The officials were ostensibly there for a symbolic groundbreaking for the North Houston Highway Improvement Project, which will widen or rebuild around 25 miles of Interstate 45 in the heart of Texas's largest city.
Half of that street is going to be gone. Half of those businesses are going to be torn down. And TxDOT was basically thumbing its nose at these places that were going to be destroyed because of this project.
The destruction of St. Emanuel Street... isn't enough of an 'environmental impact' to justify canceling the I-45 project, even though it will dramatically exacerbate pollution, flooding, and inequality.
Thanks to a little-known loophole in federal law known as the 'NEPA assignment' program, DOTs... are temporarily 'assigned' the responsibility of conducting... environmental assessments.
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