Free Republic

The state of Arkansas embarked on its biggest highway construction program ever undertaken by the Arkansas Department of Transportation, and the people couldn't be more excited. "Arkansas is a small state with a population of just three million, but this project touches every corner of the state, with a total of 36 projects in 19 corridors," said Keli Wylie, administrator of the CAP Program and alternative project delivery administrator. The goals of the Connecting Arkansas Program include improving transportation connections between cities; increasing capacity by widening highways to four or more lanes; improving safety; and easing congestion. Supplementary aims of...

NORTH TEXAS (CBS11) – It is nearly impossible these days in North Texas to avoid road construction projects. While billions of dollars are being pumped into the roadway system, TxDOT said it still can’t keep up with the growth. “There are a thousand people moving a day to Texas and we’ve (North Texas) got most of them,” said TxDOT Dallas spokesperson Donna Huerta. “We can’t keep up with that kind of demand, but what we can do is take what we have and make it better.” With a new approach allowing contractors to design and build a project simultaneously, TxDOT...

The planners, residents and developers hunched over maps Thursday had plenty of ideas for the daunting task of untangling and improving the massive web of aging highways in and around downtown Dallas. About 50 of them were gathered at the Dallas Regional Chamber for the second of three public input workshops on TxDOT’s CityMAP project. The goal? To provide a blueprint and menu of options for city officials on potential costs, traffic impacts, timeline and designs for Interstate 30, I-345, I-35E and Woodall Rodgers. It would be wonderful if the city could eat the whole apple — all the worthy...

Savor the occasional cause for optimism that top leaders can value teamwork over turf in the contentious area of transportation financing. Take the years of squabbling over how Texas can scrape up billions of dollars to catch up with road-building needs. Suddenly, there's positive movement, first from Gov. Rick Perry last week. He told this newspaper's transportation writer, Michael Lindenberger, that he would not use his veto to obstruct a move by lawmakers to index the lagging motor-fuels tax to inflation. "If it is the will of the people, and of the Legislature, I suspect I would go along with...

DALLAS - Interstate 30 is closed in both directions at Beckley Avenue in Dallas due to holes in the Beckley Street Bridge. Reports described the hole to be about 6-feet in size and covering the westbound lanes of I-30. Sr. Cpl. Janice Crowther said the interstate was closed to allow TxDOT and the City of Dallas Streets Department to inspect the bridge for safety concerns. Crowther said the "significant size holes" possible posed a danger and there was no word yet on when I-30 would reopen.

South Texas is not only going to get its first interstate - it is also going to get a second and a third. State transportation officials knew one of three southern highways - U.S. Highway 281 in Hidalgo County, U.S. Highway 77 in Cameron County or U.S. Highway 59 in Webb County - would eventually become part of an interstate stretching from the Texas-Mexico border to Texarkana, in the northeast part of the state. Only Webb County is currently served by an interstate. The state's Trans-Texas Corridor plan calls for an Interstate 69 extension linking South Texas to points north,...

AUSTIN – Four years of simmering frustration boiled over at a recent Texas Senate committee hearing with just one thing on the agenda: toll roads. An overflow crowd bashed and booed the Texas Transportation Commission in front of mostly like-minded senators. For eight hours, lawmakers and audience members alike questioned the state's increasing reliance on tolls. "We can't simply build roads at any cost," Sen. John Carona said to cheers. "We've got to build them smarter." Some argue that toll roads are the only smart play in a state where the Legislature has refused to raise the tax on gasoline,...

Now that Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other officials have pronounced “the federal funding genie” dead, as far as highway construction money goes, it's time to find another way to pay for Interstate 69. “By the time Washington funds I-69, we'll be driving around in hover cars or whatever,” Perry said Thursday during a meeting of I-69 Alliance members, including Lufkin Mayor Louis Bronaugh, in Houston. “The harsh reality is we cannot wait for Washington, D.C., to solve the problems of this state.” Perry wants to “resuscitate” I-69 by merging it with his proposed Trans Texas Corridor, which would combine...

A company was selected Thursday to develop a system so that motorists can pay their way on Trans-Texas Corridor toll roads without stopping at a booth. Meeting in Austin, the Texas Transportation Commission selected Raytheon Co. as the prime contractor for the system. The first leg of Trans-Texas is a planned toll road that would be an alternative to Interstate 35 from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio. Construction is expected to be under way by 2007 and be completed by 2015. Eventually, toll roads, rail lines and utilities would crisscross the state, according to Gov. Rick Perry's vision of Trans-Texas....