Infrastructure

Illinois officials have budgeted $206 million for a new interchange on I-57 that would take drivers onto a road through undeveloped farmland 44 miles south of Chicago in Will County, Illinois.

What if it was easier to lend your expertise to government?

It's not that it would be particularly difficult to make this a reality -- we just need the political will.

The Texas Department of Transportation is currently reviewing plans for a major expansion to a 23-mile section of Loop 1604, a suburban highway loop that encircles San Antonio. The project, which would expand Loop 1604 between state Highway 16 and Interstate 35 north of the city, includes four to six additional lanes along the entire length of roadway, new frontage roads and a five-level interchange with Interstate 10. This $1.36 billion expansion, while likely failing to solve local congestion problems, would threaten one of the region’s primary sources of drinking water.

America was already faced with the need to make critical transportation investments. And then COVID-19 hit, upending travel patterns and undercutting the traditional sources of government transportation revenue.

These kinds of Complete Streets interventions are fairly easy and inexpensive, and can help make neighborhoods safer as well as more beautiful.

Progressive advocates are making the case that new infrastructure money would actually be best spent tearing urban highways down — and reinvesting in the Black and brown communities that those bad road projects tore apart decades ago.

Announcing Emanuel as your choice would almost certainly fill the streets of Chicago with hundreds or thousands of justifiably angry protesters. You really don't want to kick off your administration that way.

Former CDOT chief Gabe Klein would be an ethical choice for the transportation slot who wouldn't alienate the Democratic party's progressive wing.