Today was the last day to submit comments to ADOT on the FEIS. Heres mine: As was stated repeatedly throughout the FEIS, this project was conceived in the mid ‘80s, when Ahwatukee was largely rural and undeveloped. The proposed South Mountain Freeway project generally and continually ignores the fact that local conditions and populations have changed considerably in the intervening 30 years. Based on information contained in the FEIS, it would appear that spending nearly $2 Billion to save East and West Valley commuters 1-4 minutes during rush hours seems a rather minimal gain for the cost. The ONLY beneficiaries of the SMF would be trucking companies and bypass traffic, neither of which would substantially improve rush hour congestion for central Phoenix commuters. This proposed freeway caters primarily to private interests (trucking companies), not the general population, and most certainly NOT to the 77,000+ residents of Ahwatukee Foothills Village, who would bear the most negative impact with little or nothing to gain. Funds could be put to much better use in other areas such as redesigning the I-10 / US-60 interchange. FEIS does not really address concerns of Ahwatukee residents regarding light, noise and air pollution, nor address concerns of effects of a gas-based hazmat spill. • While feeble noise abatement devices are described, this project only seeks to meet the minimum federal requirements for noise control and completely ignores the topography which serves as both a reflector and amplifier for noise, as well as the vibration of constant heavy truck traffic transmitted through the bedrock to the majority of Ahwatukee that falls outside the minimum noise abatement area. Almost everyone in Ahwatukee can clearly hear any activity at Firebird Raceway, more than seven miles away. How much louder is heavy truck traffic going to be when less than one mile distant and carried through the bedrock all the way to the base of South Mountain? • Once again, the FEIS chooses to largely ignore or gloss over the significant health risks posed by inserting a freeway into a mature residential community with dozens of public and private schools and daycare centers located within ½ to 1 mile of the Pecos Road alignment. How many health studies does it take to know that putting a freeway, especially one that will cater to a large volume of commercial truck traffic coming from Mexico using fuel that does not remotely meet U.S. standards for sulfur content, next to schools will have a detrimental effect on those students’ health, both short and long term? • Also, the broad-handed dismissal of significant pollution increases again ignores local topography and prevailing wind patterns, which would serve to consolidate pollution to dangerous and unhealthy levels throughout the Ahwatukee Foothills Village. The SMF would serve to completely destroy what is currently one of the more pollution-free areas of the greater metropolitan Phoenix area, again in primary support of private interests and with zero benefit to Ahwatukee. • The same topography and prevailing wind conditions are also again largely dismissed when addressing the potential effects of a gas-based hazmat spill along the SMF. A chlorine gas spill on the E1 alignment, wind-born north into South Mountain with no way to dissipate, would most likely result in tens of thousands of deaths and many times more severe and permanent injuries to residents of Ahwatukee. • One of the beauties of Ahwatukee is being able to look up at night and actually see stars. The SMF, even with the best of dark sky mitigation, would largely destroy that element. • While historically crime has nearly always increased in similar situations where a freeway is imposed into a residential area, once again ADOT has chosen to largely ignore any data that proffers support for this view, and instead chosen to again risk Ahwatukee residents’ safety and security by providing a quick and easy access for criminals to this community. It’s time to end this farcical waste of taxpayer money on a project whose primary beneficiaries are private interests. Times have changed in the last 30 years, and it’s far past time that ADOT realized this and changed with them. What may have been viable in 1985 is no longer, and ADOT needs to get off the “this has always been the plan and nothing has changed” horse and direct its efforts and my money to finding an alternative that works for today and the future. Robert N. Knight Ahwatukee Resident and Small Business Owner
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 01:37:13 +0000
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