A group of McLean, Virginia, residents filed a lawsuit to stop the expansion of the toll lanes on the Capital Beltway in Virginia.
Although the project to add two-and-a-half miles of express lanes from the Dulles Toll Road in Tysons past the George Washington Parkway is in its second year of construction, the Northern Virginia Citizens Association wants it stopped and has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Fairfax Now first reported the lawsuit.
Members of the citizen’s group said their properties near the project are being destroyed.
“After they did the environmental assessment, (the Virginia Department of Transportation) and Transurban made massive changes to the project that dramatically increased the environmental impact,” Claudia O’Brien, with the citizen’s group, said. Transurban is the operator of the toll lanes.
VDOT, in a statement to Fairfax Now, said it “places a priority on compliance with all environmental regulations and associated requirements.” VDOT also said the changes are in line with federal approvals.
The neighbors in the court filing call the project the “ bridge to nowhere.”
“It’s not only a bridge to nowhere, it is a bridge that will increase traffic and increase pollution for everyone who can’t afford to pay Transurban’s tolls,” O’Brien said.
Recently Transurban, pulled out of the Maryland project to improve interstates 270 and 495. The company is also doing the Virginia project.
O’Brien said her group may ask for an injunction to halt the project until the court hears the lawsuit, but the group has yet to make that decision.
