A lawsuit aimed at slowing the HOT lanes project planned for Interstates 95 and 395 in Northern Virginia has received an early vote of confidence.
A U.S. District Court ruled that a suit filed by the Arlington County Board against the Virginia and U.S. departments of transportation, as well as the Federal Highway Administration, can move forward.
The ruling is an early win for Arlington County in its battle with state and federal authorities regarding planned high-occupancy toll lanes on I-95 and 395.
“Obviously this validates our suit,” said County Board member Christopher Zimmerman. “This project was rushed into, and if it’s not done right, it’s going to be a problem for the whole region.”
The lawsuit says VDOT and federal transportation agencies failed to perform necessary environmental and public health studies mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Air Act.
The Federal Highway Administration granted the HOT lanes project a “categorical exclusion,” which allowed the project to move forward without performing the usual impact studies. But Arlington County’s suit claimed the exclusion should not have been granted.
County officials also say the transportation agencies did not perform the proper traffic impact analyses.
“They didn’t look at the impacts beyond the [HOT lane] road itself,” said County Board Chairman Jay Fisette. “The road has onramps and offramps, and feeds into lots of neighborhood roads. What is the impact of that going to be on the whole area? We just don’t know.”
Arlington officials say they’re not trying to kill the HOT lanes project, despite the lawsuit.
“Our county has never tried to block the project,” Fisette said. “We’ve tried to get them to do what needs to be done so that it works.”
“We’re open to negotiate,” Zimmerman said. “This lawsuit could go away tomorrow if they were willing to do what is responsible.”
Ronaldo Nicholson, VDOT’s regional director, declined to comment on the court ruling.
