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Two lawsuits have been filed challenging the planning process of the Columbia River Crossing project.

The first, filed by three conservation groups, the Coalition for a Livable Future, Northeast Coalition of Neighbors and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, claims bridge planners did not properly gauge the project’s environmental impacts.

The claim references two federal environmental laws: the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires the government to examine the environmental impacts of major construction projects, and the Endangered Species Act, which requires the government to protect endangered species.

鈥淭his litigation is fundamentally about protecting our environment and our region,鈥� according to a statement by Tom Buchele, managing attorney for the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, which is representing the groups. 鈥淭hey have already spent $140 million in taxpayer dollars and still haven’t created a sustainable, affordable project.鈥�

Two of the groups, the NCN and the Coalition for a Livable Future, filed a suit late last year contending the Metro Council wrongly used a light-rail statute to approve the project. However, the suit was shot down shortly after by the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

The second lawsuit, filed by Thompson Metal Fab Inc., a Vancouver-based company that builds oiling drilling rigs, claims the project’s height will be economically damaging for its business. The project’s current design involves building a 95-foot bridge, which is too small for the steel products Thompson transports down the river to get through, according to a statement.

In both cases, the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration are named as defendants. In Thompson’s case, the Federal Department of Transportation is also named.