Roles & Responsibilities

Background & Purpose

In July 2004, the Interagency Leadership Team (ILT) was formed to increase and enhance communication, understanding, and collaboration among the many agencies involved in the delivery of North Carolina's transportation program. The ILT is comprised of executive leadership from the following organizations:

• North Carolina Department of Transportation;
• North Carolina Department of the Environment and Natural Resources;
• North Carolina Department of Commerce;
• North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources;
• North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission;
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers;
• Federal Highway Administration;
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service;
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and
• NOAA-Fisheries.

The ILT has adopted the following as its mission and goals to pursue:

Mission:
To develop and implement an interagency leadership plan for North Carolina to balance successfully mobility, natural and cultural resource protection, community values, and economic vitality at the confluence of our missions.

Goals:

1. Develop a Comprehensive Shared GIS Database
2. Establish Early Involvement in Systems Planning
3. Continue to Improve the NEPA/Section 404 Merger 01 Process

As part of Goal #3, Improve the Merger 01 process, the ILT recognizes that the Merger 01 process has great potential to improve project delivery and provide excellent stewardship of our state's environmental and human resources. Much progress has already been made, but the ILT believes there is room for continuous improvement. A specific area is the roles and responsibilities of Merger 01 participants.

In order to achieve the greatest efficiency and effectiveness, the ILT believed that guidance was needed to provide participants of the Merger 01 process with an understanding of the roles, responsibilities, relationships, rules, and expectations needed to operate in Merger 01 process. To this end, the ILT chartered an interagency team to develop Roles & Responsibilities (R&R) for Merger 01 participants.

• Roles and responsibilities of participants at different phases of the Merger Process;
• Work standards and expectations (rules) for each phase of the Merger process;
• Conduct and relationships among participants (e.g. respecting an agency's expertise); and
• Detailed steps and time frames for elevating issues, disputes, or non-concurrence within a Merger Project Team meeting.

The output of the R&R Team is this document. It has been reviewed and endorsed by the ILT for use in the Merger 01 process.