Design-build noise policy - what's fair?

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is implementing a design-build delivery process on projects involving noise barriers that requires design-builders to provide Final TNM design year with noise barrier noise levels that are equal to or less than the corresponding Preliminary TNM design year with noise barrier noise levels determined in the NEPA environmental document. The NYSDOTs first use of the design-build delivery method was the $3.9B New NY Bridge project implemented by the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA). That project included a significant investment in noise barriers on the Rockland Landing. The New NY Bridge (NNYB) project served as a test case at a time when a well-developed design-build noise policy did not exist. In the absence of a definitive design-build noise policy, the noise barriers originally offered by the design-builder, while providing significant noise reductions, failed to meet all the environmental commitments made to all benefitted receivers as documented in the Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision (FEIS/ROD). Working with FHWA and NYSDOT, the NYSTA reached agreement with the design-builder to construct noise barriers that provided the same future design year with noise barrier noise levels that were provided in the noise study that supported the FEIS/ROD. Since construction of the New NY