BUFFALO, N.Y. — A month after four lawsuits were filed in the state supreme court over the approval of the Kensington Expressway project, a federal lawsuit was filed Monday against the Federal Highway Administration (FHA).
The lawsuit alleges that the FHA violated the National Environmental Protection Act when it approved the project in February.
"The feds are very much involved, and it's important that we have the lawsuit in federal court," said Alan Bozer, senior counsel at Phillips Lytle LLP.
Bozer is representing the East Side Parkways Coalition, WNY Youth Climate Coalition, Citizens for Regional Transit, and over 50 residents of neighborhoods adjacent to the Kensington Expressway.
As 2 On Your Side first reported, the Federal Highway Administration approved the project only 3 days after it received the proposal from the New York State Dept. of Transportation in February.
"What we'd like to do is vacate that decision," Bozer said. "In other words, the court will say that the Federal Highway Administration was wrong to have done this approval, it will then order the FHWA to step back and redo it."
Similar to the other four lawsuits filed in June, the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Monday calls into question the lack of an environmental impact statement (EIS) before the FHA approved the project.
"It is incredible that they're going to spend $1 billion in a densely populated urban area with four and one half years of construction, with blasting with noise, with dust going on not to do an environmental impact study," Bozer said. " It just shows how quickly they want to get this approved, get by community opposition, and there's a lot of opposition, and get into the construction phase."
Before the lawsuits were filed in June, the NYSDOT expected to begin construction of the $1B cap and tunnel project in the fall. It's unknown if the recent legal issues surrounding the project have impacted that timeline.
A spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration told 2 On Your Side that the agency "does not comment on pending litigation."