Free Republic

A helicopter trip with border officials in Arizona is the clearest way to see how much new border wall was built during Donald Trump’s last months in office. CBP Agent: This was all within the last four months, actually. CBP Agent: They were working three shifts, 24/7. CBP Agent: The speed that they put the wall up was absolutely amazing. By air is also the best way to see a startling sight: hundreds of security gaps in the wall where gates were about to be installed CBP Agent: you see that gap right back there. but are now left wide...

The massive Interstate 70 construction project in central Denver is not only going to take almost a year longer than planned to complete, the state highway agency has now indicated that it’s also going to end up costing between $100 million and $150 million dollars more than the originally-planned $1.2 billion price tag. Taxpayers are only on the hook for $12 million in extra costs, thanks to a refinancing arrangement between state and federal highway agencies and the construction company working on the project that will cover the rest. Colorado Department of Transportation officials refuse to provide the precise cost...

WESLEY CHAPEL — Over the last several years, the developers of the Cypress Creek Town Center have spent $25 million for road improvements in the fast growing State Road 56 corridor near the Interstate 75 interchange. Other nearby businesses have also paid their share. But for those who traverse the area regularly, the months-long delays in promised improvements at that interchange, the so-called diverging diamond, have meant ongoing congestion with no end in sight. Pasco County Commission Chairman Mike Moore knows this well, since he travels the road daily. Prompted by a letter from merchants frustrated with road work delays,...

Feb. 26—Carbon County commissioners aren't keen on a plan to toll bridges along Interstate 80 to fund construction projects. Commissioner Chris Lukasevich on Thursday said Pennsylvania residents already pay the highest gas tax in the United States, and feels that state should better use existing funds. Commissioners Wayne Nothstein and Rocky Ahner also question the move, which would allow tolls on the Interstate 80 bridges over the Lehigh River at the Carbon-Luzerne county line for up to 30 years. Ahner worried about the average commuter, who has to pay the toll each way to go to work every day. "It...

A local citizens group has formed a Facebook page urging New Jersey transportation officials to improve a stretch of Interstate 80 they say will become unsafe once construction begins on a $50 million fence project. I80DWG Coalition says the stretch of the highway through the Delaware Water Gap, where the four-lane highway is squeezed between a 1,526-foot-high cliff at its peak and a river, is too tight for traffic congestion during any type of construction and especially, once work commences on a fence designed to prevent rockfall on the winding highway. Tractor trailers, the group says, will become wedged between...

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Department of Transportation is studying use of remote technology to help manage highway traffic that needs to merge when approaching a highway work zone involving at least one lane closure. ADOT says it has set up a “smart work zone" with a remotely controlled system using computers, portable message boards and sensors to provide drivers with real-time instructions based on changing circumstances. The study is being conducted at two bridge rehabilitation sites on Interstate 40 between Flagstaff and Winslow in northern Arizona. The remote system directs westbound traffic to merge into one lane well ahead...

The Great Bend-Hallstead exit (230) off Interstate 81 in Susquehanna County is due for repair in the next few years and PennDOT has proposed installing an electronic toll, that would use E-ZPass or pay-by-plate collection for drivers who pass through the area. The funds collected would be used to pay for the construction, maintenance, and operation of that bridge. We spoke with several people who use this section of highway about the proposed idea. "I guess to raise taxes to everybody is really hard, so I guess for the people using the road, then maybe that's a good idea," said...

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- The past two weeks have been restless for Raleigh resident Sandra Taylor, she says construction has been keeping both her and her husband up during the night. "For the past two weeks it's like a large jackhammer, like a massive jackhammer, sort of like blasting, in a way, but it's so extremely loud and it also kind of rattles the house a little bit as well, because it's so loud," Taylor said. She said it usually starts around midnight and can go until 4 am. "We work so to have to go to work the next day,...

Sales of new homes soared in January to a blistering seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 923,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That puts sales 4.3 percent above the revised December rate of 885,000 and 19.3 percent above the January 2020 estimate.

A man from Sugarloaf Township charged with fleeing the scene after striking a construction worker who died on Interstate-81 waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday. Zachary Gerbino, 27, appeared before District Judge James M. Dixon where he waived charges of accidents involving death and tampering or fabricating evidence to Luzerne County Court. Gerbino remains free on $25,000 bail. State police at Hazleton allege Gerbino was traveling north in a 2005 Hyundai Accent on I-81 when he struck Kevin DenDulk, 30, of Royersford, Montgomery County, at about 1:15 a.m. on Aug. 1. DunDulk was part of a construction crew...

In his State of the State address, Gov. Andrew Cuomo touted the $306 billion in current and proposed infrastructure projects around New York that he said would revitalize the economy after COVID-19 shut down businesses and non-essential construction. In his Jan. 14 speech, the governor said a total $51 billion was being spent for projects to revive Manhattan's Midtown West neighborhoods, citing potential new projects as well as those well into planning. That figure includes the $1.6 billion Moynihan Train Hall, which opened Jan. 1; the $1.5 billion Jacob K. Javits Center expansion, expected to be completed this year; and...

WILLIAMSPORT — Shane Burkett has been watching the Interstate 81 Potomac River bridge work from the cab of a tractor-trailer. Now that the new third lanes are open in each direction, the semi driver likes what he sees. "I think it's great. I-81 is a massive highway. ... It's a big help having that third lane now," the Williamsport resident said. The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration formally announced completion of the $104.6 million project Thursday. The work, which has been years in the making, widened the interstate from two lanes to three lanes in each direction from...

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The state’s $2 billion plans to transform Interstate 81 could prove an archetypal example of how a federal highway project can both solve transportation problems and rebuild city neighborhoods that lost out when the massive roadways were built. That’s the feeling that Mayor Ben Walsh said he had today after meeting for an hour with two members of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s staff. “Overall it was very encouraging,” Walsh said this evening. “They see I-81 as a prime candidate for a demonstration on how to do federal transportation projects the right way.” The meeting comes as...

KEESEVILLE — State troopers disguised as construction workers issued 26 tickets Tuesday in the “Operation Hard Hat” initiative on the Adirondack Northway (Interstate 87) near the Clinton-Essex County line. The New York State Police Troop B and state Department of Transportation announced the news Thursday. Operation Hard Hat is a joint initiative of the two agencies to crack down on work zone violations and highlight the importance of safe driving through active construction and maintenance zones. They say this initiative, like past ones, was successful, and they plan to do more later this summer.

WisDOT has wrapped up its long-awaited reconstruction of Interstate 94 between Milwaukee and the Illinois state line on schedule and on budget. Michael Pyritz, regional communications manager for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s southeast region, said work on the final 18.5-mile stretch of the reconstruction project was deemed “substantially complete” earlier this week. He said WisDOT’s goal all along was to have that section finished by the start of summer. He also said the project, which was overseen by Michels Corp., appears to have remained within the department’s $410 million project or even come in below it, although some work...

The highway headache in west Tulsa has only just begun. As part of a project to widen Interstate 44 from west of the Arkansas River to Union Avenue, and to improve the I-44/U.S. 75 interchange, significant delays can be expected, especially during peak travel times. “It’s definitely the hard part of the project right now,” Oklahoma Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kenna Mitchell said Tuesday. “They’re going to be placing some additional signage further back in the corridor to alert drivers.” Northbound U.S. 75 is narrowed to one lane at the interchange, causing northbound traffic to back up at least two...

Residents of St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood, which was torn apart when Interstate 94 was built in the 1960s, are continuing their years-long push to reconnect the predominantly Black neighborhood and right a wrong. On Tuesday, leaders of the nonprofit Reconnect Rondo testified during a virtual House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee meeting (watch it here) about their proposal to build a land bridge over I-94, which they say will revitalize the community that was devastated by the racist policy decisions that led to a neighborhood being destroyed to build a highway. To right this wrong, Reconnect Rondo, which has been...

Construction for a maglev train line that would take passengers from Washington to Baltimore in 15 minutes could alter a D.C. neighborhood and affect nearby properties for years, District officials said Monday. A maglev station in the Mount Vernon Square area has the potential to change the character of the neighborhood and bring “substantial construction and long-term operational implications on nearby properties,” Andrew Trueblood, director of the D.C. Office of Planning, said in a statement that urged residents and city leaders to engage in the federal review of the multibillion-dollar project. The 40-mile “superconducting magnetic levitation train system,” commonly called...

WILMINGTON, Delaware (WPVI) -- Commuters can expect to see delays on Interstate 95 through Wilmington beginning in February. It's time for some rehabilitation, according to the Delaware Department of Transportation, which will be restoring a nearly one-mile corridor through Wilmington. They will also be overhauling 19 bridges to make sure it's safe for the next 30 years. The project will take about two years, and some commuters are frustrated. "Very frustrating. It's already always congested with traffic. So, if it's down to one lane, it's going to be even worse," said Stephanie Gentile from Tinicum. Traffic will be reduced by...

Transportation Minister Lloyd Hines says 2021-22 will likely be another record year for road building in Nova Scotia. The annual government highways plan is usually out by December, but the document has been delayed by the pandemic, said Hines. "We are anticipating that we will match or eclipse the number from last year, which will be a cumulative amount of over $1 billion spent on improving our highway system in Nova Scotia in the last two fiscal years," the minister told reporters following a cabinet meeting on Thursday. Hines said the budget right now for roads and highways for the...