Richard H. Mays, the lawyer in a public interest lawsuit challenging the sufficiency of the review of environmental damage to be caused by the billion-dollar Interstate 30 widening project in Little Rock, has asked federal Judge James Moody to make the Arkansas Department of Transportation explain how it has the money to complete the project.
A hearing is scheduled Thursday on motions for summary judgment in the case. All arguments have been made, Mays said in a letter to the judge, but a significant wrinkle emerged in an Arkansas Supreme Court decision in another case.
Mays said he’d like to address this at the hearing Thursday.
Here’s May’s letter to the judge.
Here’s the formal motion to the court. It notes the state has said it will need almost $500 money from a fund it can’t legally use for the first phase of the $1.3 billion project. He said the state had refused to respond to his letter asking that current work on the project stop until financial questions are answered.