Tensions are running high in Austin as Rethink35, joined by several other organizations, has thrown down the gauntlet with a federal lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) over the proposed I-35 expansion into a gargantuan roadwork project. Seeking to add eight miles of new managed lanes, TxDOT has ruffled feathers across the community, with the Austin Monitor reporting that the coalition argues the project dismisses environmental justice, blithely overlooks air and water quality concerns, and that significantly, takes aim at strategies perceived to be discriminatory.
Turning up the heat, Rethink35 alleges TxDOT's ambitious plans, set to transform a stretch from Ben White Boulevard to U.S. Highway 290 East, by the group, they say, failed to adequately consider civil rights and environmental harm. Echoing historical sentiments, the civil rights complaint with the Federal Highway Administration, emphasized by Rethink35’s Adam Greenfield, points to the interstate’s divisive past as a racial barrier—a sentiment reflected in the nearly $9,000 fundraiser representing a public referendum, he said, as per Austin Monitor.
However, the state is standing its ground, with TxDOT's top brass Marc Williams batting away the accusations and extolling the project as a community-oriented venture. "We have carefully followed and even exceeded the environmental and legal requirements to advance this project. We don’t believe that the actions of these opponents have merit," Williams asserted in a statement obtained by KXAN.
Caught in the crossfire are local businesses and residents, many of whom are predicted to bear the brunt of displacement and increased pollution; notably communities of color, who, according to both lawsuits, sit squarely in the path of what's condemned as an exacerbation of pre-existing inequalities. "By widening the highway and perpetuating the presence of this damaging piece of infrastructure, TxDOT is knowingly engaging in discrimination," Greenfield said, as reported by KXAN.
