Free Republic

The State Patrol said in a statement that freezing rain early Thursday morning left the interstate between Menomonie and Black River Falls icy. At about 5:45 a.m. a semi-trailer apparently slid in the median near Hixton and caught fire with two cars underneath it. Other crashes and run-offs occurred around the semi-trailer. No one was seriously hurt but the crashes forced authorities to close both eastbound and westbound lanes. Authorities add there were many other secondary crashes and run-offs in the same vicinity, and passengers of those vehicles were taken to a safe location by bus. WITI-TV initially reported more...

WisDOT has wrapped up its long-awaited reconstruction of Interstate 94 between Milwaukee and the Illinois state line on schedule and on budget. Michael Pyritz, regional communications manager for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s southeast region, said work on the final 18.5-mile stretch of the reconstruction project was deemed “substantially complete” earlier this week. He said WisDOT’s goal all along was to have that section finished by the start of summer. He also said the project, which was overseen by Michels Corp., appears to have remained within the department’s $410 million project or even come in below it, although some work...

Residents of St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood, which was torn apart when Interstate 94 was built in the 1960s, are continuing their years-long push to reconnect the predominantly Black neighborhood and right a wrong. On Tuesday, leaders of the nonprofit Reconnect Rondo testified during a virtual House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee meeting (watch it here) about their proposal to build a land bridge over I-94, which they say will revitalize the community that was devastated by the racist policy decisions that led to a neighborhood being destroyed to build a highway. To right this wrong, Reconnect Rondo, which has been...

Black Lives Matter protesters walked onto I-94 in St. Paul, Minnesota, to obstruct highway traffic on Wednesday evening. A local Fox affiliate reported that authorities “blocked off traffic in the area” where the protesting crowd entered the interstate. “About 400 people were marching to protest the lack of more serious charges against officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s death,” according to the Star Tribune, which also reported that police and state patrol “made no move to stop or arrest protesters.”

State transportation officials want to do something about traffic and safety on Interstate 94 between downtown Minneapolis and Interstate 694, as well as state Highway 252 between I-694 and Highway 610. Minnesota Department of Transportation is considering converting a stretch of highway into a freeway and putting MnPASS lanes on I-94 and 252. But some are raising concerns about what the proposed changes might mean for residents of north Minneapolis who live along the I-94 corridor. Alex Burns is chair of the Sierra Club North Star Chapter's land use and transportation team. He said that more traffic on I-94 will...

Two people were arrested Sunday morning by the Racine County Sheriff’s deputies for driving well in excess of the speed limit through the Interstate 94 construction zone. At 8:55 a.m., a deputy clocked a vehicle traveling 110 mph in a posted 60 mph construction zone in the northbound lane on I-94 in the Village of Raymond. The deputy spoke with the driver — 41-year-old Jose L. Mendoza of Racine — about his speed, and allegedly smelled the odor of intoxicants coming from Mendoza. Mendoza reportedly refused to perform field sobriety tests and was arrested and cited for speeding. Suggested charges...

MADISON -- The state Department of Transportation has scrapped new bids on the massive Zoo Interchange project as lawmakers put the long-delayed state budget on the back burner and focus on Foxconn incentives instead.A special session will start at 11 a.m. Tuesday, August 1st on a bill that would extend $3 billion in tax breaks to the Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn, which has pledged to build a multi-billion dollar plant in southeastern Wisconsin and hire thousands of workers. A public hearing could happen this week.Meanwhile, Wisconsin's budget is a month late. Without funding, the state DOT has withdrawn three proposals...

Bill Bertram frequently felt uneasy as cars whizzed past while he waited in traffic to reach the Tri-State Tollway's Grand Avenue exit ramp in Gurnee in the months after a $19.4 million reconstruction project was completed in 2015. Thoughts of being a sitting duck for a rear-end crash crossed his mind. Still, the 59-year-old Round Lake Beach resident said, driving north on the tollway to the westbound exit ramp was the most efficient option to head home from his Evanston job. On Nov. 16, at about 5:15 p.m., the rear-end crash he worried about happened. Bertram was stuck in a...

ACLU of Minnesota wants St. Paul to drop all charges against 46 people who shut down Interstate 94 Saturday night during a protest of Philando Castile’s death. Mayor Chris Coleman characterized the demonstration as a riot after it turned violent, leaving 21 officers injured. “These charges appear to be based on the actions of what most parties, including a St. Paul police spokesperson, agree were outside agitators,” said ACLU Minnesota’s executive director, Charles Samuelson, in a written statement Tuesday

A crash that has shut down traffic in both directions on I-94 in eastern Kalamazoo County involves a truck hauling fireworks, police say. Lt. Dale Hinz with Michigan State Police said he was informed that the crash is fatal although he hasn't been to the scene to confirm that information. Multiple semi trucks and vehicles are involved and Hinz said motorists should avoid the area

Over the last decade approximately 80 young men attending college in relatively rural communities along I-94 -- the northernmost east-west interstate highway -- have mysteriously disappeared after leaving a party or bar alone, and many of them subsequently have been discovered as drowning victims in nearby rivers, ponds and lakes. Their deaths routinely have been classified as accidental drownings but former Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter Kristi Piehl, with the help of a team of experts including a forensic pathologist, a former federal agent, and a former New York District Attorney, believes that at least some of the deaths are homicide....

The Illinois State Police are using vans with cameras and radar guns to photograph motorists and other drivers who speed through highway construction zones, and are enforcing strict penalties for alleged offenders. Citations for a first offense are $375, and a second offense can cost $1,000 and a 90-day suspension of driver’s license. State Police officials said four white vans, which are equipped with radar guns, cameras and a monitor to show drivers their speed, have been deployed at different construction zones in the state. As of Thursday, June 5, those vans are deployed at the widening project on the...

Several Oklahoma legislators are concerned that individuals and organizations are quietly working on plans to create a privately-operated tollway in Oklahoma. Many referred to Spain-based Cintra, which has been involved in the development of a proposed Trans-Texas Corridor. Cintra also took over the operation of the Indiana East-West Toll Road from the Indiana Department of Transportation in 2006. Oklahoma State Sen. Randy Brogdon and state representatives Eric Proctor, Richard Morrisette, Scott Inman and Charles Key all expressed concern that efforts to open up Oklahoma to a privately operated tollway system were being kept out of the view of the general...

NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY | An urban myth or reality? Super suspicious foes The government denies any such plans, but campaign against it continues. By MATT STEARNS McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON | If the government really has a secret plan for a 12-lane road-and-rail NAFTA Superhighway that will split the heartland from Mexico to Canada, it is playing with a great poker face. “There is absolutely no U.S. government plan for a NAFTA Superhighway of any sort,” said David Bohigian, an assistant secretary of commerce. Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican and a powerful member of committees that would authorize and pay for...

A proposed North American “super corridor” would relieve overburdened highways and promote economic growth in three countries, supporters say. But others wonder whether the proposal might bring in cheap exports and put unsafe Mexican trucks on U.S. roads. The issue takes center stage at a three-day conference that begins today in Fort Worth, Texas. More than 350 transportation, logistics and economic development specialists from the United States, Canada and Mexico are meeting. The conference is sponsored by Dallas-based North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition. The nonprofit coalition, whose members include public- and private-sector organizations, wants to develop an integrated transportation system linking...

Robert Poole, a mechanical engineer who has advised the administrations of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to privatize U.S. highways, estimates that more than $25 billion in Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) highway projects are planned or approved in the United States. Now, a prominent Oklahoma state representative has invited Poole to promote his PPP toll road ideas, a move evidently designed to counter growing citizen opposition. Poole Lobbies for PPP Highways in Oklahoma Oklahoma House Speaker, Republican Lance Cargill, the founder of a group known as The 100 Ideas Initiative, has invited Poole to give a June...

BROOKLYN CENTER (AP) - Two adults and a teenage boy were charged Monday in the Interstate 94 shooting that left a motorist critically injured with a gunshot to the head. Jorge Alberto Quijada, 23, of Detroit Lakes, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with two counts of attempted murder. He's accused of firing shots at the victim, allegedly after flashing gang signs.

Have you heard the one about the U.S. government and transportation agencies secretly trying to lay the groundwork for a "NAFTA Superhighway," and a North American Union with no borders between Canada, the United States and Mexico and one currency for everyone? You may have heard that an organization called NASCO -- North America's SuperCorridor Coalition -- has allegedly been working secretly to construct a "NAFTA Superhighway" from Mexico through the United States to Canada, erase our borders and freely allow illegal immigrants and terrorists into our country. Plus, the group is allegedly working to get a Mexican customs facility...

Question: In January 1996, I tried to cross the border illegally by faking that I was a US citizen, and at that time I was 17 years old. They caught me, and I was returned to Mexico. I solicited my laser visa (border crossing card) in 2003, and I've had it since then. But now that I want to solicit the I-94 permit (permit to travel beyond the "border regions") and since they take fingerprints as part of the process, I'm afraid to lose the visa because I was also fingerprinted when I was caught. Could this happen when I...