The MSHA received a provisional denial from the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on its 404 Permit Application from MD 100 one week before the scheduled advertisement date. The provisional denial letter stated that the impacts of the proposed project were unacceptable and that the Corps would consider processing the application if, and only if, the State Highway Administration resubmitted its application with bridges spanning the 100-year flood plain at three stream and wetland crossings. MSHA estimated the additional costs of these bridge length increases, above their proposed bridges, would be $25M. The additional costs would make the project impossible to fund. Brightwater, who had been working on the mitigation concepts for the permit, was asked to make a recommendation to the Administrator. Brightwater recommended a multi-disciplinary approach to quantify functional impacts of various bridge lengths in order to determine what bridge lengths were reasonable and whether the agency's requests would have to be met for permit approval. The Administrator agreed to be bound by the results of the study. Brightwater was asked to lead the effort including the selection of firms, the design of the study, and the preparation of technical reports.
Brightwater directed the study and participated in the negotiations with the Corps and the commenting agencies. The final result which the Corps accepted saved nearly $8M in bridge costs over what the agencies had insisted on prior to the study. Brightwater, with SHA, helped negotiate a mitigation package which included three stream restoration projects as out-of-kind mitigation. This was the first 404 Permit which had approved stream restoration work for wetland impacts as acceptable mitigation.