Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Connecticut Democrats on Capitol Hill for the most part walk a fine line on proposed highway tolls, calling for more robust federal infrastructure spending but sidestepping clear support for Gov. Ned Lamont’s controversial measure. “Once the General Assembly and the Governor come to an agreement on how best to fund state transportation projects moving forward, I will work with state leaders in any manner necessary to further the goal of improving Connecticut’s infrastructure,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee. Recommended Video Lamont’s strongest supporter in Washington by far is Sen....

The U.S. Interstate Highway System is the backbone of American commerce and personal travel. Funded on a pay-as-you-go basis largely through federal excise taxes on motor fuel, today it accounts for 25% of total vehicle-miles traveled despite accounting for just 2.5% of total road network lane-miles. Yet, much of the Interstate system, construction of which began in the 1950s, is nearing the end of its functional life, along with the infrastructure of other surface transportation modes. Over the next two decades, trillions of dollars of investment will be needed to rehabilitate and in some cases rebuild this infrastructure, according to...

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has a grand plan to expand I-4 well beyond the cones and lane shifts that drivers in Central Florida face today. However, those plans could be changing, in part, because of the lengthy delays of the current “I-4 Ultimate” expansion and the lack of answers being given to Congress about why it is taking so long. The I-4 Ultimate project was scheduled to be finished in 2021 with two toll lanes running in each direction down the center of the interstate from Kirkman Road south of Orlando to the Longwood rest area in Seminole...

Despite pleas from two former state governors and at least 90 environmental and community groups and businesses, Gov. Ron DeDantis on Friday signed a multibillion-dollar plan to build long stretches of toll roads across undeveloped sections of the state. The legislation has been labeled “the worst environmental bill in twenty years.” And the Florida Sierra Club has warned of pristine areas becoming urban sprawl, where “subdivisions and strip malls will proliferate and the natural resources that bring visitors to the state will be overused and overrun.” DeSantis approved the bill anyway. The announcement came not from the governor’s press office...

NEW YORK - Every hour that one of The Advance Group’s trucks is stuck in highway or bridge traffic, it costs the moving company around $200. And with 40 trucks trying to get into Manhattan daily and contending with the New York metro area’s deteriorating infrastructure, the price of lost time runs up quickly. “Getting to and from a job site is not really billable to a client,” says Anthony Parziale, president of The Advance Group, based in the suburb of Farmingdale.

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority’s ability to build new toll roads may be temporarily stymied by opposition from state leaders, but the agency is keeping busy with major ongoing projects. While the great majority of its spending is on expanding roadway capacity for cars, CTRMA Executive Director Mike Heiligenstein emphasized the millions the agency is investing in bike and pedestrian infrastructure in a Tuesday presentation to the Travis County Commissioners Court. The $108 million construction of State Highway 45 SW, linking MoPac Expressway with FM 1626, will be accompanied by a 4.5-mile shared-use path, along with pedestrian and bicycle...

A final plan for tolls for users along the future Interstate 10 Bridge and Bayway could be known in July, a state transportation official said Friday. It will be unveiled ahead of the August release of the final environmental impact statement on the entire $2.1 billion project. But at least one state lawmaker says more time is going to be needed to hash out tolls and their impact on local motorists. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the experts and the work being done by the state DOT,” said state Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Daphne. “But it’s probably fair...

A proposed law in Canada will result in Christians muzzled. Meanwhile Islamists (including those tied to terrorists) get government funding. These days we wake up every day to disturbing news in both the U.S. and Canada. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) https://clarionproject.org/council-islamic-relations-cair/ recently released a report titled: Hijacked by Hate: American Philanthropy and the Islamophobia Network https://clarionproject.org/glossary/islamophobia/ in which it claims "hate groups" have used American charities to propagate a message of anti-Muslim bigotry. According to this report, any critique of Islamism https://clarionproject.org/glossary/islamism/ and Islamist activities is deemed racism and bigotry (i.e., "Islamophobic"). This includes any and all legitimate...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The lunch rush at St. Vincent de Paul Dining Hall is a snapshot of the changing character of American homelessness. The first thing that strikes you is the sheer number of people the soup kitchen serves. The line outside starts forming two hours before the food is ready. Diners file in, eat quickly and get up as soon as they’re finished. They know someone is waiting outside for their seat. Even more striking than the scale of need are the shifting demographics of who is eating here and why. The homeless population is getting younger,...

President Trump and Democratic leaders have discovered the one policy that unites Washington: spending money we don’t have. Yet their bipartisan pledge to spend an added $2 trillion on infrastructure over the next decade faces serious obstacles if these leaders are to responsibly improve our infrastructure. First, Washington should spend only as much as it is willing to offset with other savings. Putting $2 trillion on the national credit card would boost deficits that are already on course to surpass $2 trillion a year within a decade, due mostly to entitlements. These deficits are projected to push ­annual interest costs...

I think the time is coming for an idea that is so old that it is new again: cutting the Federal government in half. The idea is: cancel all Federal welfare-type programs, including all means-tested welfare programs (apparently there are over 150 of them), all healthcare-related programs including Medicare and Medicaid, all education-related, arts-related and housing-related programs, and anything else of this sort -- in short, most everything except for the military, national parks, and maybe some public works. Social Security could eventually be reformed to a system of private retirement accounts, known as a "provident fund" system and in...

Opposition to tolling the future Interstate 10 Mobile River Bridge and the Wallace Tunnel dominated the public comments during Tuesday’s hearing into the massive $2.1 billion project. From local politicians to business owners, the message to the Alabama Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration was clear: A $3 to $6 toll will place enormous burdens on drivers and workers in Mobile and Baldwin counties, and it won’t fly with the rest of the public either. “It’s a huge expense,” said Roger Nelson of Daphne, who commutes daily to work to downtown Mobile. “It will be passed on.” Said...

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau has finalized a direct loan of $225 million for the Interstate 10 Corridor Project, a critical step forward for one of the most highly anticipated regional transportation and mobility improvements in Southern California. Construction will begin in early 2020 on the four-year project in San Bernardino County, which will include the installation of express lanes (also known as toll lanes) between the Los Angeles County line (near Montclair) and Interstate 15 (just west of Fontana). The low-interest federal loan, which closed on May 3, is through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation...

For some people, Nevada Rep. Susie Lee said, the opportunity to drive on repaved highways, cross repaired bridges and fly out of modernized airports isn’t worth the political implications of a major infrastructure bill. “I’ve been told, ‘You don’t want to give Donald Trump a win on this,’” Lee, a Democrat, told an audience this morning at the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas. But even though the passage of a major bill would give Trump a stump point for the 2020 election, Lee said, the need for infrastructure spending outweighs partisan politics. “This isn’t a Republican-Democrat thing. This is an...

A gas tax bill crafted by a statewide industry group, Louisiana Coalition to Fix Our Roads, and sponsored by Republican Baton Rouge Rep. Steve Carter is the latest proposed solution to the state’s aging, chronically gridlocked transportation infrastructure. It’s also the most ambitious. Not only would the bill gradually increase the state’s gasoline tax, but it would levy fees on electric and hybrid vehicles and redirect a temporary, half-cent sales tax to highway and bridge construction projects. It would also dedicate a portion of the funds to specific, badly needed projects around the state, including a new Mississippi River bridge...

With an estimated cost of about $787 million, a public-private partnership on a tolled four-lane Interstate 49 extension from Alma to Fort Smith with a bridge over the Arkansas River has been deemed “not viable” by the Arkansas Department of Transportation. Results of the I-49 Alternative Delivery Study, approved by the Arkansas Highway Commission in 2016, were presented Wednesday at the Frontier Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Policy Board meeting. Andrew Brewer, assistant division engineer for ARDOT, said a tolled 14-mile extension was deemed “not viable” based on projected costs and revenue. “The bottom line is assuming an optimal toll rate of...

The D.C. region could be suffocated by even more traffic if major improvements to the region’s bus system do not come soon, a draft report obtained by WTOP finds. Even so, making those changes in a way that avoids negative impacts could be extremely challenging. The Washington Area Bus Transformation Project draft strategy’s executive summary, labeled “not for circulation,” paints a dire picture of what happens if bus-only lanes, totally revamped bus routes and other changes are not implemented: “Without transforming the bus system, the region’s competitiveness and livability are at risk.” The report groups more than two dozen recommendations...

Toll lane plans for parts of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270 are set to move forward next week, including plans for improvements to the American Legion Bridge. Maryland’s Board of Public Works — Gov. Larry Hogan, Treasurer Nancy Kopp and Comptroller Peter Franchot — is set to formally designate the planned toll lanes as a public-private partnership on May 8 and to support plans for separate phases of construction. Once the public-private partnership designation is approved, the state expects to quickly issue a request for qualifications from private companies so that a short list of the private firms or...

Years of budget cuts to public health led to the elimination of more than 55,000 positions within local health departments from 2008 through 2017, according to a report released Wednesday. The Trust for America's Health estimates public health efforts are about $4.5 billion underfunded. That's led state and local health departments woefully unprepared to address public health emergencies such as infectious disease outbreaks, extreme weather events, and the opioid crisis. "One could argue that there has always been underfunding but it is more meaningful at a period of time when cuts haven't been restored and risks have increased," said John...

Workers in Johnson County could have hundreds of additional dollars taken out of their paychecks annually to help pay for roadwork in the county and an expansion of the county jail — work expected to cost more than $130 million in the next five years. The Johnson County Council unveiled an income tax increase proposal to fund $110 million in road, bridges and infrastructure improvements across the county, mainly due to the construction of Interstate 69, and an estimated $20 million jail expansion project that would address a frequently overcrowded jail that the state has ordered the county to fix....