Free Republic

Talk to neighbors and transportation activists, and you’ll get pretty much the same answer: The best option for replacing the aging Massachusetts Turnpike viaduct in Allston is a new stretch of highway at ground level. Ask state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, who will make the final call, and, well, she’s still wondering if the state should just build another viaduct. Pollack will know more soon, when a consultant is expected to weigh in with a deep analysis of the options for the $1 billion-plus project to straighten the turnpike where it curls around an old rail yard in Allston, the...

CHICAGO — Sixteen miles of new "flex lanes" will allow PACE buses to breeze past traffic along I-90 going west from O'Hare Airport, suburban transportation officials announced this week. The lanes will carry six new bus lines all along the Jane Addams Tollway, half of them linking up with the Rosemont Blue Line station to give passengers direct access to the city. Ratcheting up bus service was the last piece of a $2.5 billion effort to widen the tollway between O'Hare and suburban Elgin, officials said. Construction wrapped up last December. The extra lane will stay clear most of the...

Jane Addams Tollway (I-90) drivers can expect those inscrutable black gantries towering over the roadway to get chatty this summer. The Illinois tollway has completed installation and testing of 29 digital message signs between Barrington Road and O'Hare International Airport. The displays will provide real-time traffic updates and safety advisories and direct drivers to shift lanes when crashes occur. The system will go live around the end of July or early August, Chief Engineer Paul Kovacs said at a Wednesday committee meeting. "All the construction is done and we've completed the testing so we know it's operational. Now we're training...

The Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA) has presented the Illinois Tollway with a Project of the Year Award for the $2.5 billion Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (Interstate 90) Rebuilding and Widening Project. The award was presented during the association’s 38th annual awards banquet in Chicago. This is the second HACIA Project of the Year Award the Tollway has received, the first being presented in 2015 for the initial phase of this same project. “This project demonstrates how the Illinois Tollway has helped contribute to the growth and development of Hispanic-owned firms in the Chicago area and across Northern Illinois,”...

The Massachusetts Turnpike is in uncharted water as EZ Pass has replaced cash along the state’s turnpike system and many toll collectors have been laid off. In a world where many systems have gone electronic from payment for movies to parking, it was only a matter of time before the personless, electronic system eventually took over toll roads, as well. Along the Massachusetts Turnpike, it happened this weekend with toll collectors working their last shifts and the state moving quickly to tear down the booths where collections happened for decades. According to the Boston Globe, the new cashless collections system...

Federal regulators rebuked an Elgin demolition company and fined it $152,000 for safety violations leading to a worker's death on a Jane Addams Tollway bridge in Des Plaines this spring. Vicente Santoyo of Berwyn, a father of four, was standing in a lift cutting bracing between two beams to be removed from the bridge at Touhy Avenue when one rolled off a concrete support April 5, falling on him. U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators cited Santoyo's employer and tollway subcontractor Omega Demolition Corp. for "overstressing" the 40-ton horizontal beam during demolition. That means the beam wasn't adequately supported,...

TOLEDO (13abc Action News) - Self-driving cars are getting closer to becoming a reality in America. Testing is underway in a few places around the country and if you travel the Ohio Turnpike, you'll soon be sharing the road with them. We spoke with drivers and the head of the Ohio Turnpike Commission about the testing. The autonomous vehicles could be on the turnpike by the end of the year. The Ohio Turnpike will be turned into a test track of sorts for the emerging technology. Randy Cole is the Executive Director of the Turnpike Commission, "It's 241 miles of...

<p>Flaws in nuts that hold up lights throughout the Big Dig’s tunnels may be the result of workers overtightening the fasteners when they were first installed, a top highway official said Thursday.</p> <p>Highway officials revealed this week that an inspector had discovered a cracked nut on a light fixture in the Ted Williams Tunnel in September. After further inspection of the Williams Tunnel and the Interstate 90 Connector and Interstate 93 tunnels, officials said they believe hundreds of fasteners throughout the Big Dig tunnels are flawed and must be replaced.</p>

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - The Cleveland Division of Police, along with the Division of Fire, EMS and ODOT are currently on the scene of an accident on I-90 westbound between East 152nd Street and East 185th Street. Police say a dump truck traveling with the trailer raised struck a pedestrian bridge, severely damaging it and causing the trailer to turn over. Due to the damage to the bridge, I-90 will be closed in both directions for the remainder of the weekend. Eastbound is being let off the highway at E. 152nd. Your detour is St. Clair to E. 185th where...

YAKIMA, Wash. — There was no way the agencies monitoring wildlife along the Interstate 90 corridor could supply the manpower needed for a yearlong survey of animals along the highway, so they turned to you. Well, you and anyone else who drives the stretch of I-90 connecting Eastern and Western Washington. That was the genesis of the I-90 Wildlife Watch, a multi-agency effort that enlisted public volunteers -- commuters -- to document wildlife sightings. "That information is really hard to collect," said Paula MacKay, an Ellensburg-based research associate with Western Transportation Institute. "You have to be in the right place...

As early as the end of this year, you might be able to hop into your plug-in electric car and drive to Portland, Ore., or Vancouver, B.C., without worrying about finding a charging station. The state has received federal economic stimulus funds to build four or five charging stations along the I-5 corridor from Canada to Oregon. The $1.32 million would ultimately pay for seven to 10 stations on I-5 and I-90. If all goes as planned, Washington will be the first state to have a series of coordinated electric charging stations spanning its borders, said Tonia Buell, a spokeswoman...

Stevens Pass highway, closed for more than six hours Thursday after a truck jackknifed, reopened later in the day, easing a five-mile traffic backup. But as winter conditions and restrictions persisted, it was unclear when Snoqualmie Pass would reopen. Officials said they won't be able to assess avalanche and snowfall conditions on Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie until 9 a.m. Friday. However, by 5:30 p.m. Thursday, the miles-long backup of U.S. Route 2 at Stevens Pass was easing, even as snow continued to fall. Eastbound lanes reopened at about 5:20 p.m. and westbound lanes, closed at Leavenworth, opened around 4:45 p.m.,...

A new avalanche shut down Snoqualmie Pass a second time Wednesday after an avalanche westbound lanes near Hyak, closing part of the road less than four hours after it had reopened after the longest closure in six years.

Remember the public debate last year over whether the state should raise the gasoline tax or tolls to pay for the rotten roads around here? Well, the debate’s over. There’s been a compromise. We’re going to raise both the tolls and the gasoline tax. Or so says the Mass. Transportation Finance Commission. They haven’t officially come out and said they want higher gas taxes and tolls. First they’re going to have the traditional “public hearings.” Of course it’s all a complete bag job. Just look at the tell-tale phrases in the news stories about the “shocking” conditions of the state’s...

I'm listening to the Howie Carr show on WRKO in Boston and they are covering a press conference by the MA Governor and he says all of the bolts in the Ted Williams tunnel require repair. Unbelievable!

Terror Alert to Truckers The U.S. Department of Homeland Security along with the American Trucking Associations has issued a warning to all motor carriers warning of a possible terrorist attack involving the trucking industry in the Lake Erie region. A report distributed to trucking companies in the region on both sides of the border, states DHS has made "observations over the last months, increasing in frequency over recent weeks, of certain types of activity that may represent the characteristic operational acts of active terrorist planning." According to Today's Truckers, possibilities include the involvement of fuel and chemical tanker operations, or...