PASADENA : Appeals Court Refuses to Block Work on Toll Road

A federal appeals panel in Pasadena refused Friday to block construction of a 4.7-mile stretch of a toll road that will cut through the environmentally sensitive Laguna Canyon.

The three-judge panel found that the Federal Highway Administration did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act simply because it failed to discuss every alternative to the road.

The environmental group Laguna Greenbelt sued the federal agency, claiming that it had inadequately studied the environmentally sensitive canyon before approving the route, a $1.1-billion roadway that will run 17 miles from San Juan Capistrano to Newport Beach.

In unanimously affirming U.S. District Judge Linda McLaughlin’s pretrial ruling, the panel dissolved the lower court’s order to temporarily halt construction.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel also found that the highway administration’s decision not to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement after a wildfire swept through the canyon last year was not arbitrary or capricious.