Route Fifty
By Daniel C. Vock
JUNE 3, 2022
Advocates in favor of scrapping highway projects hope that increased public pressure and scrutiny from the Biden administration will halt others. It’s not common for transportation agencies to walk away from highway expansions after years of planning, but it has happened in two major metropolitan areas last month. Advocates hope that increased public pressure and scrutiny from the Biden administration could halt other build-outs as well. Officials have canceled or paused plans to expand freeways in Los Angeles and Denver, as political leaders have re-examined long-held assumptions about the financial price and societal costs of bigger roads through urban areas. Los Angeles County officials scrapped plans to widen an 18-mile stretch of highway that connects the busiest port complex in the country to east Los Angeles and several other freeways in the area. It’s a major victory for local activists, who argued that the increased traffic would add air pollution and other problems to nearby residents, who are predominantly Black and Hispanic. Federal environmental regulators were already scrutinizing the expansion plans for potential violations of the Clean Air Act.
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