Challenge to U.S. 95 widening still viable

Jace Radke

Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 | 9:58 a.m.

The Sierra Club's challenge to the Federal Highway Administration's $370 million U.S. 95 widening project is still on track because a federal judge dismissed a motion for summary judgment in the matter Wednesday.

The environmental organization is questioning the government's environmental impact study and asking that the project to widen the freeway from six lanes to 10 lanes be stopped.

David Ortez, assistant chief counsel for the Federal Highway Administration, had argued the Sierra Club was not timely in filing its lawsuit and asked for the summary judgment.

The suit was filed in April 2002. The record of decision, including the environmental impact study, was filed by the government in January 2000.

In an order filed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ruled the Sierra Club has been diligent in pursuing its concerns with the Federal Highway Administration.

The order states "the plaintiff appears to have expressed concern to the defendant, and pursued legal action only after the agency rejected its requests to further study the U.S. 95 widening project."

Joanne Spalding, staff attorney for the Sierra Club, said the Federal Highway Administration has failed to follow its own regulations that call for environmental impact studies to be supplemented if new information becomes available.

Studies performed in Los Angeles and Denver in 2000 showed that highway pollution increases the risk of cancer in nearby communities, but the government did not believe these studies were applicable, Spalding said.

"Now we know that a judge will hear this case on its merits," Spalding said. "Public health will get its day in court."

Pro also ordered the government to produce the more than 15,000-page federal record of the project for the court and the Sierra Club. The record must be filed with the court by April 15, and Spalding says she hopes that the case will be heard by June.

"We don't anticipate any delays from our end, and we hope that the litigation moves along quickly," Spalding said.

The widening of U.S. 95 from six to 10 lanes from the Rainbow Curve to Martin Luther King Boulevard is scheduled to be completed in 2006, and the project to this point has cost $125 million, Ortez said.

The actual addition of lanes has not yet begun.