Another lawsuit has surfaced in the debate about the alignment of the South Lawrence Trafficway
Area environmentalists and students from Haskell Indian Nations University announced Friday that they’ve filed a lawsuit in federal court to try and stop construction of a route which cuts through the Baker Wetlands.
“It is out of touch with these times of climate change and scant resources,” Carey Maynard Moody, of the Kansas chapter of the Sierra Club, said about the trafficway cutting through wetlands. “Hopefully this is the last chapter.”
The debate has been raging for about 15 years with the plaintiffs in the current lawsuit arguing less destructive routes south of the Wakarusa River weren’t adequately considered by the Kansas Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.
The 32nd Street Alignment was approved earlier this year and if completed, the trafficway would connect Interstate 70 west of Lawrence to Kansas Highway 10 east of Lawrence. The western part of the project is completed to Iowa Street; however, the eastern portion has not been built.
The lawsuit also suggests a proposed mitigation package will not protect the wetlands from damage caused by the trafficway.
Director of Natural Areas Roger Boyd and Baker alumnus Mark Wellendorf, acting refuge manager, started converting 142 acres of farmground west of Louisiana Street between 31st Street and the Wakarusa River into new wetlands as part of the mitigation plan earlier this month. Boyd said he’s not worried about an injunction, however, which requests spending for any aspect of the trafficway to be stopped.
“The judge is going to have to rule, and we should be done with our project before they get around to doing that,” Boyd said. “We could be done with it in two weeks if it gets dry enough, as long as it doesn’t keep raining.”
Boyd said KDOT provided $975,000 for the project paying for half of it upfront but the dirt work, which Boyd said would be done in a few weeks, has to be finished before the second payment is made.
“I’m hoping that the lawsuit isn’t going (to have an) impact in being able to get the second half,” Boyd said.
Vicky Johnson, chief counsel for KDOT, said the lawsuit probably will take a year or more to resolve. However, because funding hasn’t been secured for the project, she doesn’t see it as delaying construction at all.
“The only point at which it will delay the project is if they get the (injunction) they’re asking for and the court orders us to cease working on the construction plans. Then we lose time that we could have been getting those plans ready in the event that money becomes available in the next year,” she said.
The FHWA, Army Corps of Engineers, KDOT, Douglas County and the city of Lawrence all support the 32nd Street Alignment.
The plaintiffs in the suit include the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Sierra Club, Wetlands Preservation Organization, Jayhawk Audubon Society, Save the Wakarusa Wetlands Inc., the University of Kansas Environs and KU EcoJustice.