Posted on 02/21/2018 10:06:04 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
BLUEFIELD — Extending the King Coal Highway’s “bridge to nowhere” in Bluefield to the Airport Road area is still on track for next year.
Del. Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer County, said the project remains on the Department of Highways six-year plan for a 2019 start.
“Dirt should be moved next spring (2019),” he said. “It will be built when it is supposed to. It’s been part of the six-year plan and was not scheduled until next spring.”
The bridge, which connects to Rt. 460 and then to Interstate 77, was finished almost 10 years ago but funding for the highway has been delayed and only sections of it have been completed.
When this part of the Mercer County section is done, it will extend the highway to Airport Road, providing traffic faster access to the Brushfork area and McDowell County.
The 3.8-mile extension will cost $40 million to $50 million.
Gearheart said the money will be there but it’s a matter at this point to see which pool of transportation funding it will come from, but most likely from the Parkway Authority (turnpike) bond sales.
(Excerpt) Read more at bdtonline.com ...
The bridge to no where was in Alaska and Governor Sarah Palin killed it....
Well, at least when it’s finished, it will go somewhere.
This is a different one, of course. It crosses over a road and a river in West Virginia near Bluefield, but is not connected to any other roads at the moment.
When the highway is finished, it will be time to replace the bridge.....................
It is fashionable to be snarky about such projects but it must be remembered that Barack Obama was an existential threat to West Virginia.
The war on coal destroyed the economy and there was no money to run the government much less complete road projects.
I spent some time there and observed first hand the pain and suffering Obama wrought. Quite frankly, I do not understand to this day why someone from West Virginia didn’t go kill him
In 2008, now 10 years ago, voters passed the 10 billion dollar Prop 1A bond measure to fund a High Speed Rail project that would, in phase one, connect San Francisco to Los Angeles, promising passengers a one-seat ride between these cites in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
The train was to run on dedicated tracks and was to be up and running by 2020. The projected cost of $33 billion was to be funded one-third by Prop 1A funds, one-third by Federal funds and one-third by private investment. The voters of California were promised that the $10 billions from Prop 1A bonds would be all the funding required from the State’s residents. Importantly the train was promised to run without any operational subsidy.
Now 10 years later, here is the reality. The train won’t be operational until well beyond 2030. The projected initial costs and timelines have been proven completely bogus. Now the Authority admits to even more delays. The last stated budget, now at $68 billion will climb again. Expect to see well over $100 billion.
Federal funding stopped long ago, at a total of $3.3 billion. Expected private investment despite multiple efforts, has failed to come forth at all.
http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2018/02/failed-promise-high-speed-rail/
And those unconnected bridges shall be known as . . .
RAILHENGE!!!
Maybe they thought somebody from Kentucky would do it.
They are Christian folk, not muslimes.................
LOL!......................
Seems every state has had their “bridge to knowwhere.” Milwaukee’s Hoan Bridge at least served a purpose in “The Blues Brothers.”
And the Hoan Bridge actually connects Milwaukee’s harbor area to downtown.
Another bridge serving a purpose.
If you extend it far enough, you’ll probably end up somewhere.
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