Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about highway expansion

Dallas Council Member: Texas Poised to “Compound Errors of the Past”

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 21, 2015 | No Comments

The entire Texas highway machine — suburban real estate moguls, the construction industry, the governor, and the legislature — is pushing voters to approve Prop 7, a constitutional amendment that would mandate spending $2.5 billion in state sales tax revenue on un-tolled roads. The highway interests are telling Texas voters in unison that this measure, if approved in November, will fix congestion […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Will Texas Voters Enshrine Failed Transpo Policy in the State’s Constitution?

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 20, 2015 | No Comments

When Texas voters go to the polls this November they will decide an issue of enormous consequence to the future of the state. A proposed amendment to the state constitution — on the ballot as Proposition 7 — would shift about $2.5 billion in sales tax revenues to highway spending each year. All the money must be spent […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Do Environmental Reviews for Road Projects Help the Environment?

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 19, 2015 | No Comments

It’s been more than 40 years since the National Environmental Policy Act was enacted. In that time, America has built a lot of emissions-inducing, land-devouring highway infrastructure despite the environmental review process mandated by NEPA. It’s fair to ask: When it comes to transportation infrastructure, does environmental review make a difference for the environment? To comply with federal environmental […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Here’s What a Billion-Dollar Interchange Expansion Looks Like

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 12, 2015 | No Comments

In case you were wondering what a $1.1 billion highway interchange looks like, feast your eyes on this rendering from the Georgia Department of Transportation. In an effort to “ease congestion” on this confluence of highways north of the city, Georgia will spend three-and-a-half years widening about four miles of I-285 and about one mile of SR 400, […]

STREETSBLOG USA

3 White Elephants That Help Explain America’s Infrastructure Crisis

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 30, 2015 | No Comments

A new report by the Center for American Progress zeros in on an under-appreciated culprit in America’s much ballyhooed infrastructure crisis: All the money we waste on useless roads. CAP highlights three “white elephant projects” that illustrate how billions of dollars in federal infrastructure funds are squandered thanks to a lack of accountability in the transportation funding process. “States receive federal […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Louisiana Raids Its Maintenance Fund to Pay for Road Expansions

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 7, 2015 | No Comments

This year, Louisiana will raid $21.6 million from its road maintenance fund to pay for road projects, including some expansions, that have been on the books since 1989. The state will have to keep stealing from the fund for the next 27 years to pay for them. Voters approved a package of 16 road and bridge […]

STREETSBLOG USA

HUD Tells Cleveland: Don’t Let Opportunity Corridor Go “Horribly Wrong”

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 7, 2015 | No Comments

It was a sad day in Washington, DC, last year when Harriet Tregoning left the DC Office of Planning. But it’s becoming clear that she’s a great addition at HUD. In her capacity as the agency’s principal deputy assistant secretary for community development, Tregoning issued a stern warning to the city of Cleveland and Ohio DOT last […]

STREETSBLOG USA

The Pendulum Swings Away From Highways on the Dallas City Council

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 17, 2015 | No Comments

A runoff election Saturday has solidified who’s in and who’s out of the Dallas City Council. At stake were the future of two highway projects: the construction of the Trinity Toll Road and the removal of I-345 to make way for walkable development. Highway opponents gained ground, though not enough for a majority. Before the election, four of 14 votes […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Putting TIGER Spending in Perspective

By Angie Schmitt | May 1, 2015 | No Comments

The House’s current transportation spending bill calls for reducing the share of federal spending that goes to TIGER, a grant program for sustainable transportation projects in cities, from $500 to $100 million. The budget, meanwhile, holds highway funding steady. TIGER is an enormously popular program. In its second year, it received close to 1,000 applications […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Is the Lord For or Against a Texas County Road Bond? Opinions Mixed

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 9, 2015 | No Comments

Things are really getting heated in Montgomery County, Texas, just outside Houston, over a proposal to issue $350 million in bonds to maintain and expand roads. Like fire-and-brimstone heated. Earlier this week, at a county commissioners meeting, volunteer Mary Hammer Menzel referred to road bond opponents as “tools of satan” in her opening prayer, reports the Montgomery County Courier. […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Can Seattle Stop Its Highway Tunnel Boondoggle Before It’s Too Late?

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 5, 2015 | No Comments

It’s been one year since the world’s largest tunnel boring machine, “Bertha,” got stuck 120 feet beneath Seattle. Before it broke down, the colossal machine had excavated just 1,000 feet of the two-mile tube that’s supposed to house a new, $3.1 billion underground highway to replace an aging elevated road called the Alaskan Way Viaduct. […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Talking Headways Podcast: Here I Am, Stuck in Seattle With You

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 19, 2014 | No Comments

Stuck in Seattle or Stuck in Sherman Oaks. There are so many places to get stuck these days and so many clowns and jokers making it worse. First, poor Bertha, stuck 100 feet under Seattle. All the tunnel boring machine wanted to do was drill a 1.7-mile tunnel for a highway that won’t even access […]

Load more stories