes – and continues to contribute – to archaeology as a whole,” she said.
A few examples of the notable intersections between transportation and archaeology include:
· In 1974, work halted on a planned expansion of U.S. 49 in Mississippi when a midden – an ancient refuse pile – was discovered. Further investigation revealed the pile may date back 6,000 years. Today, the site is known as the Pocohontas Mounds and bears a historical marker erected by the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
· In 2007, 16,000 artifacts from a 19th-century-era homestead were discovered in the path of highway project in Maryland. The findings revealed that the inhabitants of the homestead called on West African spirits to protect their home.
· In 2021, an archaeological dig at an interstate project in Idaho revealed evidence of Kootenai Indian tribal activity thousands of years earlier than first thought. The findings earned the Idaho Transportation Department the 2024 AASHTO President’s Transportation Award for Equity.
· From 2021 to 2023, archaeologists excavated 15 sites at the planned location of the I-10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway Project in Alabama. The findings tell the story of Mobile from its days under French, Spanish, and British control in the 18th century to Native American communities from 2,000 years ago.
Transportation engineers’ jobs are to plan, build and maintain roads and bridges, and archaeologists’ jobs are to ensure history is not paved over. Occasionally but inevitably, there is a rub between them.
Schneider said conflicts are more likely to occur when state DOTs “are still siloed” but most agencies now encourage divisions to work together as one team.
“One of the things I’ve learned is the importance of communication and working with people in those other worlds, the engineers and the planners, and to communication with them early on,” Schneider said. “We can come in and say, ‘Maybe we can tweak the road just a bit.’ It can be a real challenge, but I think it’s probably gotten better over the years.”
In Mobile, the need for the bridge project was undeniable. The existing tunnel beneath the Mobile River and the adjacent bridge that crosses Mobile Bay were carrying three times the designed traffic capacity of the structures.
But false starts and intermittent opposition kept the project in various stages of planning for nearly 30 years. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, new Federal Highway Administration guidelines meant the Alabama Department of Transportation would have to raise and replace the 7.5-mile bay bridge instead of simply adding lanes, adding even more costs until the project’s price tag seemed to settle at $3.5 billion.
Then, there was the history.
ALDOT knew the project site was in a culturally significant part of Mobile, the oldest permanent settlement in French Colonial Louisiana. Fort Conde, built by French explorers in 1723, “is a stone’s throw from the mouth of the tunnel,” ALDOT Media and Community Relations Bureau Chief Tony Harris said.
“I think there was every expectation that we’d find something,” Harris said.
The bridge project site temporarily turned into a major archaeological site that eventually would yield surprising insights into Mobile’s history.
In part two of this story, to be published next week, ALDOT details how its work on the I-10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway Project unearthed interesting history about the region.
Delaware DOT Recaps 2025 Litter Cleanup Efforts
The Delaware Department of Transportation and its partners collected 82,467 bags of trash from roadsides statewide in 2025, along with 4,977 tires, 5,069 signs, and 196 appliances, as part of the ongoing Keep DE Litter Free cleanup campaign.
[Above photo via the Delaware DOT]
The agency noted that litter removal efforts in 2025 were conducted by its maintenance and operations employees, Adopt-A-Highway and Sponsor-A-Highway efforts, the Work a Day Earn a Pay Program, and with help from the Inmate Work Program overseen by the Delaware Department of Corrections.
“I would like to thank Delaware DOT and their partners for everything they do to help keep Delaware Beautiful,” noted Governor Matt Meyer (D) in a statement. “Their efforts are much appreciated, but unfortunately, their work is never done. If we all do our part, together we can truly keep our roadways litter-free.”
“There is never a shortage of litter in the First State, which is sad, because Delaware is such a beautiful place,” added Shanté Hastings, secretary of the Delaware DOT. “Since the inception of the Keep DE Free initiative, our employees, partners, and volunteers have removed 370,059 bags of trash from our roads.”
Other state departments of transportation are also witnessing success with similar statewide litter cleanup efforts.
For example, more than 77,000 pounds of litter were removed from roadsides and waterways across Tennessee as part of the 5th Annual “No Trash November” month-long campaign in 2025; an effort spearheaded by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
Throughout November of last year, 2,470 volunteers participated in 205 cleanup events, the agency said in a statement – collecting 3,596 bags of litter weighing a total of 77,129 pounds.
This annual cleanup initiative also brings together Tennessee DOT’s litter prevention partners and organizations, including Keep Tennessee Beautiful affiliates, Litter Grant recipients, Adopt-A-Highway groups, youth organizations such as Girl Scouts and Scouting America, and many others.
Environmental News Highlights – January 14, 2026
AASHTO Comments on EPA’s Updated WOTUS Definition
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recently provided comments to the Environmental Protection Agency regarding the EPA’s updated definition of Waters of the United States or WOTUS; expressing “the need for clear standards to determine the jurisdictional status of their stormwater and drainage assets, ensuring that the rule clearly excludes them from the regulatory requirements of WOTUS.”
[Above photo by the SCDOT]
“Although AASHTO recognizes the intention of the proposed rule to exclude roadside ditches and stormwater control features from the definition of WOTUS, we believe the proposed rule’s use of
hydrology, topography, soils, and precipitation conditions as a characteristic for the definition fails to resolve the uncertainty in the definition’s application,” the organization said in its letter.
“Use of terms such as, ‘wet season,’ ‘dry land,’ and ‘upland’ without further definition, context, or guidance presents circumstances for state departments of transportation that will disrupt planning, construction, operation, and maintenance of their systems.”
In previous comment letters on this subject, AASHTO said it recommended language for a WOTUS definition that would be both “appropriately protective of aquatic resources” and “straightforward” for state DOTs to understand and apply – and the lack of such language could create an additional burden for state DOTs, hampering project delivery.
“Each year, state DOTs invest hundreds of billions of dollars in expanding and improving their systems. Further, state DOT projects often must address safety and operational issues by relocating,
widening and shaping ditches, making these operations critical to highway safety,” AASHTO said. “These projects often take months to years to plan and budget, with budgets and schedules heavily dependent on environmental permitting and compliance certainties.”
AASHTO also stressed that when deploying federally funded transportation projects, the “layering” of various requirements over the years – as seen in WOTUS regulations – has resulted in “time-consuming reviews and back-and-forth interactions” that not only delay projects but also substantially add to their cost.
“We believe this [WOTUS] rulemaking represents an opportunity to improve the federal project delivery timeline for the sake of our communities who are waiting on these important projects to improve their quality of life,” the organization noted.
New Jersey Dredging Project Supports Habitat Enhancement
A side benefit of the latest channel dredging project overseen by the New Jersey Department of Transportation will result in shoreline stabilization and habitat enhancement for Boot Island; a barrier island near Atlantic City.
[Above photo by New Jersey DOT]
The $1.8 million Brigantine Channel Spur dredging project, conducted by New Jersey DOT contractor Mobile Dredging & Video Pipe Inc., will restore safe navigation to the Brigantine Channel Spur by lowering the channel’s authorized project depth down to five feet below mean low water.
The approximately 22,000 cubic yards removed as a result of that dredging work will then be transported via pipeline to improve Boot Island’s habitat: part of a series of coastal habitat restoration projects using Beneficial Use of Dredged Material or BUDM across three wildlife management areas in southern New Jersey.
[Editor’s note: New Jersey DOT has overseen several similar dredging projects along the Atlantic City coastline, including one to restore the St. George’s Thoroughfare in 2025.]
According to the New Jersey Department of Fish and Wildlife, those projects aim to enhance coastal resilience, restore degraded marsh habitats, and support both species of greatest conservation need and popular game species managed under the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration nexus through “nature-based solutions,” which includes BUDM.
In a statement, the New Jersey Department of Fish and Wildlife said BUDM repurposes clean sediment from navigation channels to restore degraded coastal habitats – particularly critical for New Jersey, as many saltmarshes are experiencing net habitat loss due to sea-level rise and erosion.
By strategically placing dredged sediment to raise marsh elevations, BUDM helps restore proper tidal inundation, promotes the growth of native saltmarsh vegetation, and enhances habitat resilience, the agency said.
The Colorado Department of Transportation recently completed construction of the new I-25 Greenland Wildlife Overpass near Larkspur, which is among North America’s largest wildlife overpasses; work that included covering the structure’s surface with dirt and vegetation.
[Above photo by the Colorado DOT]
Some 76 girders hold up the deck of this overpass – completed in less than a year, ahead of schedule and on budget – which spans six lanes of interstate traffic and connects 39,000 acres of habitat on both sides of I-25 between the towns of Larkspur and Monument.
Colorado DOT said more than 100,000 vehicles a day travel this area and that the wildlife expected to use this overpass include big game animals such as moose, bear, mountain lions, elk, mule deer, and pronghorn deer – along with smaller animals as well
A multi-agency partnership with the Federal Highway Administration, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Douglas County, the Douglas Land Conservancy and the Colorado Cattleman’s Agricultural Land Trust made the Greenland wildlife crossing possible. As part of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, a federal grant award provided the bulk of the funding for the project, Colorado DOT said.
[Editor’s note: The Wyoming Department of Transportation recently produced a video detailing some of the hazards posed when wildlife traverse highways and how state departments of transportation are working to mitigate those hazards.]
The overpass is strategically located to address the 3.7-mile gap from other wildlife crossings and completes the wildlife crossing system of underpasses and fencing as a part of the I-25 South Gap project that improved 18 miles of I-25 from Castle Rock to Monument.
Prior to the system being built, there was an average of one wildlife-vehicle crash a day in the fall and spring wildlife movement seasons. Colorado DOT said its research shows that the five underpasses are successfully being used by large and small mammals.
“Colorado is leading the way in reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions and improving safety for both our motorists and wildlife,” noted Governor Jared Polis (D) in a statement. “The I-25 Greenland wildlife overpass is a momentous feat, in our continued work to expand safe transportation options for both humans and wildlife, protecting critical habitat and our amazing outdoor spaces for generations to come.”
“The I-25 Greenland wildlife overpass is critical to the safety of both wildlife and motorists,” added Shoshana Lew, Colorado DOT’s executive director. “The overpass is an essential component of the wildlife crossing system in this area, which is expected to reduce wildlife-vehicle crashes by 90 percent.”
PennDOT Seeks More ‘Sponsor-A-Highway’ Support from Businesses
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is encouraging businesses statewide to join the department’s Sponsor-A-Highway program and keep the state’s roadways clean as the 2026 tourism season is expected to bring more than 209 million travelers to Pennsylvania.
[Above photo by PennDOT]
Some 55 businesses currently participate in the program, which began in 2000; cleaning more than 375 miles of roadway on an annual basis. Beginning in 2026, Sponsor-A-Highway vendors will increase litter clean-ups along sponsored roads from six to eight times per year, the agency said.
Mike Carroll. Photo by PennDOT.
“From the World Cup to the MLB All-star Game, the NFL Draft and the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, 2026 will put Pennsylvania centerstage,” said Mike Carroll, PennDOT’s secretary, in a statement. “With so many travelers coming to our cities, now is the opportunity to show the world what makes the Commonwealth the ‘Great American Getaway.’”
Through PennDOT’s Sponsor-A-Highway program, local businesses and organizations can secure agreements with a PennDOT vendor who uses skilled maintenance forces to remove litter on roadways such as interstates and expressways, especially in areas where volunteer litter groups cannot safely pick up litter.
Sponsors are recognized with a roadside acknowledgement sign displaying their business name and logo, while also receiving a listing on PennDOT’s website.
The Sponsor-A-Highway program signs have also been redone to feature the “Let Freedom Ring” design unveiled in 2025.
“With 2026 putting Pennsylvania on the world stage, we get one chance to make a first — and lasting — impression,” said Anne Ryan, deputy secretary of tourism for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
“Roadside signage may seem simple, but it’s one of the very first touchpoints that tells visitors who we are, what we value, and what the Great American Getaway stands for,” she added. “This investment helps us welcome millions of travelers with pride, clarity, and a sense of place the moment they cross our borders.”
