The U.S. Department of Commerce is holding a public hearing and accepting public comments about a proposed toll road controversial toll road which would run through San Onofre State Beach parallel to I-5, to relieve congestion on that Corridor of the Future highway.

Permission for the plan was recently denied by the California Coastal Commission at a public meeting that drew 3,500 people in opposition to the road. The Transportation Corridor Agencies of Orange County appealed this decision to the Secretary of Commerce. Because a federal agency is now responsible for deciding if the road should be permitted, you do not have to be a California resident to comment.

You can comment in person at a public hearing between 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., July 25, in the Donald Bren Events Center, 100 Bren Events Center at the University of California-Irvine. You can sign up to speak starting at 10 a.m.

Send comments by email between July 21 and Aug. 4. to gcos.comment@noaa.gov, or mail them to :

Thomas Street
NOAA Office of the General Counsel for Ocean Services
1305 East-West Highway, Room 6111
Silver Spring, MD 20910

General inquiries about the comment process should be directed to the NOAA office at (301) 713-2967.

The toll road would be a 16-mile extension of Route 241 north of San Diego. The Coastal Commission concluded that the road would destroy 66 acres of critical wetlands and other habitat, destroying the last coastal habitat of the arroyo toad and placing the Pacific pocket mouse at imminent risk of extinction.

The Upper Pitt River — located only 40 miles from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada — is threatened by plans for a series of hydropower dams. In response to this threat, the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC named the Upper Pitt the province’s “Most Endangered River of 2008.”

In March 2008, more than 1,000 people packed a power-company-sponsored open house to oppose the project. In response, BC Environment Minister Barry Penner promised not to allow the construction of electric transmission lines through Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. The larger plan, however, is still on the table.

Pennsylvania has passed a law authorizing itself to borrow $350 million in bonds to repair 411 state-owned bridges, out of an estimated 6,000 that are thought to be structurally deficient or insufficient for current or projected useage. Added to other sources of funding, this will allow the state to spend $1.7 billion on bridge repair this year, out of an estimated $11 billion needed to fix all 6,000 bridges.

See a list of bridges designated for priority repair from the bond funding here.

The controversy over the I-5 expansion project known as the Columbia River Crossing took a theatrical turn on July 9, as politically charged street performance took center stage outside a packed city hall. Meeting attendees were greeted with a fake checkpoint just past an area marked off by “Global Warming Crime Scene” tape. Agents from the fictitous “Oil Enforcement Agency” issued citations to bridge supporters and eventually arrested a group of oil-worshippers who danced around a mock oil derrick.

The action was organized by Rising Tide North America and Global Exchange as a lead-up to the West Coast Convergence for Climate Action later this month.

Inside, Portland’s City Council was deciding whether to endorse a new bridge over the Columbia River, connecting Portland, OR with Vancouver, WA. The new bridge is the recipient of a Corridors of the Future grant from the Department of Transportation. The new bridge project must receive endorsement from all 8 involved agencies before it can proceed; to date, the cities of Portland and Vancouver and their respective public transit agencies (TriMet and C-Tran) have voted in favor of the bridge. The Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council and Metro are scheduled vote in the next two weeks, while the Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation are also expected to endorse the bridge.

After listening to three hours of charged public comments, Portland’s city council voted in favor of the bridge. However, it emphasized that it reserves the right to withdraw authorization for the bridge at any time.

Even if all proceeds according to schedule, construction is not scheduled to begin until 2010.

Protesters criticized the bridge (and the I-5 highway in general) for its encouragement of car culture and fossil fuel dependence and its health effects, particularly on poor communities. The bridge has also drawn fire for the possibility that homes or businesses could be demolished for its construction.

Read the full Rising Tide press release here.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has allocated more than $5 million each to Corridors of the Future I-5 and I-95 to increase parking availability to freight trucks, for a total grant of $11 million.

Acting FHWA administrator Jim Ray said that I-5 and I-95, which together account for 10 percent of all US interstate truck traffic, were selected as part of a corridor-wide effort to reduce congestion on major freight routes. They won the award due to their use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technology, such as alerts that are transmitted to truckers about available parking further down the road.

“Instead of hunting for parking and adding to traffic problems, truckers can know when spots are vacant to plan their stops and time the delivery of goods into major cities,” Ray said. “Predictability is good for businesses selling products and consumers buying them.”

More than 100 Earth First!ers swarmed the Columbus, OH office of American Municipal Power (AMP) on July 7, to demand that MP-Ohio cancel its plans for construction of a new and widely opposed coal-fired power plant in southeast Ohio. Donations for bail money are still needed if you see a “donate for bail money” button at the top of this page!

Dozens of protesters entered the building, disabling video cameras with silly string and creating a ruckus by chanting, signing, dancing on furniture and banging on pots and pans. Meanwhile, five activists locked down in the lobby. Two activists climbed up the flagpoles outside the building carrying signs that read “no new coal!” and “we won’t stop until you do,” while supporters rallied around them with signs and banners. Police used pepper spray and other means of force to remove the protesters, and eight people were arrested. But even after the protest ended, a surprise was left behind for the AMP workers: a foul-smelling shrimp paste spread throughout the building.

According to the protesters’ press release, “If the proposed AMP-OH plant is built, it will become one of five coal plants within a ten-mile radius to the southern tip of Meigs County. Additionally, four more coal-fired plants have been proposed for construction in the area by other electric utility providers. This is an obvious injustice as it forms the backbone of the highest concentration of coal-fired power plants in the country.”

According to a communiqué, a Maryille, IL office of Bernardin, Lochmueller, & Associates (BLA, the company responsible for planning the entire route of I-69) was sabotaged on the morning of June 30:

This morning, the owners of [BLA] in Maryville, Illinois were popping aspirins to deal with their headaches. Maybe the underlings enjoyed the day off. The company car had all four tires slashed, headlights, windows, and mirrors busted out, and paint job ruined. The office building had its locks glued, windows smashed, and exterior painted with ‘187 ON I-69′ and ‘THE FRONTLINE IS EVERYWHERE.’

Wherever capitalists maneuver to increase their wealth and power, there we find a target for our anger. I-69, the NAFTA Superhighway, is nothing more than a channel for the flow of profit from the backs of working people into the pockets of the rich.

This time around the surveyors got it. Two of the three BLA locations have been sabotaged.

Next Exit?

Now is the time to decisively stop the I-69 Corridor of the Future! Contact Roadblock Earth First! to join the struggle today! Also, visit the new I-69 Media Office for archived media about I-69 and the resistance to it, as well as media resources for anti-I-69 affinity groups.

Due to the recent upsurge in anti-infrastructure actions and related news (just take a look at the last few weeks’ worth of posts, below!), we are shifting to a less regular posting schedule. Rather than compiling stories and posting them once per week, we will now be posting news as we learn about it. Check back regularly so you don’t miss anything!

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There are three different US Convergences for Climate Action this year:

West Coast Convergence for Climate Action: July 28 – August 4, Eugene, OR

Southeast Convergence for Climate Action: August 5-11, Louisa County, VA (near Richmond)

Northeast Climate Confluence: July 27 – August 3, High Falls, NY

The climate convergences are gathering places for people of all ages and backgrounds to come together to take direct action against the root causes of climate change while working to build a just and sustainable world. At the convergences there will be dozens of workshops and trainings, networking opportunities, and strategy sessions aimed at building a strong grassroots movement for climate justice.

It’s time to strategize and shut down the infrastructure of global warming!

A number of actions have taken place recently against the NAFTA Superhighway I-69, a Corridor of the Future:

June 23; Kalamazoo, MI: Protesters bearing drums and whistles paraded through the offices of DLZ Corporation, an engineering firm involved in I-69 construction and planning.

June 24; Hicksville, NY: An office of HNTB at 40 Commerce Pl. was found to have its windows and front door covered in paint, with messages spray-painted all over the front and sides: “Deal with I-69, Deal with Us.” The locks on the front and back doors were glued shut. The windows could not be cleaned, as the paint was etched into the glass.

On the morning of Tuesday June 24, employees of HNTB arrived at their Hicksville, NY office to find the building defaced with spray paint. DEAL WITH I-69 DEAL WITH US was written across the front of the building. When they went to the front door, the lock was glued and the door was covered in paint. They walked around to the back and the back doors were glued too. Other slogans were painted on the sides of the building and all the windows were covered in paint. They called the locksmith to break in for them and then called the cleaning people. The cleaning crew told them there was nothing they could do about the windows, the paint was etched into the glass.

June 24; Evansville, IN: The River City Animal Defense league visited an office of Bernardin-Lockmueller and Associates (BLA), the company responsible for planning the entire route of I-69. Denied entrance to the building, the protesters banged on windows and shouted through an intercom, and a window on the building was smashed. The group released a communique with this message to BLA:

“We know you’ve been targeted in the past, but since construction has recently begun- expect more chaos and aggression directed at your company and the workers that make what you do possible. Next
time maybe we’ll pay your homes a visit,because we know where you live and we know what you do…. Let this be a call for others to take action against this highway which not only effects Indiana, but the entire continents of North, Central, and South America. Those of us who have the privilege of being North
American must use our privilege to fight for a world where the Global South is no longer exploited by capitalism.”

June 25; Haubstadt, IN: Protesters shut down a work yard of Gohmann Asphalt and Construction — the company building the first 1.77 miles of Interstate 69 north of Evansville — for 3.5 hours. One person stopped a truck exiting the site, giving others time to let the air out of the vehicles tires then lock onto it both below and above. They were soon joined by a crowd chanting and holding signs.

One person was arrested for allegedly letting the air out of the tires, but the other protesters negotiated with police to be released without being arrested or even identified.

Now is the time to decisively stop I-69! Contact Roadblock Earth First! to join the struggle today!