John Olivieri
Recent Posts
Highway Boondoggles: Pennsylvania’s Mon-Fayette Expressway Plan
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In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2, U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Today we highlight Pennsylvania’s $1.7 billion Mon-Fayette Expressway plan, a highway plan that has outlived its reason for being. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and the state Department of Transportation have been trying to […]
Highway Boondoggles: Ohio DOT’s $1.2 Billion Portsmouth Bypass
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In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2, U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Today we highlight Ohio DOT’s $1.2 billion Portsmouth Bypass, the most expensive and, arguably, least-needed transportation project in the state’s history. A major highway project that scored near the bottom of the […]
Highway Boondoggles: Iowa’s U.S. 20 Widening
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In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2, U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Today we highlight the proposed 40-mile widening of U.S. 20 in Iowa, which will cost many times as much as fixing all the state’s structurally deficient highway bridges. In June 2015, the […]
Highway Boondoggles: Texas State Highway 249 Extension
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In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2, U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Today we highlight the proposed 30-mile extension of State Highway 249 in Texas, which the state DOT wants to gouge through communities that already suffer from too much air pollution. Citing outdated traffic […]
Highway Boondoggles: New Mexico’s Paseo del Volcan Extension
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In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2, U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. The proposed Paseo del Volcan Extension, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a textbook example of a project intended to induce and subsidize suburban sprawl. The idea of building a road through […]
Highway Boondoggles: Washington’s Puget Sound Gateway Project
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In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2, U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Today we look at a classic — Washington’s $3 billion “Puget Sound Gateway Project.” Washington plans to spend billions on the Puget Sound Gateway project to “relieve congestion,” but if anything the project will increase it. […]
Highway Boondoggles: North Carolina’s I-77 Express Lanes
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In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2, U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Today we look at an expansion of I-77 in North Carolina that circumvented the normal project selection process thanks to a dubious financing plan. A $637 million highway project that doesn’t […]
Highway Boondoggles: Widening I-70 in Denver
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In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2 (the original came out in 2014), U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group teamed up to profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Streetsblog will be serializing the case studies in the report. Today, we look at the widening of I-70 in Denver, a project with a […]
Highway Boondoggles: California’s 710 Tunnel
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A proposal to drill a pair of highway tunnels is the most expensive, most polluting, least effective option for solving the San Gabriel Valley’s transportation problems. A highway linking I-710 from Alhambra to I-210/ SR-710 in Pasadena was first proposed in the late 1950s. Ever since, efforts to build the highway have run into obstacles including […]
Highway Boondoggles: Texas State Highway 45 Southwest
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In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2 (the original came out in 2014), U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group teamed up to profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Streetsblog will be serializing the case studies in the report. Today, we focus on a road project that risks contaminating the water supply in and around Austin, […]
Highway Boondoggles: Tampa Bay Express Lanes
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In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2 (the original came out in 2014), U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group teamed up to profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Streetsblog will be serializing the case studies in the report. Yesterday, we looked at Connecticut’s $11.5 billion I-95 widening. Today, we focus on a proposed $3.3 billion […]
Highway Boondoggles: Widening I-95 Across Connecticut
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Last year Congress passed a multi-year transportation bill. Like previous bills, it gives tens of billions of dollars to states every year to spend with almost no strings attached. How much of this federal funding will state DOTs devote to expensive, traffic-inducing highway projects that further entrench car dependence and sprawl? In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2 (the […]