About
Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act requires federal agencies, and recipients of federal funding, to consider the effects of their projects on properties eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
The National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s listing of buildings, structures, sites, objects and districts significant in American history, prehistory, architecture, engineering or culture that are associated with broad patterns in American history, associated with significant individuals, have architectural or engineering significance, or that have the potential to yield significant information about our past. These resources must also possess integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, setting, feeling and association.
Shannon County has sixteen properties listed on the NRHP. Please visit https://mostateparks.com/page/84951/shannon-county-national-register-listings for more information on these properties.
Section 106 is a Four Step Process:
Step 1 – Initiate the Process
The Federal Highway Administration and MoDOT, as co-lead agencies, initiate the Section 106 process with the beginning of the NEPA process.
Step 2 – Identify the Area of Potential Effects (APE)
The area of potential effects is the area or areas where a project could have an adverse effect on properties eligible for listing on the NRHP. These effects could be immediate and direct (destruction of the resource) or immediate and indirect (visual or atmospheric changes), or further removed in time (building an interchange for a planned development).
For the Route 19 Environmental Study, the APE for the built environment (buildings, bridges, landscape) will be the footprint of all the alternatives under consideration, and the viewshed within the Three Bridges Historic District. For the archaeological survey the APE will be the footprint of the preferred alternative (once selected) including right-of-way and temporary and permanent easements.
Step 3 – Identification of Historic Properties
A reasonable and good faith effort must be made to identify properties eligible for the NRHP. This effort includes background research on properties already identified and conducting new surveys within the APE. Both the Current River Bridge and the Spring Valley Bridge have previously been determined eligible for listing on the NRHP. The Three Bridges Historic District has previously been determined eligible for listing on the NRHP.
Field surveys are done to identify properties eligible for listing on the NRHP. Field surveys will identify built environment resources constructed more than forty (40) years ago within the APE. All resources identified will be evaluated against the NRHP criteria, in consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office and consulting parties.
Step 4 – Evaluate Effects on Historic Properties
Apply the Criteria of Adverse Effects to Historic Properties to determine what effect the project will have. Example of adverse effects are destruction of all or part of a historic property, alteration of a property so that it loses character defining features, removal of a property from its historic location, changes in character or use of a property, introduction of new elements, neglect of a historic property and transfer out of federal control without provisions to protect character defining features.
FHWA and MoDOT will apply the criteria of adverse effect to historic properties in consultation with the SHPO and consulting parties.
Consultation
Consultation is a key part of the Section 106 process. The regulations implementing Section 106 define consultation as “the process of seeking, discussing and considering the views of other participants, and, where feasible, seeking agreement with them regarding matters arising in the section 106 process.”
Consulting parties include the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (if they choose to participate), Tribes with a historical interest in the project area, local governments with jurisdiction over the area and applicants for federal assistance. Other consulting parties can include those with a demonstrated interest in the project due to their legal or economic relation to the projects affects on historic properties or those who are concerned wit the projects effects on historic properties.
FHWA and MoDOT have notified Tribes with an interest in Shannon County of the project and invited them to participate in consultation about the project.
FHWA and MoDOT have invited parties who participated in consultation for the replacement of the Sinking Creek Bridge to participate in consultation for this project. These parties include:
- National Park Service/Ozark National Scenic Riverways
- U. S. Army Corps of Engineers/Little Rock District
- Shannon County
- Shannon County Historical Society
- Friends of the Current River
- Historic Bridge Foundation
- Historicbridges.org
- Missouri State Parks
- Missouri Preservation
Other parties who wish to participate in Section 106 Consultation should contact the MoDOT Historic Preservation Manager at Rachel.Campbell@modot.mo.gov.
Consulting parties will help determine the eligibility of the built environment resources and project effects. Any mitigation measures, beyond those already identified in the Route 19 Programmatic Agreement, will also be discussed during consultation.
Please visit https://www.modot.org/historic-preservation for more information.
LINKS TO RELATED INFORMATION: