Civil Right Groups, Environmentalists Team Up to Block Milwaukee Highway Expansion

"Civil rights and environmental groups sued the state Department of Transportation this week to block the expansion of I-94 in Milwaukee," reports Patrick Marley.

In February, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker proposed a delay of funding for the project during the state's budget process. The lawsuit is expected to make the project even more difficult to deliver, according to Marley.

A press release by the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, posted by Urban Milwaukee, also shares the news about the legal challenge to the highway construction proposal.

[O]rganizations supporting racial and environmental justice – the NAACP Milwaukee Branch, Sierra Club John Muir Chapter, and Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH) – filed suit in federal court in Milwaukee, seeking to block the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s efforts to spend over $1 billion dollars to rebuild and expand I-94 between 16th and 70th Streets when it is refusing to include necessary public transit expansion as part of the project.