 Wayne W. Kober, Inc., Transportation & Environmental Management Consulting
Telephone: 717-502-0179
E-Mail: wkober@hughes.net
Years experience in current field: 32
Position/Title: President
EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science in Environmental Resource Management, Penn State University, 1973
EXPERTISE: Environmental Management Systems, NEPA/Environmental Process Generalist, Project Management and Public Involvement/Agency Coordination
RELATED TOPICS/EXPERIENCES: As President of Wayne W. Kober, Inc., Wayne provides a wide range of private and public sector clients with technical and management assistance in systematically integrating environmental stewardship and management into multi-modal transportation planning, project development, construction, maintenance and operations. He has over 32 years of transportation environmental management experience, including over 26 years in a key environmental leadership role with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PENNDOT). He is nationally recognized for his lifelong dedication and commitment to the continuous improvement in the environmental performance of transportation organizations. He is an Academy of Certified Environmental Professionals Board certified environmental professional, an emeritus member of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Environmental Analysis in Transportation, and a former member of the AASHTO Standing Committee on the Environment. He is very active in transportation environmental research as he served on national research panels including the Surface Transportation Environmental Cooperative Research Advisory Board, the Future Strategic Highway Research Program Capacity Panel, the National Research Council Committee on the Ecological Impacts of Road Density, and the Transportation Environmental Research Needs Conference Steering Committees for the 1991, 1996, and 2002 conferences. He led the establishment of the Center for Environmental Excellence by AASHTO and currently serves as an on-call consultant.
Transportation Environmental Stewardship & Management:
At the state level in his former capacity as Director of PENNDOT’s Bureau of Environmental Quality, Wayne led the development and implementation of the agency’s strategic environmental management program. This program includes ISO 14001 Certification for PENNDOT’s 11 Engineering District Maintenance Operations and integration of environmental management elements into all Department organizations and functions. Also, he actively served on several statewide environmental organizations, including the Environmental Quality Board, the Governor’s 21st Century Environment Commission, the Greenways Partnership Commission, and the Interagency Land Use Committee, to build effective partnerships and working relationships to help promote transportation environmental stewardship.
At the national level in his capacity as an AASHTO consultant, Wayne: led the development and implementation of the web-based AASHTO Transportation Environmental Stewardship Demonstration Program; assisted in managing the development of the AASHTO Environmental Management System Guide-Using An Environmental Management System to Meet Transportation Challenges and Opportunities; assisted in managing and conducting the Center for Environmental Excellence by AASHTO Environmental Management System Workshop in Scottsdale, Arizona in August 2003; conducted pilot transportation environmental performance evaluations for the California Department of Transportation, Maryland State Highway Administration, and North Carolina Department of Transportation; conducted Arizona Department of Transportation Research Project 543-Strategies to Integrate Environmental Stewardship into ADOT’s Business; conducted the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Division of Maintenance Routine Highway Maintenance and Operations Environmental Performance Assessment and developed an Environmental Performance Improvement Implementation Plan; and managed the development of the AASHTO Environmental Management System Technical Assistance Program.
Transportation Program Delivery Streamlining:
At the state level in his former capacity as Director of PENNDOT’s Bureau of Environmental Quality, Wayne led the development and implementation of the Department’s streamlined project development procedures. This included: the development of a comprehensive set of policy and procedure manuals and training materials covering Categorical Exclusions, Environmental Assessments, Environmental Impact Statements (EIS’S), Section 106 Determinations, Section 4 (f) Evaluations, Air Quality, Traffic Noise, Farmlands, Endangered Species, Wetlands, Public Involvement and Waste Management; the development of an agency coordination approach to actively involve the state and federal regulatory and resource agencies in the environmental review for over 1000 transportation projects a year; the development and implementation of programmatic agreements for Categorical Exclusion Evaluations, Endangered Species Consultation, Section 106 Consultation, Section 404 Permitting, and Wetland Findings; the development and implementation of quality assurance/control procedures; the development and implementation of a statewide wetland mitigation banking program; the development of a statewide historic bridge survey and preservation plan; the development of cultural resources database for over 125,000 known historic and archaeological resources; and the development of a Categorical Exclusion Expert System to automate the Categorical Exclusion Evaluation Process.
Also, at the state level in his former capacity as Director of PENNDOT’s Bureau of Environmental Quality, Wayne served as the Department’s primary major project development strategist and problem-solver for the advancement of over 65 Environmental Impact Statements for major transportation improvement projects involving all modes. This included: several urban expressway completion projects in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Allentown, Harrisburg, Scranton, and Erie; several transit system expansion projects in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Harrisburg; and several Appalachia Thruway Projects in rural areas. At the national level in his capacity as an AASHTO consultant, Wayne assisted the Oregon Department of Transportation in developing the EIS management approach and for the I-5 Columbia River Crossing between Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington and developing the program delivery approach for the Oregon Transportation Improvement Act (OTIA) III Bridge Replacement Program.
At the national level in his capacity as a consultant, Wayne provided strategic management assistance for: the preparation of the EIS for the Federal Motor Carrier issuance of regulations to control Mexican carriers entering the United States under the provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement; the preparation of the EIS for the Pittsburgh High Speed Maglev Project; the preparation of the EIS for the Circ-Williston Transportation Project in Chittenden County Vermont; development of the Federal Transit Administration Training Course on Integrating Planning and the National Environmental Policy Act requirements; and development of the Interstate Collaborative Environmental Process Agreement for the Columbia River Crossing between Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington.
Environmental Organizational & Professional Development:
At the state level in his environmental leadership capacity with PENNDOT, Wayne developed and implemented the Department’s environmental organization and staffing plans to meet the statewide environmental expertise needs in planning, project development, construction, maintenance, and operations. In the area of professional development, he led the development and implementation of department-wide environmental training plans and curriculums. Also, he developed interagency personnel agreements and consultant on-call agreements to meet the statewide environmental expertise needs that could not be met with in-house personnel.
At the national level in his capacity as an AASHTO consultant, Wayne assisted the Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon, and Kentucky Departments of Transportation in assessing the organizational and professional development needs to improve the agencies’ environmental performance and recommended organizational and professional development improvement strategies. He managed the technical expert recruitment process for recruiting and adding 30 new technical experts to the Center for Environmental Excellence by AASHTO Technical Assistance Program.
At the national level in his capacity as a consultant, Wayne assisted the Minnesota Department of Transportation Metropolitan Division in establishing a matrix- management type project management organization to improve program delivery. Also, Wayne assisted the Federal Highway Administration in evaluating the environmental support requirements for the Accelerated Construction Technology Transfer (ACTT) Program.
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