Press Release: FHWA Withdraws Appeal of Court Decision Finding that Illiana Tollway Environmental Review was Illegal

For Immediate Release

September 22, 2015

FHWA Withdraws Appeal of Court Decision Finding that Illiana Tollway Environmental Review was Illegal

ELPC Says the Illiana Tollway Boondoggle Should End Now

CHICAGO – The Federal Highway Administration is voluntarily dismissing its appeal of the Federal District Court’s June 16, 2015 decision holding that the federal and state transportation agencies’ approvals of the Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision were “arbitrary and capricious” and violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Administrative Procedure Act.

As a result, the Illinois Department of Transportation’s and Indiana Department of Transportation’s fundamentally flawed environmental impact statement process must start over and use much more realistic data.

Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center who serves as lead counsel for the Plaintiffs Midewin Heritage Association, Openlands and Sierra Club, said: “The Federal Highway Administration has withdrawn its appeal of the Federal District Court’s decision that invalidated the flawed environmental impact statement process for the proposed new Illiana Tollway. It’s time for the federal and state transportation agencies to now bring the boondoggle Illiana Tollway to an end.”

“The Illinois and Indiana Departments of Transportation should stop wasting taxpayers’ money on the Illiana tollroad to nowhere that is contrary to sound regional planning and would damage the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie,” Learner added.

On June 16, 2015 Federal District Court Judge Jorge Alonso issued an Opinion and Order determining that IDOT’s plan to build the Illiana Tollway was based on analyses that are “fatally flawed.” The Court concluded that the agencies violated the National Environmental Policy Act and used a circular logic to make their initial case about how the proposed Illiana Tollway will lead to population growth and traffic demand. They assumed traffic growth would be the same regardless of whether the costly proposed new Illiana Tollway was ever built or not. The Court remanded the Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision to be redone in accordance with the decision and applicable law.

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