ADOT’s Long-Range Transportation Plan – We Asked, You Answered: Scoping Summary
Blog 2 – Oct. 2016
We Asked, You Answered: Scoping Summary
Scoping is an early, important step in the environmental review process. During scoping, the public and agencies have an opportunity to share their ideas and concerns, which help determine the “scope” or range of issues to be addressed in the environmental document, also referred to as the Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement.
The Federal Highway Administration and Arizona Department of Transportation held six public scoping meetings between June 8th and June 29th at locations throughout the corridor study area, including Casa Grande, Buckeye, Nogales, Tucson, Marana, and Wickenburg. A total of 540 people participated in the meetings. Attendees were encouraged to share verbal and written comments, as well as mark suggestions on maps of the 280-mile-long corridor study area.
In addition to the scoping meetings, the public had an opportunity to submit comments through an online survey and by email, mail or voicemail. In total, 834 public comments were received through these outreach methods.
Three agency scoping meetings were also held to obtain input from federal, state, regional, county, local and tribal governments. The meetings were held in Phoenix, Casa Grande and Tucson, with 23 agencies in attendance. 
Here’s What you had to Say
Members of the public who completed a comment form or online survey were asked to rank potential issues and human and environmental factors from 1 to 5, with 1 being the most important and 5 being the least important. The graphic to the right summarizes the ranking results from the 657 people who completed a comment form or online survey. For the complete list of questions asked of the study participants during scoping, please see the comment form.
Other written and verbal comments were received about environmental concerns, potential corridor alternatives, multimodal, considerations, economic development, and other issues. The full Scoping Summary Report will be posted on the study website in the coming months. Check the i11study.com website for regular updates from the study team.
Where Do We Go From Here?
The feedback received during the scoping process will help the FHWA and ADOT identify the purpose and need; potential corridor alternatives to be studied; impacts to be evaluated; and evaluation methods to be used during the development of the I-11 Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement. This is only the beginning – the public and agencies will continue to be engaged throughout the study.
Visit the I-11 Study website at I-11Study.com/Arizona for more information.
