Posted on 09/15/2018 10:47:40 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A group of college students is working together with lawmakers and communities to try to make the route to locations throughout the southeast a little shorter by using Interstate 14 to connect Killeen, Texas, with Columbus, Georgia. The idea started when Frank Lumpkin was in high school, taking part in Youth Leadership Columbus. While taking part in the class, he said he realized that the city needed more infrastructure to succeed, and he said he has been working on the project ever since.
“From the moment I saw this robust transportation network that linked the southern military instillations, would address persistent poverty issues that we are facing and would overall connect isolated places, I just had a gut feeling, and I knew this is what needed to happen for the future of our region,” Lumpkin said.
Now, Lumpkin is a sophomore at the University of Georgia, and he is working with other students and lawmakers to find support for Interstate 14.
“It addresses poverty through opportunity, and opportunity is better for everyone,” Lumpkin said. “It is better business, and it is going to attract the sort of businesses that our region currently is not able to persuade to come here.”
The students expect the interstate to have a major economic impact on cities and counties within a 50 to 100-mile radius of the interstate by attracting businesses and jobs to communities near the interstate.
“The economic impact could be huge on this,” said Justus Armstrong, a sophomore at Auburn University. “First you have jobs in construction and maintenance on I-14 itself. That is before the interstate is even built. The main way that jobs and economic prosperity is going to be implemented is through the manufacturers and business coming in. These manufacturers are going to need a large roadway to ship their products out to market quicker. The way that is going to happen is an interstate.”
Significantly for Troup County residents, the interstate would create an easy travel route across portions of the Alabama and Mississippi that can only be accessed currently by smaller state highways.
“This opens up for LaGrange the entire southern part of Georgia and Alabama because we’ll have a corridor that goes all the way from Columbus to Augusta and from Columbus to Montgomery and into Mississippi,” Lumpkin said.
“All of those regions currently are untapped because they have no way to be connected to the grand transportation network that we call the interstate highway system. That will allow people in those areas to commute to LaGrange. It provides that shortcut from [Interstate] 14 to [Interstate] 85.”
The students were optimistic about the possibility of the interstate being built, and with local governments in Columbus, Georgia; Russell County, Alabama; Warner Robins, Georgia; Talbot County, Georgia; Macon, Georgia; Butler, Georgia; and Phenix City, Alabama, on board the proposal is making headway, but the students realize that the project still has a long way to go.
“The biggest thing holding us back is lack of awareness,” Lumpkin said. To learn more about Interstate 14, visit My14.org.
I remember pictures of college students building roads in China.
One can only hope.
A whole bunch of nothing to connect.
It’s a shame Elon Musk is not in a healthy emotional state right now. And that leftist bureaucratic tentacles get in the way of innovation... Otherwise we’d be working on high-speed tunnel thingies or whatever.
We need more and wider interstates.
We need more and wider interstates.
We do and straighter too. Use those big tunneling machines to go through the mountain ranges. Just a straight shot through the mountains..
All you need to do is connect Hw 80 in Alabama with I-20 and you’re all set. Why Killeen, TX?
Exactly
Turn old 80.....Bloody Alley between York and Montgomery into a nice limited access four lane
No it isn't, you idiot. There is little to no merit in this idea - just look at a map of the areas concerned. This interstate you are proposing is only about 50 miles from two other interstates (20 and 85) that do the same thing. Mr. Lumpkin, take an operations research class or two, pass them and get back to me afterwards.
His great idea ends at Fort Hood, Texas.
An interstate from nowhere to nowhere, that’s the ticket. You can’t create a demand for traffic where there is none to begin with. Just build decent access highways to I20 if warranted
If they really wanted to attract business or commerce development....first, work on your state/local property taxes (since it’s Texas, you can skip that step). Second, you offer up 99-year leases on property for development at a dirt-cheap rate. Third, you gear up your local community college to offer technology or occupational skills and recruit high school kids to make this their path. Fourth, you ensure crime and corruption stay at a low level.
Once you do these things...then you go and recruit companies to make your area their base.
Draw a line 20 miles south of Atlanta from the Atlantic through Mississippi and use I-10 at the the bottom...there is nothing there except mosquito farms as far as the eye can see. They raise champion “no-see-ums” by the billions.
Requiring a new bridge over the Mississippi, too. I guess it could still be an acceptable price - if it pulled half the heavy truck traffic off of I-10. The truck traffic on I-10 really makes the river crossing at Baton Rouge suck.
I would just stop at Waco. (You would just need to go down 35 a few miles and get 190 to Killeen). Most of the road is already built. They just need to upgrade it. Most of the existing road is I-20, which connects Atlanta to Dallas.
Back in college (early ‘80s) we were doing a geophysical study in the neighborhoods of Colorado Springs. Part of it included land surveying. We looked official with the gear and safety vests, but being college kids and it was summer, and hot, we would fill up our water bottles from a household hose once in awhile.
One lady came out and I apologized. “Oh for heavens sake go ahead. But would you all like some ice-cold lemonaide too?” We sat in the shade and chatted and we told her about our school assignment.
Another lady came out and yelled at us for sitting in the shade of her tree down by the street. Of course now I get it, but being in college it seemed a bit much. (Actually even now it seems like a bit much.)
Anyway, we apologize and got off her lawn. But she’s still complaining. “And what are you doing out here anyway - what’s going on!?”
“Oh - you didn’t get the notice ma’am?”
“What notice - I didn’t get any notice!! What’s going on!!??”
“Oh - well everyone in this area was sent a notice. We’re surveying for the new Interstate I-5 bypass. You should have received a notice.”
“Interstate!! Well I never got...so who do I contact about it. An interstate!!”
“Well ma’m we don’t know anything about who to contact, we’re just surveyors. I suppose call the Colorado Department of Transportation and they can point you in the right direction.”
In another class (an actual surveying class) we laid out a campground facility near the campus. Roads, scouted good level spots to park cars and pitch tents, etc. That actually did get constructed based on the kid’s surveying. Well - I suppose our work was just for preliminary design. Although it was just a campground, so maybe they did use our actual maps for construction.
We need an 8-lane bay from Casper AT to Idaho Falls
And from Brattleboro BY to Manchester Nh
And Livingston TH to Huntsville AL
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