This is very important. Studies of cumulative impacts of transportation
projects would greatly expand the scope of environmental impact studies for
such projects, and could begin a shift away from the current endless
expansion of our highway and airport systems, while environmentally superior
alternatives such as rail continue to be abandoned for lack of investment.

Tom Mathews,
Sierra Club Iowa Chapter Transportation Issue Chair

Subj:         Cumulative Impacts Lawsuit
Date:   02-10-10 15:01:04 EDT
From:   [log in to unmask] (John Holtzclaw)
Sender: [log in to unmask] (Sierra Club Forum on
Transportation Issues)
Reply-to:   [log in to unmask] (Sierra Club Forum on
Transportation Issues)
To: [log in to unmask]

another victory, from Harrison Marshall <[log in to unmask]>

John Holtzclaw
[log in to unmask]
sprawl and transportation action -- http://www.SierraClub.org/sprawl
----- Forwarded by John Holtzclaw/Sierraclub on 10/10/2002 11:58 AM -----

http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/news/21501
Judge, lawsuit delay I-26 widening project

FLETCHER - Work to widen most of Interstate 26 in Henderson
County from four to six lanes can't proceed until the courts
resolve a lawsuit brought by environmental and other citizens
groups, a federal judge has ruled.  The decision delays the start
of the project until at least next year. It also increases
chances the state will have to do a comprehensive study of the
I-26 corridor, as requested in the lawsuit brought against the
state Department of Transportation and Federal Highway
Administration.  U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle's
preliminary injunction, filed Monday, bars DOT from proceeding
with work on a 13.6-mile stretch of I-26 running from the
Buncombe- Henderson county line to near East Flat Rock. Work had
been scheduled to begin last summer.  DOT has been laying plans
to eventually widen about 40 miles of road in the I-26 corridor,
including I-26 in Buncombe County, Interstate 240 in West
Asheville and 15 miles of what's now U.S. 19-23 from Asheville
north. Plaintiffs say DOT should study the cumulative impact of
the work on the area's air quality and consider alternatives like
public transportation . . . Boyle wrote that the groups "have
raised serious questions as to whether Defendants acted
arbitrarily and in violation of" an environmental law by looking
at the Henderson County project individually instead of with the
others.  Eva Ritchey of Citizens for Transportation Planning, a
Henderson County group that is one of the groups suing, said
Boyle's decision "is really going to force DOT to start planning
regionally and looking at transportation in a holistic manner
instead of piecemeal."  But state Rep. Larry Justus of
Hendersonville, a leading backer of the project, said the
widening "will eventually be done. It's just a delaying tactic."
Other groups bringing suit are the Western North Carolina
Alliance, Smart Growth Partners of WNC and the N.C. Alliance for
Transportation Reform.

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