ELR Citation: 53 ELR 20031
No(s). 22-1103 (4th Cir. Feb 23, 2023)

The Fourth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and FHwA in a challenge to their approval of a toll bridge across North Carolina's Currituck Sound that would connect the northern Outer Banks with the mainland. Environmental and community groups argued the agencies violated NEPA by failing to prepare a supplemental EIS and using traffic and development projections in their no-build alternative that improperly assumed a bridge would be built. The district court disagreed and granted summary judgment for the agencies. The appellate court found NCDOT and FHwA took a hard look at the new information the groups claimed had emerged—traffic forecasts, growth and development patterns, and sea-level projections—and reasonably determined they were not significant enough to justify a supplemental EIS; and that the agencies' decision to work backward from local land use plans to estimate the development that would occur without the bridge for purposes of the no-build alternative was reasonable. It affirmed summary judgment for the agencies.