Free Republic

In the wake of the recent horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a number of proposals involving federal grant programs have been offered in Congress to try to address the critical issue of school safety. Empowering states and localities to implement evidence-based programs that meet their needs represents a sensible approach. Among the proposals under consideration is the Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act of 2018, which has been introduced in the House by Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., a former sheriff, and in the Senate by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Both House...

MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee drivers will deal with orange barrels on the freeways for the next 10 years even if Congress passes a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan, the head of the a Wisconsin transportation group said. Pat Goss, executive director of the Transportation Builders Association, says the state hasn't put itself in a position to use the federal money for two Milwaukee County freeway projects eliminated in 2017. That year, Gov. Scott Walker delayed construction on Interstate 41 north of the Zoo Interchange and abandoned plans to rebuild Interstate 94 past Miller Park because of a funding shortfall. Don't expect a $1.5...

The final leg of Interstate 69 from Martinsville to Indianapolis will cost nearly $1.6 billion.ThatÂ’s according to the Final Environmental Impact Statement for I-69 Section 6 the state released Thursday. The analysis says construction could start in 2020 and wrap up within six years.Section 6 will run along the existing route of State Road 37. That means some of the many businesses that line the highway in Morgan, Johnson and Marion counties will have to move.The FEIS says more than 80 businesses, including a non-profit and fire station, will need to relocate. ThatÂ’s in addition to nearly 200 residences that...

Although the Colorado Department of Transportation has its eyes on the future, as seen in its advocacy of the Rocky Mountain Hyperloop project that recently won a global challenge, the agency is also trying to innovate when it comes to current highways. Hence the planned installation of variable speed limit signs in Glenwood Canyon that can either speed up or slow down traffic in response to weather and traffic conditions. VSL has already gotten a tryout near Boulder, and if the system works in Glenwood, among the trickiest sections along the Interstate 70 corridor, after installation set to begin during...

A coalition of local leaders backed by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce wants voters to approve a sales tax increase on the November ballot to pay for projects like the widening of Interstate 25 and the buildout of bike lanes. The group filed four ballot measures with the Secretary of State on Thursday that would raise between $500 million and $1 billion for transportation projects, according to the chamber, and allow that money to be used to pay for bonds, which would generate even more upfront cash. A booming population across the Front Range has created traffic snarls on...

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) - The South Carolina leg of a proposed interstate that would end on the Grand Strand may benefit from President Trump's infrastructure plan. Some leaders say Interstate 73 construction could be approved sooner, but paying for the highway could change. The president's plan says the federal government would pay for 20 percent of a project, with more costs shifted towards local governments, the private sector and people. That means if I-73 is built, it will likely include tolls. "I think the odds for I-73 are looking better and better," says Brad Dean, president and CEO of...

Imagine you open the faucet of your kitchen sink expecting water and instead out comes cash. Now imagine that it comes out at the rate of $1 million a minute. You call your plumber, who thinks you’re crazy. To get you off the phone, he opines that it is your sink and therefore must be your money. So you spend it wildly. Then you realize that the money wasn’t yours and you owe it back. Now imagine that this happens every minute of every day for the next three years. At the end of the three years, you owe back...

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - The largest road construction project in state history is nearing completion, and relief for commuters is almost here. Georgia's Department of Transportation program manager for the project told Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach even after delays for weather and after the I-85 collapse, the new 75 express lanes should open by the end of summer. “It’s the longest land bridge in the state of Georgia," program manager for the project, Stephen Lively said. Northern sections above the 75-575 split and through Marietta are mostly complete, including one 6,000-foot raised section. Lively said the goal is to have...

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — The widening of Interstate 81 from West Virginia into Maryland remains on track to be finished in 2020. "Work is still continuing in the cold," Stephen Bucy said Wednesday. Bucy, an engineer with the Maryland Department of Transportation, reported on the project and other Interstate 81 work Wednesday afternoon during a meeting of the Hagerstown/Eastern Panhandle Metropolitan Planning Organization's Interstate Council in Martinsburg. The current I-81 work is widening the highway from two to three lanes in each direction from about U.S. 11 (Exit 23) in West Virginia across the Potomac River to Md. 63/68 (Exit 1)...

WAYNESBORO — President Trump's national infrastructure plan announced Monday that calls for a $1.5 trillion investment in roads, bridges and the rest of America's crumbling infrastructure, provides for about $200 billion in federal funds. The remainder of dollars would have to come from state, local and private sources. For the Shenandoah Valley, the good infrastructure plan news includes funding to help with the maintenance backlog in the national parks, including Shenandoah National Park, where there is a $56 million maintenance backlog. However, a couple of local government officials and one of Virginia's U.S. senators interviewed expressed doubt about the trickle...

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) -- A group of 16 Virginia lawmakers has penned a letter to Virginia's Congressional Delegation (comprised of Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and Representatives Bob Goodlatte, Barbara Comstock, and Morgan Griffith) asking for federal assistance to improve Interstate 81. The interstate has long been a source of frustration for people in the Shenandoah Valley, with the Virginia Department of Transportation reporting at least a 12-percent increase in traffic in just the past five years and a 55-percent increase of delays from crashes, construction, or bad weather. In 2014, Delegate Steve Landes introduced a state budget item...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's $4.4 trillion budget plan would slash funding for interstate highways, jeopardizing New York's plan to transform a stretch of Interstate 81 in Syracuse in the next decade, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Tuesday. The plan unveiled Monday by the White House would cut the federal Highway Trust Fund by $122 billion over 10 years, drying up the main source of federal aid to the states for road projects and mass transit. Schumer said such a deep cut would make it more difficult for New York state to compete for federal money to demolish the elevated...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Construction has begun on Rhode Island's new tractor trailer tolling system.The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) crews began installing the first two of 14 planned gantry locations by Exits 2 and 5 on Interstate 95.Lane closures are in effect through next week, then the contractor will test the new system for about a month. These gantries are expected to begin charging trucks by mid-March, once everything is working properly.The ongoing construction is not halting the plans of the Rhode Island Trucking Association (RITA) to sue the state. "It's discriminatory," said RITA President Chris Maxwell. You can't...

2010 was a bad year for the Constitution. Not only did Congress saddle us with the misnamed Affordable Care Act, which has caused a legal war over its highly questionable constitutionality, but it also passed the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB was the brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and her idea was to make it an independent agency – amazingly, unconstitutionally independent agency. Consider, for example, the way CFPB is funded. Unlike every other federal regulatory agency, which gets its budget through congressional appropriation, CFPB gets its money directly from the Federal...

NEW DELHI: A turf battle for national highways has erupted with the department of economic affairs (DEA) seeking to take control of the funding for the highway construction programme. After unsuccessfully pushing for corporatisation of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the DEA has proposed changes in the Central Road Fund (CRF) Act to take control of the allotment of fuel cess for infrastructure projects and to decide the priority of expenditure. So far, the road transport and highways ministry is entitled to get the largest share of the CRF, estimated at 41%. The proposal to use 2.5% of...

A Republican congressman says the U.S. government should significantly raise the gas tax in order to fund President Donald Trump's ambitious infrastructure plan. Rep. Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania told Bloomberg TV that the tax should be increased by 15 cents per gallon of gasoline. The current rate is 18.4 cents, and hasn't seen a hike since 1993. Shuster said Thursday at a Republican congressional retreat in West Virginia that for the average American, a 15-cent increase would equal the cost of 'a cup of coffee a week that they might have to forgo.' 'Or if you're a Starbucks person, half...

New York to Chicago by train in under five hours. It’s not science fiction, but old-school tunneling—a critical, yet oddly ignored, part of President Donald Trump’s forthcoming infrastructure plan that supporters say will cost the federal government virtually nothing, but experts say the proposal's deregulation approach amounts to a handout to Big Business. The plan calls for creating new high-speed rail lines deep underground—the basic idea behind the English Channel tunnel, or Chunnel, that whisks travelers at 186 miles per hour from London to Paris in just two hours and 20 minutes. That’s less time than the Amtrak from New...

At a measly 17 cents a gallon, Missouri’s fuel tax is woefully inadequate to fund the state’s growing need for transportation-infrastructure improvements. The more the system deteriorates, the worse our state’s business climate will become. Gov. Eric Greitens could put some muscle into his determination to attract business and generate more jobs by embracing a long-overdue fuel tax increase. The Missouri 21st Century Transportation Task Force, created by the Legislature and approved by the governor last year, proposes to boost the tax by a dime, and by 12 cents for diesel, which is only about half of what’s needed to...

Just after the end of World War I, a young Army officer who was born in Denison, Texas, was assigned to accompany an expedition of military vehicles driving across America. The mission was to determine the difficulties the nation might face moving an entire army across the continent. Lucky thing the country was no longer at war. The convoy constantly ground to a halt on unpaved roads, sinking into mud, slipping into ditches and sliding into quicksand. The cross-country journey took 62 days, averaging about six miles an hour, something close to the speed of a leisurely walk. The lessons...

A leaked six-page memo that purportedly outlines some of the key principles of the Trump administration’s long-awaited infrastructure plan is drawing fire from several corners of the trucking industry – especially regarding plans to allow states to broaden interstate tolling efforts and commercialize rest stops.“Our primary concern is that the memo talks about giving states the ‘flexibility’ to toll existing interstates and ‘reconcile the grandfathered restrictions on the use of highway toll revenues with current law.’ We’re gearing up for a big fight over that,” Stephanie Kane, spokesperson for the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates, told Fleet Owner.Related: ATRI: Fuel tax...