Free Republic

An average of 26,300 vehicles per day drive across the small bridge on Main Street in East Peoria that crosses over Farm Creek. Those six lanes of traffic cross one of 166 bridges in the Tri-County Area that are “structurally deficient,” according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. A bridge is considered structurally deficient if one of its main components is in poor condition and repairs are needed. Components include the deck, the part of the bridge people drive on; the superstructure, which supports the deck; or the substructure, the foundation of the bridge. Even if a bridge is classified...

**SNIP** And according to a panel of transportation experts, the problem will only get worse in the future unless the state begins to better fund investments in its transportation system. "We're behind, to be perfectly frank," said IDOT Secretary Randy Blankenhorn, one of the panelists. "We are not funding transportation as well as some of our neighbors and as our competitors. ... I spend $250 a month on my phone. I spend $50 a month for water. This is the infrastructure of my life. It's what I need to make things happen. And we're spending 50 cents a day on...

MOLINE -- Building the new Interstate 74 bridge will take years, but certification to bid on the jobs building it should only take about 90 days. The Illinois Department of Transportation held a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise certification and supportive services workshop Monday evening at the Moline Public Library, 3210 41st St. At the workshop, officials from IDOT shared information on how those who are in presumed disadvantaged groups can bid on contracts associated with the project. To qualify for DBE certification, the business owner must have a personal net worth of less than $1.32 million. Engineering consulting businesses must average...

In a matter of days, time will run out on a plan that could cut down on commuting times, pave the way for even less traffic congestion, and potentially give taxpayers a break. For reasons that remain unclear, the General Assembly has ignored the Illinois Department of Transportation's I-55 managed lanes project, and the cost of doing nothing has the potential to harm the state's ability to do business for years to come. The I-55 managed lanes proposal would add an express toll lane between the Veterans Memorial Tollway in the southwest suburbs and the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago....

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has announced with members of the state general assembly a plan allowing the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to add at least one additional lane in each direction to a 25-mile stretch of Interstate 55 near Chicago using a public-private partnership (P3) agreement. IDOT is allowed to use P3 agreements only if the general assembly adopts a resolution supporting a proposed project, a state law in place since 2011. This would be the first P3 managed lane project in the state. “By using existing resources to leverage private investment, we can build the type of infrastructure...

The Washington Post's Weekend section on Friday included an interview with left-wing actor Ed Asner in advance of his appearance at nearby George Mason University playing William Jennings Bryan, "the infamous attacker of Darwinism and evolution." Or so says his Post interviewer, Michael O'Sullivan. Conservatives are killing America, Asner proclaimed: "Our education has just gone into the toilet in this country," Asner says, before fulminating in a way that begins to sound a little bit like, well, a more liberal version of Bryan. "Having suffered, from the time of Reagan until now, with onslaughts against government daubing at improving the...

Social activist Dolores Huerta told a Tucson audience Friday that people of different ethnicities all originated from the same continent: Africa. "We are all related, and we are all Africans of different races and colors," she said, referring to the theory of human origins that says all people come from a small group that migrated from Africa 40,000 years ago. "We should tell the Minutemen, the Aryan Brotherhood, the KKK: 'You're Africans. Get over it,' " she said. Huerta was the keynote speaker at a Midtown lunch organized by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona to mark the 34th anniversary of...

DATELINE New York: The Democratic Party today named Venezuela Dictator an honorary member of the party and designated September 21 as "Hugo Chavez Day". Howard Dean, speaking before a crowd of hundreds of cheering members of the Democratic Underground, bestowed the rare honor on Chavez, stating: "We find it simply incredible, and wonderful, that a foreign dictator and a like-minded socialist could articulate the position of our party with so much more skill than even me, Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi. Usually it takes years for one to develope the ablity to rant in the manner so elequently displayed by...

Two camera-equipped vans will begin patrolling highway work zones in July, snapping images of drivers violating the 45 m.p.h posted speed limit, officials of the Illinois Department of Transportation announced today. The vans will patrol expressway and tollway construction and maintenance zones. Signs will warn drivers of the photo radar system, which will take a picture of the offending driver, his or her vehicle and record the vehicle's speed, officials said. Drivers captured on camera will be sent a ticket in the mail. Work zone speeding fines increased last year to a $375 penalty on the first offense, almost double...