Feds Unsatisfied With State's I-94 Plan

Critics of the state transportation department's plan to rebuild and widen I-94 from Milwaukee to the Illinois state line have a new ally: the US Environmental Protection Agency, according to information posted on Gretchen Schuldt's blog.

In its rush to get the $1.9 billion highway plan into the ground beginning this year, it seems the state has overlooked critical air pollution and wetlands standards.

Imagine: George Bush's EPA is our environmental watchdog!

The City of Milwaukee is on record against the plan because it leaves out any transit components, and several organizations had filed formal comments with the project's planners about land use and civil rights deficiences.

Let's see...pollution and wetlands problems (environment), transit and cost issues (urbanity), civil rights shortcomings (basic equality): sounds like a trifecta of flaws that are the very opposite of publicly-spirited planning.

Is there any justification for such half-baked work on what will be the most expensive road project in state history, and perhaps the most expensive public works project since statehood?