Interstate 26 (NC)
Judge orders NC DOT back to drawing board on I-26
©Charles Shoffner
Downtown Asheville
In a major victory for smart-growth advocates in western North Carolina, a federal judge in July declared the first phase of widening I-26 illegal and has ordered the state Dept. of Transportation to conduct a full environmental review of the project.
NC DOT is proposing to widen a 40-mile stretch of I-26 from Hendersonville north to Mars Hill. In a lawsuit by SELC on behalf of several local organizations, Chief U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle ruled that DOT violated federal law by starting on the southernmost segment of the proposed expansion - about 13 miles from Hendersonville to the Asheville Regional Airport - based only on a cursory review of that segment alone.
