Federal judge approves Atlanta transportation plan

ATLANTA - A federal judge has rejected a claim by environmental groups that state and federal agencies violated the Clean Air Act by approving metro Atlanta&#39;s $36 billion transportation plan. <br> <br> The groups&#39; lawsuit filed almost a year ago said the 25-year plan was based on faulty traffic data and inaccurate funding assumptions. The suit threatened to halt road building in metro Atlanta just after state transportation officials began moving forward on projects. <br> <br> U.S. District Judge Beverly Martin ruled Friday that the plan is legal. <br> <br> ``What this ruling does is uphold the validity of the regional planning process in creating the long-range transportation plan,&#39;&#39; said Chick Krater, executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, a defendant in the lawsuit. <br> <br> ``Unfortunately, today&#39;s ruling allows the region to continue irreversible (highway building) expenditures that will further delay the cleanup of Atlanta&#39;s smog,&#39;&#39; said Wesley Woolf, a lawyer for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represented the plaintiffs. <br> <br> Woolf said the environmental groups the Sierra Club, the Southern Organizing Committee for Economics and Social Justice, the Georgia Coalition for the People&#39;s Agenda and Environmental Defense will appeal. <br> <br> In addition to the regional planning commission, defendants included the Georgia Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and administrators for the Federal Highway Administration.