I live in the desert of Western WA. The highway to my subdivision had a big Recovery Act sign on it while the shoulders were graded and hydromulch sprayed on it. Since it is the desert, the grass that came up quickly died, and it returned back to sandy desert soon after. It’s as if it never even happened.
Would that the past 6 years could disappear as easily!
I think you mean eastern Washington. As a transportation professional I can tell you why the roads and bridges in Washington are crumbling, it’s because they spend it all on roads and bridges for Seattle/King County! They are currently spending $6 Billion on one bridge and one tunnel while the rest of the cities and counties get next to nothing.
That $6 billion would fix or build just about every planned or current project for the next 20 years and provide excellent growth opportunities for economic investment. Instead the new buzzword is congestion management/relief. He’ll, just the annual bond payments on these two boondoggles would put a pretty big dent in this states transportation needs.
Next thing WSDOT is planning is the mileage tax to go along with all of the tolls. This should hit us in about 3-5 years.