The Guardian | Florida accused of push for ‘roads to nowhere’ under cover of pandemic
Opponents of Florida’s largest highway construction project in decades say officials are exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to advance three new unwanted toll roads that would destroy more than 50,000 acres of rural landscape and pave hundreds of miles through ecologically fragile wetlands and wildlife corridors.
A diverse coalition of opposition groups fighting the state’s so-called m-cores project insists the 330 miles of new highways planned for south-west, central and north Florida at an estimated cost of $26.4bn are not needed, and wanted the process halted at least until in-person public hearings could resume to evaluate the proposals.
“If there’s no demonstrated need, no demonstrated economic or environmental feasibility, a threat to agricultural production, threats to wildlife and water resources, a threat to Florida’s iconic small-town character, you pile these threats one on top of another and it’s common sense there’s overwhelming opposition,” Cris Costello (Sierra Club) said.