U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and EPA initiatives encouraging redevelopment of brownfields will likely support transportation-related brownfield redevelopment and may result in increased involvement with hazardous materials during construction. Due to the added costs and liability risks associated with hazardous materials involvement, known or possible hazardous material concerns should be integrated into the project coordination, alignment alternative, corridor/route selection and decision-making processes. The financial impact on transportation funds or budgets should be considered in the alternative analysis.

Experience and understanding of procedures in right-of-way negotiation and acquisition, property management as well as, design and construction will be required in the decision-making process. Consideration of other environmental issues, health and safety concerns, design feasibility, liability and costs must also be part of the decision to either avoid, minimize the involvement (redesign) or properly handle the concern prior to or during construction. Preliminary or required commitments should be identified or outlined during advanced planning and the project decision-making process. As appropriate, affected parties, local entities, and affected district functional areas must agree to commitments for further investigation, regulatory agency coordination, approvals and permits, corrective action and site closure as well as, preventive action and/or waste management.

Appropriate investigation levels for ISAs of each alternative should be comparable. In alternative analysis, known or possible hazardous material sites should be compared qualitatively rather than quantitatively. A comparison of the total number of regulated or registered sites for each alternative is not sufficient, because the costs and requirements for one type of regulated site or contamination problem cannot be compared directly with those of a different type of regulated site or contamination problem. However, similar sites with the same types of contamination, priority and status, with similar project involvement, could be compared.

As stated in the , a decision must be made as to whether the costs and delays of contamination involvement warrant the selection of an alternate route. Additional factors such as other environmental issues and right-of-way, utility, construction and maintenance costs should be considered. For example, engineering design and utility considerations are associated with constructing and maintaining a roadway built on a landfill. Those considerations include increased construction and maintenance costs due to possible bridge structures, post-closure requirements, health and safety monitoring, methane collection and monitoring, leachate filtration/monitoring systems and settling. Other factors include liability issues and responsibilities for possible groundwater contamination. The feasibility of avoiding the landfill entirely, minimizing involvement with minor alignment changes or constructing a bridge over the landfill requires evaluation of the costs and benefits.