A federal judge sided with conservation groups Sunday, blocking construction of a four-lane highway across Utah’s Red Cliffs National Conservation Area until the merits of a lawsuit challenging the project are decided.
Judge Randolf Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction that bars the Utah Department of Transportation from starting road construction in the conservation area and a preserve for the threatened Mojave Desert tortoise.
Moss, an Obama appointee, agreed to “set an expedited schedule to resolve the case,” but he concluded that damage to the state from delaying the construction “will be, at most, marginal.”
Moss’ order casts doubt on the “Northern Corridor” highway project six weeks after the Bureau of Land Management approved the 2-mile corridor across the Red Cliffs conservation area and the tortoise preserve.
