FDOT Fails to Provide Critical M-CORES Details: Cornell Consulting Fills Void
FORT MYERS, FL — A collaboration between the No Roads to Ruin Coalition Steering Committee and Cornell Consulting, a student-run management consulting firm and the leading consulting organization at Cornell University, resulted in a series of three new policy reports authored by Cornell Consulting analysts and released today, that answer questions relating to the fiscal feasibility (or lack thereof), economic and environmental impacts, traffic congestion, and hurricane evacuation issues the M-CORES (Multi-use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance) project has raised but have remained unanswered by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
At a virtual press conference, Michael McGrath, Sierra Club organizing representative, joined Sadaf Knight, Florida Policy Institute chief executive officer, and Cornell Consulting analysts Gayatri Sriram, Justin Zhang, William McGrath, Evan Tong and Lucien Wostenholme to summarize the report findings — which include alternative solutions independent of road construction. Julianne Thomas, Conservancy of Southwest Florida senior environmental planning specialist, joined the panel to answer questions from both the press and the public. Over 40 "No Build" activists from around the state joined the event via Facebook Live and Zoom.
The bottom line that emerged from Cornell Consulting's analysis is that M-CORES is infeasible, creates negative returns and therefore fails to meet its goals. However, alternative strategies could achieve success.
Cornell Consulting's data-driven analysis fills the void left by FDOT and the failed M-CORES Task Force processes and offers further support for the No Build option that has been demanded by the public since day one of the series of task force meetings which began in August 2019. M-CORES task force members have requested, repeatedly, that the No Build option be discussed in detail but FDOT has ignored those requests.
Sadaf Knight, Florida Policy Institute CEO, said, "The revenue needed to fund this project — $1.7 billion in state funding and total construction costs of $10.3 billion — should instead be used to bolster the state budget and preserve public services. This is especially true given that the analysis performed by Cornell Consulting found that the M-CORES project will fail to deliver on its promised outcomes, and that it will be fiscally unsound and cause environmental harm." (See the full statement.)
The three reports and accompanying slide decks have been sent to the members of all three task forces and FDOT staff.
See the reports and the full array of slides produced by Cornell Consulting at http://noroadstoruin.org/white-papers.
View the Zoom recording.
View the Facebook Live event.
Background:
Since launching the task force process in August 2019, the No Roads to Ruin coalition (NRTR) has played a key role in public outreach and government accountability. The toll road task forces are expected to release a final report to the Governor, Legislature, and FDOT by Nov. 15, 2020. The NRTR coalition recommends the No Build option.
