Posted on 08/13/2009 8:03:43 AM PDT by Born Conservative
SUNBURY — U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said Tuesday that the fate of the proposed Central Susquehanna Valley Thruway depends on his re-election, and he and the federal transportation secretary will drive around Pennsylvania discussing the project Aug. 24
Specter and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood will go on a road trip to Philadelphia, Scranton and Allentown, said Specter’s press secretary, Kate Kelly. They will discuss highway priorities, she said, not necessarily confined to those locations.
Speaking after his Tuesday town hall meeting in Lewisburg, Specter called the Thruway long overdue. Specter, who in April switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party, is up for re-election next year.
Valley Thruway lobbyists said Specter’s efforts later this month may be less important than those to coax the Appalachian Regional Commission to release money to fund the project.
“I don’t know how much the secretary of transportation can bring to bear on this,” said Shamokin Dam Mayor Joseph McGranaghan, chairman of the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce’s transportation committee.
The best chance of bypass funding, as far as McGranaghan said he knows, is to get on the Appalachian Regional Commission’s roster of projects. That agency funnels about $350 million a year to states and projects in the region.
Hope of that may rise, McGranaghan said, when the agency’s holdover Republican chairman is replaced by an appointee of President Barack Obama.
What started out as a bypass years ago — it’s been needed for more than 30 years that he can recall — has expanded in scope as traffic problems have become more complex, McGranaghan said.
The project includes a bypass around Routes 11-15 in eastern Snyder County, a bridge over the Susquehanna River at Winfield, and a Route 61 connector to Sunbury.
“At the chamber we view it as an economic development project rather than a (traffic) capacity project,” McGranaghan said. “Communities have trouble developing smart growth strategies if they can’t plan for adequate transportation.”
In July, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-10 of Dimock, said the design of the northern section of the Thruway is about 40 percent complete. In April, Gov. Ed Rendell released $9 million to complete the final design and necessary studies and permits for a portion of the bypass.
The funds had been frozen a year earlier by the state Department of Transportation.
Ping
Doesn’t he realize he is FINISHED?
What a DOPE.
Extortion.
Trying to buy the voters with pork. I hope this guy gets his clock cleaned next November, that is if he wins the Dem primary.
I think he was referring to the sign yet to be added: "The Arlen Specter Expressway"
He’s nothing but a sorry Spectacle!
Bump
Na Na Na Na...
Na Na Na Na...
Hey! Hey! Hey!
GOODBYE!!!!
Hit the through-way, Arlen! As in, “you’re through!”
Dic tator.
I didn’t think electric putt putt cars are allowed on a thruway.
Translation: Vote for me or you won’t get pork!
The 11/15 bypass is long, long overdue and should have been something that happened a decade ago.
But in typical PennDOT fashion, their budget is spent on maintenance (95%+) while the remaining 5% is spent on expansion.....that 5% goes to “studies” rather than real highway expansion.
Well Hey then ANOTHER 40 years of this ass hole - SO WE CAN GET A THRUWAY!!
Thanks Arlen - you really show us how YOU CAN BRING HOME THE BACON!!
Because after all that is what 40 years in politics has all been about for you, isn’t it?
ping
Is that his mouth or an ASSHOLE?
Congressional blackmail.
Sphinchter is done! and the pathetic fact is that his brain is too far degraded by tumors, old age, and dementia for him to observe how pathetic he is during his final thrashes!
The RATS sealed his fate and demonstrated his stupidity and dementia when they suckered him into switching! just a piece of window dressing for OBOZO at the time:-( Representive Sestak is the RAT’S hand chosen candidate and the RATS believed Sphinchter could rally the RINOs once more against Sestak, now they have destroyed the pathetic weasel and its just a matter of time before he realizes how derangd and pathetic he has become:-) Other than that, hopefully the RATS are wrong and PA DEMS will rally behind the Looser:-)
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