Sierra Club suit could halt U.S. 95 widening

Jace Radke

Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004 | 11:38 a.m.

Construction crews will know before April whether their work on creating four additional lanes for U.S. 95 will be halted.

That's the deadline a federal judge set Wednesday for his ruling on a Sierra Club lawsuit that alleges the government's environmental impact study for the $370 million widening project did not take into account the health risks caused by certain pollutants, and that the Federal Highway Administration made arbitrary and capricious decisions in approving the project.

Attorneys for the Sierra Club and the government presented arguments Wednesday to U.S. District Judge Philip Pro as both parties sought summary judgments in the case. Pro said he would deliver a decision within the next six weeks. He noted that construction has already begun on the widening of the corridor between Martin Luther King and Rainbow boulevards.

Robert Yunke, who represented the Sierra Club at the hearing, said the Federal Highway Administration needs to conduct a supplemental environmental impact study taking into account studies that say that highway pollution increases the risk of cancer in nearby communities.

"We have new data showing how emissions from motor vehicles affect the health of people and it's not being looked at," Yunke said of an emissions study performed in Los Angeles in 2000.

Clay Samford, an attorney with the Justice Department's environmental division in Denver, said that the study in question includes too many variables to make a fair comparison.

"Even if you want to say that Las Vegas and Los Angeles are completely comparable, the study in L.A. was for an entire region, and we're talking about a specific corridor in Las Vegas," Samford said. "There is a different vehicle emission mix, topography and weather."

The Federal Highway Administration's record of decision, including the environmental impact study, was filed by the government in January 2000, prior to the completion of the Los Angeles study. The Sierra Club filed suit in April 2002.

At issue in the suit is the widening of the approximately five-mile corridor between Martin Luther King and Rainbow boulevards. The widening is scheduled to be completed before the winter of 2006. The project would expand the stretch of freeway from six to 10 lanes including a carpool lane in each direction.

This Martin Luther King to Rainbow section is the final part of a larger project projected to cost more than $870 million. The larger project includes new overpasses and storm drains and the widening of U.S. 95 between Rainbow and Ann Road.

The Sierra Club also alleges that the Federal Highway Administration too quickly dismissed alternatives to the widening, such as a rail system linking northwest Las Vegas to downtown.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rimantas Rukstele said that alternatives were looked at, but none were able to counter the growing gridlock on the freeway as the population of the Las Vegas Valley climbs.

"A hard look was taken on the issue and the alternatives," Rukstele said. "The fixed rail system is an attractive looking alternative, but it would have been the biggest white elephant in the valley.

"There is no market for it and not enough people to use it."