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“I think this project is the poster child for [the administration’s] political, ”said Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat representing the Houston area, who joined with local authorities in contesting the project.
In a March 8 letter to the state, the Federal Highway Administration, citing complaints from local activists and Jackson Lee, asked the Texas Department of Transportation to delay expansion of I-45, including the launch of new contract solicitations, up to federal DOT. has time to examine civil rights and environmental justice issues.
Federal officials could eventually allow the project to continue, but the action to freeze it, and in particular the DOT’s use of civil rights laws to underpin the move, argued activists on the ground and surprised even seasoned regulators in Washington.
“It’s a big deal,” said Fred Wagner, an attorney who served as general counsel for the FHWA for three years under the Obama administration. “It doesn’t happen very often.”
Known as the North Houston Highway Improvement Project, the proposal would widen I-45 into three sections. The environmental review of the project by TxDOT, completed in February, found that it would have a huge impact on the communities it would pass through, moving more than 1,000 homes and housing units, 344 businesses, five places of worship and two schools. .
Local activists say the communities that would be affected are disproportionately black and Hispanic residents. And the impacts go beyond direct travel: twenty-six schools would be brought within 500 feet of the highway, increasing children’s exposure to pollution in a metropolitan area already plagued by car exhaust. .
“How can we accept a project like this? He will stay with us for at least a generation, ”said Lina Hidalgo, the county judge-elect for Harris County, which primarily includes the metropolitan area of Houston and surrounding areas, in an interview.
Opponents of the project have come up with an alternative which Hidalgo says has a narrower footprint and allows transit. The county recently sued TxDOT, saying it failed to consider environmental impacts during its planning and review.
“I cannot tell you how many conversations we have had with the state on this matter,” she said, adding that she had only received “empty talk”.
“You can imagine the frustration,” she said. “The community also put in a lot of time, effort and heartache.”
The DOT intervention came as a welcome surprise, Hidalgo said, adding that it gives opponents of the project a “more realistic opportunity” to seek redress.
“I think [Buttigieg] was engaged, interested and fair, “said Jackson Lee, who said he recently spoke to the DOT chief about the project.” And I think he was disappointed that the federal dollars were used with such disregard for the opinions of the community. “
The Houston project, with its promises of displacement and disenfranchisement echoing the destructive historic road building that Buttigieg has repeatedly cited, is a test for Buttigieg, Wagner said.
“This will be the new administration’s first type of test to demonstrate how it will apply its standards for fairer transportation on a megaproject like this,” said the former FHWA lawyer.
The project has been going on for years. So “for DOT to step in, potentially, and say ‘We don’t think that’s a suitable solution’, that would be a very big deal,” he said.
Part of the reason the situation is so unique is that Texas is a so-called “State of Assignment,” one of seven designated as being capable of serving as an agent for the federal government when it comes to power. deals with administering the National Environmental Policy Act.
In most states, the federal government could raise issues of disproportionate impact as part of the normal federal environmental review process. But Texas, as the state of assignment, has already completed that process which culminated in the decision record finalized in February.
Thus, the federal DOT turned to Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act to justify its hiatus, which states: “No person in the United States should, for reasons of race, color or origin national, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of any program or activity that receives federal funding or is subject to discrimination. “
“It is clear that the TXDOT blatantly violated this, recklessly violated it,” said Jackson Lee.
Next steps could include DOT ordering Texas to redo its analysis of the project, or more drastically, rejecting it altogether under civil rights laws.
“They didn’t necessarily play their hand when they said we were going to take a break,” Wagner said.
Neither FHWA nor TxDOT answered specific questions.
“FHWA and USDOT officials are assessing several Title VI concerns raised by community groups in the Houston area regarding the project,” a spokesperson for the federal agency said.
And TxDOT spokesman Adam Hammons said the agency was “in contact with the FHWA for clarification on what a hiatus might mean in regards to the timing of future contract solicitation efforts.” He would not comment on the details, citing the pending legislation.
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