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The LGA Draft EIS is the same load of BS as the Alternatives Analysis. By requiring that any other alternative not have "a material effect to major infrastructure, transportation facilities, or utilities," the process was rigged from the start.
Link: https://www.lgaaccesseis.com/draft-eis-document
Link: https://www.lgaaccesseis.com/draft-eis-document
This was an extra-legal standard imposed by the FAA to ensure that Cuomo's preferred project was the only one that fit all the criteria. It's not a requirement of any environmental review law but is deemed reasonable. That's how you rig the approval process.
Anyway, the FAA expects construction to begin next year (hah) and the project to be completed in 2025, but those estimates were developed before the PA's finances tanked during the pandemic. The feds should not bail out this ill-planned project.
You can see this level of BS throughout. Look at how the report dismisses dedicated bus lanes.
In my view, this sleight-of-hand work on the alternatives makes the AirTrain more vulnerable to a lawsuit. At the least, someone will have to explain why it's reasonable (or not arbitrary) for an infrastructure project to have no material effect on infrastructure.
Definitely take a read through all of Yohan's thread here, but this is the conclusion I agree with. https://twitter.com/yfreemark/status/1296807096734961669
