A federal appeals court has reaffirmed that the proposed $900 million Garden Parkway toll road from Charlotte to Gastonia is dead. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals noted Tuesday that without federal or state funding, the 22-mile project faces "multiple barriers to construction" and is no longer viable.
The Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation and Clean Air Carolina had sued the NCDOT and Federal Highway Administration to halt the project on environmental grounds. A federal judge agreed with the groups in March. NCDOT appealed, even though it had decided the project would not be built for now.
Because of that, the appeals court said the case is moot. It threw out the lower court ruling and ordered the case dismissed.
The environmental groups had hoped the appeals court would issue an opinion affirming the lower court's ruling that the road should not be built because of environmental concerns.
