Friday’s Headlines Are Shockingly Expensive
The 10 most costly highway projects in the U.S. all cost over half a billion dollars per mile.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on September 25, 2026
- Two of the three most expensive highway projects in the U.S. — the Rose Quarter widening and Interstate Bridge Project — are in Portland. Along with rebuilding the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, they cost more than $2 billion per mile. Others include projects in New Jersey, Louisiana, Washington, California, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Connecticut. (City Observatory)
- Lifted pickups an rampant speed racing are signs of the MAGA-fication of roadways, (The Guardian).
- About 40 bikeshare trips take the equivalent of one car’s worth of pollution out of the atmosphere, according to a study by Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University.
- Andrew Miller says that transit agencies haven’t adjusted to shifting post-COVID travel patterns; they should be adding service for popular weekend events like sports games and concerts, and focusing less on rush-hour commutes, which never came all the way back. (Changing Lanes)
- The Environmental Defense Fund shares lessons from the successful fight for congestion pricing in Manhattan.
- Florida passenger rail company Brightline is preparing to enter bankruptcy. (Bloomberg)
- Facing deficits topping $100 million, San Diego could eliminate a third of its bus routes and cut service on another third. (Union-Tribune)
- After pulling his support for light rail on the Atlanta Beltline, Mayor Andre Dickens now says he’ll release a funding plan by the end of the year. (Saporta Report)
- Charlotte is growing fast, but it’s still not acting like a big city in terms of transportation infrastructure. (Ledger)
- Despite a complete streets project on Park Avenue in Memphis, residents say it’s still too dangerous to walk on. (Fox 13)
- Sound Transit opened a new light rail station five years ahead of schedule. (KIRO)
- Tampa is offering free concerts on the TECO streetcar every fourth Friday through May. (Creative Loafing)
- Ithaca and hundreds of other cities organize “porch fest” music festivals in walkable neighborhoods. (CNU Public Square)
Blake Aued has been doing Streetsblog's daily national news digest for years. He's also an Atlanta Braves fan, which enrages his editor in New York.
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