Environmental groups sue DOT over Mississippi road project

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG
Associated Press/Report for America

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A group of environmental and racial justice are suing the U.S. Department of Transportation and its secretary, Pete Buttigieg, seeking to halt a Gulf Coast road project that the group says will harm the environment near historic Black neighborhoods in north Gulfport, Mississippi. The lawsuit, which argues that the DOT violated the National Environmental Policy Act, was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. The plaintiffs oppose the DOT’s Interconnecting Gulfport project, which would build a road in a wetland area next to the U.S. 49 and I-10 interchange. City officials have encouraged commercial development in the area, and the road project aims to provide easier access to shopping centers.