An organization that filed a complaint in federal court challenging the $2.6 billion Ohio River Bridges Project wants the federal judge overseeing the suit to order Kentucky and Indiana to stop work on their respective projects.
The Louisville-based Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation, or CART, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction last week stating that some work planned by Indiana could proceed before a complete record is available for review in the case.
The motion said that the Federal Highway Administration has asked the court to give it until Nov. 5 to file a response to CART’s complaint, and Indiana plans to award a tree-clearing contract and begin deforestation along its portion of the project by Jan. 15.
Indiana’s “planned action coming ahead of the filing of the record and any judicial determination of the merits of the claims would cause irreparable damage to CART’s procedural and substantive interests,” said the group, a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable transit planning.
CART said the A-15 route, where trees will be cleared, was improperly selected through an invalid review process under the National Environmental Policy Act. That review failed to consider impacts on recreational and esthetic interests, whether it would unnecessarily destroy endangered bat species, and the effects of highway runoff pollution in violation of the Clean Water Act, the group said.
Federal Judge John Heyburn in August allowed two complaints against the massive project to move forward and said any actions to be filed should not delay plans by Kentucky and Indiana to proceed with contracting and construction.
The two states are splitting the cost of building new bridges across the Ohio River, and rebuilding the downtown Louisville interchange known as Spaghetti Junction where Interstates 64, 65 and 71 converge.
Indiana broke ground on a road project related to the eastern bridge Aug. 30, and is building that project with a public-private partnership.
Kentucky is using a traditional design-build approach to build its project, and plans to pay for the estimated $1.3 billion cost with toll revenue and grant anticipation revenue vehicle bonds, state funds and potentially a low-interest federal loan.
