This Week's Feature
A Tale of Two Cities and One Interstate
City of Asheville
Two growing southeastern cities along the route of Interstate 26 are struggling with how to relieve traffic congestion in their communities. State transportation departments are calling for massive expansions of the highway and related roads—plans that threaten open lands and local neighborhoods and that would pave the way to increased air and water pollution.
SELC and its partners are showing that there are better ways to solve mobility problems that reduce traffic, boost economic growth, promote community development, and protect the environment.
What’s being done in Charleston, South Carolina
- State and federal transportation agencies are preparing an environmental impact statement for a 7.1-mile extension of a spur of I-26 (the Mark Clark Expressway) that imperils wetlands, water quality, and rural areas.
- SELC and the Coastal Conservation League are advocating an alternative plan that relieves traffic by improving the local street network and enhancing access to area businesses and services. By law, the agencies have to consider it.
- Elsewhere in Charleston, SELC is challenging a proposed shipping terminal and related road projects. Increased truck traffic from the terminal would overwhelm I-26 and other parts of the local transportation system.
What’s being done in Asheville, North Carolina
- In a case won by SELC several years ago, a federal judge has ordered a full environmental review of plans to expand I-26 and related roads through and around the city.
- SELC has weighed in formally to outline the inadequacies of the Department of Transportation’s draft environmental impact statement for the I-26 Connector and to advocate a smaller, better-designed highway that addresses transportation needs while maintaining the region’s quality of life.
- SELC is supporting an alternative highway concept developed by talented architects and planners in the Asheville Design Center. Their plan would separate local and interstate traffic and promote growth of the city’s downtown, among other benefits.
>>Learn more the I-26 expansion in Asheville, NC
>>Learn more the I-526 expansion in Charleston, SC
>>Learn more the port expansion in the Charleston, SC
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