{"id":864,"date":"2012-05-03T17:40:09","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T21:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/?p=864"},"modified":"2012-05-03T17:40:09","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T21:40:09","slug":"us-appeals-panel-blocks-nc-bypass-bad-news-for-the-ncta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/?p=864","title":{"rendered":"US Appeals Panel Blocks NC Bypass, Bad News For The NCTA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Court ruling delays Monroe Bypass
\nBy Steve Harrison
\nsharrison@charlotteobserver.com<\/a>
\nBy Steve Harrison The Charlotte Observer
\nPosted: Thursday, May. 03, 2012
\nModified: Thursday, May. 03, 2012 More Information
\nMap: Route of the Monroe Connector-Bypass<\/p>\n

The planned $700 million Monroe Connector-Bypass is in doubt after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond Thursday ruled in favor of environmental groups who had sued to stop construction.<\/p>\n

The court, in an unanimous ruling, said the N.C. Department of Transportation and other agencies \u201cfailed to disclose critical assumptions….and instead provided the public with incorrect information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DOT violated federal policy that requires detailed environmental impact analysis for new highways, the court found.<\/p>\n

The state had planned to begin construction on the toll road later this year. Now the N.C. Turnpike Authority, an arm of the state DOT, may have to re-do its impact analysis and apply for new permits, which could take years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are back to square one,\u201d said David Farren, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, which was sued to stop the highway on behalf of several environmental groups. \u201cThe court found fundamental flaws in their analysis. And they found they weren\u2019t forthcoming with public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The toll road is designed to serve as a bypass around congested U.S. 74 in Union County.<\/p>\n

The state was required to do a study comparing the impacts of building the highway against what would happen if they toll road wasn\u2019t build. That is known as a \u201cbuild vs no build\u201d study.<\/p>\n

The Southern Environmental Law Center charged that the state didn\u2019t do the study correctly. When doing its \u201cno build\u201d analysis, the Law Center alleged that the state used data showing the toll road had already been built.<\/p>\n

That resulted in a \u201cbuild vs. build\u201d study, which showed minimal impacts from the highway. The DOT and Turnpike Authority said some mistakes had been made, but argued that the problems were minor and that its engineers had fixed them.<\/p>\n

The 4th Circuit said the study was flawed. In its opinion, it wrote the agencies \u201cincorporated \u2018build\u2019 assumptions into the \u2018no build\u2019 baseline.\u201d’<\/p>\n

It also said the agencies \u201ceither failed to address the underlying issue or incorrectly stated that the Monroe Connector was not factored into the \u2018no build\u2019 baseline.\u201d<\/p>\n

N.C. Transportation Secretary Gene Conti said in a statement that his agency is reviewing the ruling with legal and environmental experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this ruling will cause delays, it does not mean the project will not move forward,\u201d he said. \u201cWe hope to have a new plan and timeline developed and released to the public within the next few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DOT could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2012 The Charlotte Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
\nRead more here: http:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/2012\/05\/03\/3216562\/court-ruling-delays-monroe-bypass.html#storylink=cpy<\/a>
\n\u00a0
\nI am getting warmer and fuzzier by the day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Court ruling delays Monroe Bypass By Steve Harrison sharrison@charlotteobserver.com By Steve Harrison The Charlotte Observer Posted: Thursday, May. 03, 2012 Modified: Thursday, May. 03, 2012 More Information Map: Route of the Monroe Connector-Bypass The planned $700 million Monroe Connector-Bypass is in doubt after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond Thursday ruled in favor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=864"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864\/revisions\/868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}