AUSTIN (KXAN) – Rethink 35 and several other Austin organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation over its I-35 Capital Express Central project, which will widen eight miles of the interstate from U.S. 290 East to Ben White Boulevard and SH 71.
In addition to the lawsuit, the coalition filed a federal civil rights complaint to US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other federal officials, alleging “TxDOT has intentionally engaged in discrimination through its awareness of I-35’s racist past and inequitable impacts and its unwillingness to address those impacts,” according to a press release.
“This expanded project would bring 130,000 extra cars, extra vehicles through Austin every day,” said Adam Greenfield, Board President of Rethink35. “All the pollution that will bring will lead to worse air quality, worse water pollution — there’ll be more crashes. It will further entrench us in this unpleasant environment that nobody wants to be near.”