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Sierra Club Lawsuits

Merritt Parkway Project Deemed Illegal in Connecticut

Case Updates:

April 1, 2006

Designed to be a graceful highway in a natural environment, the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut is set amid rolling farmland and is flanked by gardens and forests. The parkway includes 72 architecturally acclaimed bridges, and has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The parkway is also a model of holistic highway planning, but unfortunately the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has proposed a massive new interchange that would demolish four bridges, add ramps, roadway, and walls, and would destroy the thriving habitat and landscape running along its edge. The proposed interchange, at the juncture of Route 7, would also cost an estimated $100 million and reduce funding for other transportation projects in the state. It would also increase traffic and air pollution in a region that is already failing to meet national air quality standards. Faced with all of these problems, local Sierra Club volunteers joined other activists in the area and took the project to court. In late March, a federal judge ruled that the FHWA broke the law when it failed to fully consider ways avoid harming the historic bridges and natural environment. For now, this disastrous highway project has been stopped as the project is sent back to the drawing board for further consideration.

Details and Documents:

Judge rules against parkway construction project
April 11, 2006, by Associated Press, in Boston Globe