Free Republic

Since tolls descended on Route 390, there has been an exodus of cars and trucks from the former Elgin-O'Hare Expressway.Vehicles decreased between 38 percent and 28 percent on sections of Route 390 between Lake Street and I-290, according to Illinois tollway data comparing usage before construction and in February. Where are those thousands of commuters and truckers going? Boycotting 20-cent a mile tolls on Route 390 and spilling off onto local roads in communities like Roselle, some residents say.Commuter Brian McGehee was running late Friday at 7 a.m., "so, I bit the bullet," he said referring to Route 390. "The...

Illinois tollway directors agreed Thursday to spend up to $4 million to assist minority-, women- and veteran-owned construction companies that are seeking work with the agency. The funds will be distributed among seven entities including the Mexican-American Chamber of Commerce, Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce and Chicago Minority Supplier Development Council. Training ranges from basics such as explaining the technicalities of bidding for a contract and obtaining financing to advanced classes in estimating the cost of a job or managing a business. The program will be evaluated based on the number of businesses served and successful bids, among other...

Rebuilding and widening the mammoth Central Tri-State Tollway (I-294) is complicated enough given it's the system's most-used road, with up to 185,000 cars and trucks clogging it daily.Throw in a tangle of towns where officials either hate or love the project, plus churn on the tollway board, and the planned redo gets even gnarlier. The Illinois tollway intends to fix the road between 95th Street in the South Suburbs and Balmoral Avenue in Rosemont. There's no final design or budget yet, but a decision is expected soon.Improvements likely could include extra lanes and new interchanges -- exciting news for anyone...

The Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA) has presented the Illinois Tollway with a Project of the Year Award for the $2.5 billion Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (Interstate 90) Rebuilding and Widening Project. The award was presented during the association’s 38th annual awards banquet in Chicago. This is the second HACIA Project of the Year Award the Tollway has received, the first being presented in 2015 for the initial phase of this same project. “This project demonstrates how the Illinois Tollway has helped contribute to the growth and development of Hispanic-owned firms in the Chicago area and across Northern Illinois,”...

The state Legislature narrowly approved a plan to increase gas taxes and vehicle fees late Thursday, a move expected to raise tens of billions of dollars over the next decade to repair the state’s worn and aging transportation infrastructure. Senate Bill 1, also known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, raises the gas excise tax by 12 cents a gallon, with annual adjustments for inflation. Diesel excise taxes are going up 20 cents, while the diesel sales tax will rise from 1.75 to 5.75 percent. Also, a new fee will be charged to vehicles based on their...

As I retire, I want to devote my last column to travelers who wrote in to discuss their tips and travails. Some wanted to get something fixed. Some just wanted to vent. All were welcome. Dear Dr. Gridlock: I’m not a commuter, but I have a real gridlock problem. When people in a left lane don’t pull up to the vehicle in front of them, they block the ability of people trying to turn left from accessing the left-turn lane. I can’t even count how many times I’ve missed the left green arrow because of this. It seems that if...

Federal funding for Maryland’s Purple Line is in jeopardy, as are Metro’s hopes for a significant increase in money from the government under President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget released Thursday. Trump’s proposed spending plan, which slashes the federal transportation budget by 13 percent, also curbs long-distance Amtrak service out of Washington and cuts millions in federal grants that the region’s governments have relied on for new rapid bus lines, road work, bus stop improvements and bike paths. The cuts came as a shock to many, considering Trump’s campaign pledge to pump $1 trillion into the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. “I find...

Speaking at a town hall in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, President Donald Trump stated that in order for his $1 trillion infrastructure to succeed, he plans on cutting regulations preventing states speedily enacting new building projects. After pointing to a chart illustrating the legislative process states must undergo prior to beginning highway construction projects, POTUS added “it can take anywhere between 10, if you’re really good, 10 years to 20 years, and then they vote and you lose.” Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/04/trump-breaks-out-the-chart-to-explain-1-trillion-infrastructure-plan-video/#ixzz4dNZgYYod

[The stream is slated to start at 12:30 p.m., ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] President Donald Trump is set to speak publicly for the second time Tuesday at the North American Building Trades Unions legislative conference. Trump will likely address his promises to boost American manufacturing and promote new infrastructure projects. In a town hall with CEOs earlier in the day, Trump touted his pledges to reduce regulations on businesses and encourage companies to make new investments in the United States....

President Donald Trump told chief executives of major companies on Tuesday that his administration is working on an infrastructure plan worth $1 trillion or maybe more. Trump told the audience that he wants to speed up permitting for road and bridge projects and that federal money wouldn’t go to projects that couldn’t be started within a month and a half....

President Trump is escalating his feud with the conservative House Freedom Caucus, with his $1 trillion infrastructure package hanging in the balance. The conservative caucus is sure to play a role in the legislative fight over rebuilding the nation’s roads, bridges and highways, something Trump promised to deliver during his campaign. Massive federal spending on transportation has long given fiscal conservatives heartburn. And Freedom Caucus lawmakers who support Trump's infrastructure push may have to work extra hard now to convince fellow members to support the president’s proposal, especially after Trump stepped up his attacks on some lawmakers in the group...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao quashed rumors Wednesday night that President Donald Trump's administration and GOP lawmakers would wait to unveil a plan for infrastructure revitalization until 2018. Though it still might take that long to get legislation through Capitol Hill, Chao announced at a department event in Washington that a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal would be unveiled by the end of the year. She teased a "strategic, targeted program of investment valued at $1 trillion over 10 years," according to Reuters. "The proposal will cover more than transportation infrastructure. It will include energy, water and potentially broadband and veterans...

President Trump plans to unveil a new White House office on Monday with sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises — such as reforming care for veterans and fighting opioid addiction — by harvesting ideas from the business world and, potentially, privatizing some government functions. The White House Office of American Innovation, to be led by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, will operate as its own nimble power center within the West Wing and will report directly to Trump. Viewed internally as a SWAT team of strategic consultants, the office will be...

Labor unions representing construction workers have sent an infrastructure priority list to President Donald Trump at his request, as his White House searches for projects to greenlight that require little if any federal funding. North America’s Building Trades Unions sent the White House the wish list of 26 projects, including more than $80 billion worth of energy transmission lines, water and wind projects, and pipelines across the country. More than half of the projects on the list given to Trump aide Stephen Miller are privately financed. All but one are in the midst of permitting and could use the Trump...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A bill that has already passed the Maryland House of Delegates would fine drivers up to $250 for lingering in the left lane of a highway after passing another vehicle.House Bill 1451 was sponsored by Frederick County Republican Delegate William G. Folden and is now pending in the Senate.Folden says the aim of the bill is to prevent traffic congestion.When it passed in the House last week, he posted the following statement on his Facebook page: “By the slimmest of margins and probably the most bi-partisan voting sheet I’ve seen, my bill for “Left Lane Passing Only”...

Boulder City is planning a beautification project for Nevada Highway, and several local merchants are concerned with how it could affect their businesses. As part of the Boulder City Parkway complete street project, the plan is to widen the sidewalks, create bike lanes, improve pedestrian and bike crossings, improve the median, and create bus turnouts from Gingerwood Street to Buchanan Boulevard. All these additions will take away space from the businesses along that portion of the roadway. Chris Gatlin, owner of Woodchuck’s, is concerned about the lack of space he’ll have once the sidewalk and road are widened. Woodchuck’s, at...

New research suggests that children born today will never drive a car. The auto industry's embrace of self-driving technology has been accelerating fast and those technological advances mean that by the time today's toddlers come of age, they'll likely never even have to get behind the wheel of a car, according to Henrik Christensen, the director of the University of San Diego’s Contextual Robotics Institute. “My own prediction is that kids born today will never get to drive a car,” Christensen told the San Diego Union-Tribune in mid-December. “Autonomous, driverless cars are not 10, 15 years out. All the automotive...

Every once in a while — and perhaps especially now, if we’re really going to talk about a trillion-dollar infrastructure program — we need to revisit the basics: “This is probably a column-length question, but what are the solutions to traffic congestion in the D.C. region?” That reasonable question came in during the midst of last Monday’s online discussion about whether traffic conditions would be improved if everyone just went faster. (In fact, we would not all be better off if you’d just go as fast as the driver behind you wants.) What are we really hoping to achieve when...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Sean McGarvey, the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, says he fully expects President Trump to keep his promises to push a trillion-dollar infrastructure program and that he expects Congress to enact it by the end of the year. He did not say, however, that all of the tens of thousands of jobs such a program would create would be union jobs. McGarvey brushed aside criticism from some quarters in the labor and allied movements about his meeting with President Trump and three other building trades union leaders at the White House only three days...

DENVER — Each morning Yadira Sanchez and her three children awaken to the roar of traffic and the plumes of exhaust that spill from the highway that cuts through their neighborhood. Now, Ms. Sanchez and her family are confronting a plan to triple the width of this state’s main east-west artery, sending tens of thousands more cars by their door. Denver was the fastest-growing large city in America in 2015, with a population of nearly 700,000, and the scene of a tech and marijuana boom that has drawn 1,000 new households a month. But as in other cities, its highways...