More Legal Action Filed To Stop Kensington Expressway Project

The amount of people who are standing up against New York State moving forward with the Kensington Expressway Tunnel Project continues to grow in Buffalo and Western New York, and as the amount of people against the project grows, so do the lawsuits and other types of legal action that is being being taken against the State.

READ MORE: New York State To Hire Hundreds For Kensington Project In Buffalo

In a rally near the Buffalo Science Museum at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park on Buffalo's east side, dozens of Buffalonians gathered to express their dissatisfaction about the project and how the New York State Department of Transportation has treated them in particular.

Specifically, residents feel that the state agency has ignored their input and already decided what they wanted to do regardless of how residents felt or what they wanted.

READ MORE: Another Group Sues New York Over Kensington Expressway Project

The East Side Parkways Coalition is filing an application with the New York State Supreme Court for a legal injunction to prevent the state DOT from awarding contracts to proceed with what they call a toxic tunnel.

One thing the New York State DOT is accused of doing is skipping completing a required in-depth Environmental Impact Statement and choosing to do a much lower-level Environmental Assessment instead. According to the East Side Parkways Coalition, this goes against the NY State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) to fast-track this $1 billion construction project.

READ MORE: Will The Kensington Expressway Project Increase Pollution?

This is the latest in a series of legal challenges against the Empire State. Several of the Article 78 lawsuits have been filed by residents who live adjacent to the Kensington Expressway.