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City of Eugene City Council Page 9 September 12, 2012 This means that the West Eugene EmX Extension would preserve or improve traffic flow along the corridor. Without the project, traffic on the corridor would continue to degrade with increasing traffic congestion and delays for both regular traffic and buses. All vehicles using the transportation network will experience fewer congested intersections, which will improve travel for all vehicles. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) supports the project, in part because its technical reviews have proven that the project would preserve or improve the capacity of its roadways for all vehicle traffic. All but two of the BRT stations along 11th Avenue are located in BAT lanes which will not impact through travel lane operations. The two BRT stations along 11th Avenue located within mixed flow will have the potential to delay through lane operations similar to buses today. Throughout the project, the project team has coordinated with local, state and federal agencies regarding the conceptual designs and evaluations of those designs; modifications have been made to project designs based on agency feedback. The project team is currently coordinating with the City of Eugene, ODOT, FTA and FHWA regarding approvals for the proposed project-related improvements. The Business Access and Transit (BAT) lanes have always been one of the many ways in which BRT infrastructure can be configured to deliver lower and more reliable transit travel times and reduced operating costs per boarding. As LTD has planned and implemented the EmX system over the past 15 years, it has evaluated the trade-offs between different types of lane dedication. The underlying design approach for the West Eugene EmX extension project has been to balance the impacts to adjacent properties with achieving the operational goals for EmX in the corridor. BAT lanes have allowed that balanced to be achieved, minimizing the impact to adjacent properties while achieving lower and more reliable transit travel times and reduced operating cost per boarding for EmX in the corridor. KƚŚĞƌŶǀŝƌŽŶŵĞŶƚĂů/ŵƉĂĐƚƐ ŽŵŵĞŶƚƐ on other environmental impacts generally focused on: The project will remove established trees; The project will kill animals; The project will cause more pollution; and, The EA does not adequately provide or discuss mitigation measures. ZĞƐƉŽŶƐĞ: Trees, wetlands, animals and other environmental factors will be affected by the construction of this project. Throughout over three year process to design and refine the WEEE project, LTD actively sought ways to avoid impacts to the environment; however, not all impacts were avoidable. The EA, which has been thoroughly reviewed and approved by the FTA, has determined that after measures to avoid and reduce impacts, the remaining impacts on trees, wetlands, animals, and other environmental attributes would be insignificant. For example, less than 0.05 of an acre of wetland would be permanently impacted on the nearly nine s review, LTD and FTA have coordinated with other