Comment EI-21222
Received or sent (printed as 9/24/2015)
Tongue River coal, if mined, will be hauled by rail west across Montana, crossing at least seven rail and motor vehicle crossings in East Helena and Helena lacking a bridge or underpass. The costs of bridges/underpasses will, by Montana Code Annotated MCA 7-14-2206, be paid mostly (half to 3/4ths) by Montana taxpayers. Helena's most important intersection (N. Montana Ave.) has been on the city's transportation priority list since 1993 but hasn't been built. The City/County 2015 Long Range Transportation Plan puts the cost of just this one bridge at over $21 million dollars. Aside from the Interstate highway, Montana Ave. is the most important North-South street in this capital city. There must be hundreds of RR/vehicle intersections between the proposed coal mine and Eastern Idaho. Montanans have not spent the money to build these grade separations, and are not likely to do so. Failure to consider these intersections and the costs of bridges is a cost-shifting action. As a citizen who happens to be a member of the Greater Helena Transportation Coordinating Committee, I urge you to reject Tongue River coal mine because of this collateral damage.
Submitted by: Robert J. Filipovich · Helena, MT
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-30186/comment/EI-21222 · back to the docket sheet