Monterey-Salinas Transit SURF! Busway and Bus Rapid Transit Project

The Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) SURF! Busway and Bus Rapid Transit Project is a transformative $78 million investment in public transportation designed to enhance mobility and sustainability throughout Monterey County. By improving the efficiency and reliability of bus service, this project supports the region’s long-term transportation goals.

Harris & Associates is providing comprehensive pre-construction and construction support services to help advance the project. Our work includes participating in project meetings, assisting with development of the Construction Manager/General Contractor contract (a delivery method that brings the contractor on early to inform design decisions), coordinating with project stakeholders, and delivering environmental support services to keep the project on schedule and compliant with federal funding requirements.

When reviewing the project Biological Opinion to prepare for pre-construction mitigation efforts, Harris compliance management brought in a Smith’s blue butterfly subject matter expert as some conservation measures appeared unnecessarily cumbersome, mostly infeasible to comply with, and more likely to cause undue harm to the species. The expert reviewed the conservation measures, and together with the compliance manager, worked to request an administrative review of the Biological Opinion, which U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) agreed to. Ultimately, Harris and the expert were able to eliminate perpetual impacts to the species, ensure conservation measures were feasible for Monterey-Salinas Transit to comply with, and be sure that restoration mitigation for species impacts was in the appropriate location, with the appropriate host species to ensure the species would be supported. These actions saved Monterey-Salinas Transit thousands of dollars and provided appropriate conservation for an imperiled species.

Core Elements

Harris’ scope of environmental and construction support services includes:

• Tracking biological, paleontological, and cultural compliance requirements
• Ensuring compliance with standards outlined in the MMRP, Biological Opinion, Conditions of Approval, and Coastal Development Permit
• Scheduling and coordinating biological, cultural, and paleontological staff for focused surveys and monitoring
• Consulting with regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and coordinating with subject matter experts to support USFWS in the administrative review of the Biological Opinion
• Managing logistics for environmental monitoring and survey personnel
• Conducting focused rare plant surveys and mapping
• Performing pre-construction surveys for sensitive species, including the Monterey dusky-footed woodrat, sensitive plants, northern California legless lizards, and nesting birds
• Performing seed collection for Monterey spineflower
• Providing biological compliance monitoring
• Conducting daily inspections (and documentation) of contractor activities for conformance with project plans and specifications

Photo Attribution: Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons