Brownback Asks Trump To Save Some Kansas Highway Projects

KCUR 89.3 ^ | January 26, 2017 | Jim McLean & Sam Zeff

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Kansas Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is hoping the federal government can rescue several critical infrastructure projects that the state can no longer afford.

The Brownback administration recently sent what amounts to a wish list to President Donald Trump for inclusion in his planned infrastructure initiative. It includes the following $240 million in highway and bridge projects delayed or abandoned because of the state’s ongoing budget problems:

• $50 million to replace a section of the Lewis and Clark Viaduct that carries Interstate 70 across the Kansas River between Kansas and Missouri.
• $91 million to build an I-235 interchange in Wichita.
• $45 million to reconstruct nine miles of I-70 in Gove County.
• $54 million to reconstruct 10 miles of I-70 in Thomas County.

The list — which Melika Willoughby, Brownback’s communications director, says the Trump administration requested — also includes the second phase of the John Redmond Reservoir dredging project and some streambank stabilization projects.

Several media outlets recently reported that the National Governors Association was helping to compile a list of “priority projects” for an infrastructure package of about $150 billion. According to those reports, the Trump administration will prioritize projects based on their potential to create jobs, improve public safety or enhance national security.

Willoughby says the I-235 project “will bolster the aviation manufacturing industry in Wichita.” And, she says, replacing the aging Lewis and Clark Viaduct is necessary to restore a “crucial corridor” in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The Trump team also wants projects that are shovel ready, or close to it.

The Kansas road and bridge projects are. They were on this year’s construction schedule until cash-flow problems forced the Kansas Department of Transportation to delay them along with dozens of others.

Bob Totten, executive vice president of the Kansas Contractors Association, says while he welcomes any effort to bring additional federal construction dollars to the state, what Brownback is requesting wouldn’t make up for “all the money he’s taken from the highway program over the last six years.”

Brownback and lawmakers, Totten says, have swept $2.7 billion from KDOT, crippling the agency’s ability to complete T-Works, a 10-year, $8 billion transportation program approved in 2010.

Brownback is proposing to take another $600 million from the agency over the next two budget years to help cover a projected shortfall of nearly $1 billion.

[norwaypinesavage]

I stopped sending letters to Santa Claus when I was 8. You’d think governors could do the same.

[TheNext]

The Blackhole of Govt worker pensions will suck up ALL tax dollars provided. Take a camera to the RV park and see how the funds are being spent.

[Savage Rider]

The viaduct comes first. All others can wait until Kansas residents pay enough gas taxes.

[vette6387]

“The know where it went. It went to cover the budget deficits of the last six years, and is going to cover the projected deficits for this year and next.”

So if you or I were faced with this problem, we would HAVE to cut back because we have nothing liken to the Federal Government to back us up. I suspect that Kansas, not unlike California where I reside, has a public employee compensation and retirement problem with which they refuse to deal. The time is not far off when all government employees are going to be forced to take a substantial haircut, because governments have kicked the financial can down the road just about as far as they are able.

[vette6387]

So tell us all just how Kansas is doing with their Public Employee pension plans! My bet is that is one place these “budget deficits” are going.

[Spktyr]

Another DOT site has a different take on that: https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0362

How Freight Moves

Freight is moved by rail, water, pipeline, truck, and air. The rail network accounts for approximately 40 percent of U.S. freight moves by ton-miles (the length freight travels) and 16 percent by tons (the weight of freight moved). [5]

On the rails, in general, bulk freight, such as grain and coal, ships in rail cars and consumer goods, such as items found at a neighborhood store, ship in containers or trailers called intermodal traffic. Intermodal traffic refers to the transport of goods on trains before and/or after transfers from other modes of transportation such as planes, vessels, or trucks. It has been the fastest growing segment of the freight rail industry since 1980.

[Alberta's Child]

That’s a good source, and a good point. The explanation about intermodal rail traffic illustrates the discrepancy between the tonnage measure and the ton-mile measure. Many loads that are moved by rail end up on a truck at some point, but the opposite is not usually true.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Actually, for the T-Works program, I believe the gas tax was increased and the state’s sales tax was increased by 1 percent. Unfortunately, when Brownback cut business taxes, he exempted around 1000 businesses from paying it altogether, causing a loss of revenue for other budget items. He could always re-instate them at a lower rate, rather than plundering the highway funds.