Highway Expansion
Basics
Road Stimulus Money: Half Spent on Repaving, 17% on Widening
The $787 billion economic stimulus law provided $27 billion for roads and bridges. But is the money going to shore up aging infrastructure or to add new highway lanes?
July 31, 2009
Maryland County Foolishly Seeking Congestion Relief in New Lanes
One would not normally describe Montgomery County, Maryland as a place with retrograde views on land-use and planning issues.
July 30, 2009
McCain & Coburn: Let’s Make Roads Safer — by Slashing Safety Money
A report released today [PDF] by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK), timed to coincide with debate on a $7 billion highway trust fund fix, accuses their fellow lawmakers of "raiding" the fund for transportation "pet projects."
July 30, 2009
Know Your Road Lobbyists: The American Highway Users Alliance
For a 77-year-old nonprofit group with substantial Washington clout, the American Highway Users Alliance keeps a pretty low profile.
July 20, 2009
Stim Cash Gone Bad: Feds Fund Houston’s Highway to Nowhere
Reuters just wrapped up a two-day "Infrastructure Summit" and published a great collection of stories about the state of transportation policy in the U.S. I especially like this piece, featuring Robin Holzer of the Houston-based Citizens' Transportation Coalition, who does a great job illustrating some of the major deficiencies that the federal stimulus bill failed to address:
May 8, 2009
Obama Falls Prey to Ribbon-Cutting Syndrome
At a press event in DC yesterday, President Obama touted the two thousandth transportation project to receive federal stimulus funds. I'm speculating a bit here, but the White House probably had some discretion when choosing which item to highlight for this milestone. So did they pick a refurbished transit station? A new bike route? Perhaps a bridge repair project to signal that we're not going to repeat the mistakes that led to the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis?
April 14, 2009
Back to the Grid: John Norquist on How to Fix National Transpo Policy
The news coming out of Washington last week jacked up expectations for national transportation policy to new heights. Cabinet members Ray LaHood and Shaun Donovan announced a partnership to connect transportation and housing policy, branded as the "Sustainable Communities Initiative." The second-in-command at DOT, Vice Admiral Thomas Barrett, told a New York audience that "building communities" is a top priority at his agency.
March 26, 2009
Senate Requires Environmental Approval For Stimulus Projects
The final draft of the Senate's economic recovery bill will require all projects funded by the stimulus to
have approval under the National Environmental Protection
Act, or NEPA. Sponsored by Barbara Boxer, the NEPA amendment (full text after the jump) was adopted late Thursday following
Republican attempts to exempt highway projects from environmental oversight.
February 9, 2009