Last month, the Florida Keys Citizens Coalition, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Everglades filed a federal lawsuit against the Corps of Engineers and several federal agencies for their failure take an honest look at the costs and impacts of a state project to widen the 18-mile stretch of U.S. 1 linking the Florida Keys to Florida City.

The proposed road project, which has been on and off the Florida Department of Transportation's drawing board for more than a decade, is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $260 million, will not improve hurricane evacuation and may not improve traffic safety.

Though the official purpose of the proposed project is to reduce traffic accidents and aid in hurricane evacuation, the facts are that it will have no beneficial effect on hurricane evacuation and is not even close to the best alternative for strictly improving traffic safety -- as FDOT has admitted. The primary bottleneck during hurricane evacuations is the Florida City corridor at the point where Card Sound Road and U.S. 1 converge. This problem, and indeed the entire evacuation strategy, is not addressed in this plan. The project to address that issue will come later.

The poor safety record of this stretch of roadway is not the result of bad road design or even over-use, but, rather, the complete failure of state and local county law enforcement to exert any control over speeding or reckless drivers. It takes just four minutes longer to drive from Florida City to Key Largo at the posted limits rather than at the 70 to 80 mph speed some drivers regularly attempt. If the state had been doing its job, we would have had a safer road to the Keys years ago.

This stretch is the gateway to the Keys. It bisects Everglades and Biscayne national parks and terminates in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. As proposed, the project will still have one lane on each side, but with a new three-foot concrete barrier in the middle and chain-link and barbed wire fencing along most of the length -- effectively destroying all scenic value through one of the most environmentally sensitive corridors in South Florida.

The state also proposes removing the last two free public-access boat ramps and shunting boating access to private or already overburdened public ramps far to the south.

It is difficult to oppose projects advertised as life-saving. This lawsuit was filed because competent science and engineering surveys indicate the project, as designed, is likely to be less safe and have significant negative long-term impacts on Monroe County, Florida Bay, the Marine Sanctuary, the coral-reef system and the quality of life for those living in or traveling to the Florida Keys.

Less grandiose and less expensive alternatives, which will improve traffic safety and have significantly less environmental impact, were not proposed by the state and not required or reviewed by the federal agencies despite requests from all local and national environmental groups, numerous Keys residents and several large Keys community associations, despite the Environmental Protection Agency's comment that the project would have ''substantial and unacceptable adverse impacts on the aquatic resources of national importance'' and despite other reservations by some state agencies.

This lawsuit is not the work of ''obstructionists'' or ''legal terrorists,'' as some would have you believe, but is the inevitable result of poor political leadership at the state level, a lack of oversight and accountability at the federal level and a complete disregard for the public-input process. As one journalist put it: ``You do not have to be an ecofreak to see that South Florida's 75-year rebellion against Mother Nature is ruining the place.''

The law may not guarantee the outcome that we always desire, but it does promise a fair and open process. If public participation becomes just an illusion -- if we are only allowed to participate as spectators -- our future will be decided and our public lands and resources will be sold in the political auction houses of state government.

David P. Reiner II is president of Friends of the Everglades.