Posted on 01/03/2018 4:16:52 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A future Interstate 49 and whether it will become Arkansas’ first toll road are being considered, with public meetings likely coming in early 2018, reports KFSM news station.
The interstate section being considered would stretch from Barling to Alma over the Arkansas River. The Arkansas Department of Transportation has commissioned a study on charging tolls on the future highway section.
The study is scheduled to be completed next fall, and public meetings are expected at the first of 2018 to get public input on the project, the station reports.
Interstate 49 would eventually stretch from New Orleans to Canada. Portions of the highway have been constructed elsewhere and are being constructed in Arkansas.
The Interstate 49 International Coalition says the highway is about 80 percent complete, with the Arkansas portion between Texarkana and Fort Smith among the remaining pieces to be built. The state is still trying to come up with the $2.5 billion needed for the project.
An Interstate Hwy is a Federal Hwy, not State Hwy, so how can a state make a Fed Hwy a State Toll Road?
So the unwashed masses cannot afford to use it.
“An Interstate Hwy is a Federal Hwy, not State Hwy, so how can a state make a Fed Hwy a State Toll Road? “
One of the downsides of Trump, sadly. To a lot of people advising him toll roads are the PERFECT SOLUTION - since they don’t cost anything and don’t require taxes to be raised.
And that’s true...unless people plan on actually using the road - then, depending on how it’s financed, they pay anything from several times what it would have costed as a freeway (if it’s government built and operated) to several dozen times that cost (if it’s built and operated privately).
So toll roads are great - particularly private ones, they tend to discourage, or at least push off, the ‘less-important’ people...and so they tend to have less traffic jams - of course you’ll need thousands of dollars in spare cash lying around if you actually want to use them on a regular basis (many thousands, if private).
I am fundamentally opposed to having any Interstate Highway be a toll road.
Try I-44 in Oklahoma or I-35 in Kansas. Same same.
And Hillary could find a bridge to hide under and be its first Troll...
The issue was decided early on when the first federal hiway now known as the National Road was proposed and built. It ran from Columbia Md to Vandalia IL. The issue was raised that the constitution did not provide for federal ownership of roads.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Road
An Interstate Hwy is a Federal Hwy, not State Hwy, so how can a state make a Fed Hwy a State Toll Road?
That is not correct.
All highways in the United States are owned and maintained by the State, Territory, or District in which they are located.
The Interstate Highway System is a system of controlled access highways meeting specific design and construction standards.
Chargable Interstates are the 41,000 mile system approved in the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 and the 1,500 miles added in 1968. The US Government pays 90% of the construction and upkeep for these roads. The state pays the rest.
Non-Chargeable Interstates are roads that are numbered and a part of the system, but the state pays 100% of the construction and upkeep.
I-49 is a non-chargeable interstate. It is an upgrade of US Highway 71 to interstate standards. It currently exists in 5 segments (one signed only as AR 549) running from Kansas City, MO to Lafayette, LA.
State toll roads end up being slush funds for other crap though - NY charges for Interstate 90 and their section is in worse shape than PA's section even though PA doesn't charge.....
***so how can a state make a Fed Hwy a State Toll Road? ***
Ask Oklahoma.
One good thing about toll roads is their cost and how fast they get built.
A regular interstate may take 30 years and billions of dollars to build 100 miles of road.
Make it a toll road and it will be in at a quarter of the cost and within 5 years.
Toll roads never die. Turner Turnpike, between OKC and Tulsa OK, was supposed to be a free road after the 1960s. The income is so great it is still a packed toll road.
The only thing missing from Oklahoma toll roads are rest stops. They start with several, then the homos infest them, then they are bulldozed.
Existing toll roads were grandfathered in to the Interstate Highway system. Interestingly enough, though, Interstate 95 northeast of Baltimore was actually BUILT as a toll road (the John F. Kennedy highway). President Kennedy attended the highway’s opening in 1963 shortly before he was assassinated.
Depends on the state.
In Kentucky the tolls come off as soon as the bonds come off. All of Kentucky’s toll roads are now toll free. It only has two toll bridge crossings, both at Louisville for I-65 and Future I-265 (IN-265/KY-841). However a Third one will be added near Evansville, IN to carry I-69 across the Ohio River.
Conversely, in Pennsylvania, the PA Turnpike Authority now has to give a large chunk of change every year to pay for Mass Transit, which means toll are higher because the road still has to be maintained.
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