Free Republic

LAPORTE — Law enforcement in LaPorte County is preparing for the possibility of an already-congested and dangerous U.S. 20 being overrun with more semi-trucks as drivers avoid the 35 percent cost increase of traveling the Indiana Toll Road. Much of that stretch of highway being down to one lane in each direction for resurfacing adds to the concerns. LaPorte County Sheriff John Boyd said he’s reached out to Indiana State Police to help patrol U.S. 20 if an increase in truck traffic becomes too much for his staff to handle alone. “We’re going to prepare for it,” Boyd said. “We’re...

A freelance automotive journalist worries a testing site operated by the Illinois Tollway Authority could be for more than just testing automated tollway technology. Paul Brian said he’s noticed a site with various sensors on northbound I-294 for years with a sign that reads “for testing purposes only.” Illinois Tollway Authority officials said the site is used for testing various sensors, but only for tollway purposes. The site, established in 2015, had an initial price tag of $2.7 million. “The Illinois Tollway has used the test site to study a range of systems – some of which were adopted and...

In less than two years, the Illinois tollway has hired six Republican insiders for high-level jobs that collectively pay nearly $916,000 a year, including a former elected official, political operatives and the relative of a state GOP leader. That troubles some government watchdogs who say they are concerned about favoritism in an agency with a history of patronage. Tollway officials said the agency is staffed with qualified professionals. "More and more the Illinois tollway is becoming the 'Who's Who' of Republican political hires," said Illinois Campaign for Political Reform Chairwoman Susan Garrett, a former Democratic state senator. Tollway spokesman Dan...

The Illinois Tollway is examining the possibility of embedding equipment into I-294 that would charge electric vehicles as they drive along the road. The agency is at the start of a $4 billion project to rebuild and widen a 22-mile stretch of I-294, also known as the Tri-State. As part of the project, the Tollway wants to add infrastructure to charge electric vehicles. Off the highway, that could include both conventional charging stations and “super-charger” stations that power up electric cars and trucks more quickly. The agency also is studying “smart-powered lanes,” a type of technology being tried in Sweden...

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP >> The long-awaited interchange connecting Interstates 95 and 276 (the PA Turnpike) in Bucks County is officially open. Officials from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the Pa. Department of Transportation (PennDOT), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and representatives from ground-transportation agencies in neighboring states gathered on Friday to commemorate completion of major, Stage 1 components of the Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project. “Motorists who travel in this area have been waiting a long time to realize the benefits this direct link will bring, namely reduced congestion on Bucks County roadways and improved traffic flow in the Philadelphia region and the...

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) - A little more than a year after El Paso's first toll road became history, it's resurfacing as part of a new construction project. This time it's going to be part of the Border West Expressway, an extension of Loop 375. It'll be going from West El Paso to Downtown El Paso, but many don't know this new stretch of highway is set to be a toll road. "The Border West Highway is what not enough of your viewers understand is being developed as a complete tolled project," said State Rep. Joe Pickett, (D) El Paso....

While there’s been much discussion about the pending plan to widen Interstate 10 through Baton Rouge, the $360 million earmarked for the project is not expected to cover all four phases of the work. Following a speech to the Baton Rouge Rotary Club today, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Shawn Wilson said state officials are confident the first two phases of the project—first widening and replacing the aging elevated portions of the highway from the I-10/I-110 merge to the City Park Lakes, then replacing the bridges over the lakes—can be completed within four years using federal Grant Anticipation...

MILTON — A driver was killed early Friday after rear-ending a car on Interstate 10 that had stopped due to road construction. According to a report from the Florida Highway Patrol, at around 2 a.m. Friday three cars were traveling east on Interstate 10 at mile marker 20, approaching Avalon Boulevard. Two of the cars, one driven by 38-year-old Amaury Cisneros Morales of Orlando and another driven by 57-year-old Brian Cordes of Slidell, Louisiana, came to a complete stop due to a construction roadblock in the area. A Freightliner truck traveling behind Morales’ car failed to stop and rear-ended the...

There have been three crashes in about one month on the newly opened Interstate 11, resulting in four deaths and causing concern with transportation officials. Representing the first new portion of highway added in the United States in 25 years, I-11 is a 15-mile stretch linking motorists between the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge near the Hoover Dam and Henderson, bypassing Boulder City. The celebration of the newly opened road on Aug. 9 was short-lived. On Aug. 14, a two-vehicle crash left two men dead. On Aug. 28, a two-vehicle crash left two dead and three injured. On Sept. 6,...

Plans for Interstate 14 have been expanded, and the Texas Department of Transportation will have a say in how a portion of the project is executed. Rep. Brian Babin of Beaumont, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, recently submitted a bill that would extend I-14 to Mississippi and effectively would bring two brand new interstates to West Texas. Under the already-approved plan known as Ports to Forts, I-14’s western terminus would be at I-10 and U.S. Route 190, near Iraan. US 190 would be converted to I-14 to Brady, and the project would continue eastward. The Midland-Odessa...

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...

(WLUK) -- One could argue summer is a synonym for construction season. You'll likely find orange barrels in the summer and traffic certain hours of the day. "I see it sometimes coming the other way," said Luke Agnew of Fall River. Once a week, Agnew makes the more than 100 mile drive from Columbia County to Door County."It's usually late evening or mid-morning," he said. He tries his best to avoid the stop and go but not all drivers can say the same. When it comes to the I-41 corridor between De Pere to Appleton, Gov. Scott Walker announced Wednesday:After...

Ever since the notion of widening Interstate 95 and making it a toll road was chased out of town by an angry mob, there was a bewildering silence out there. What to do about “America’s Main Street”? How to fix the nation’s first major interstate highway, parts of which bear a worrisome resemblance to what old-times saw on Day 1? In fact, some of those ancient parts are right in our backyard, including the too-low overpasses in Harnett County that trap an over-height truck from time to time. Harnett also owns a few of those short exit ramps that make...

The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) marked the fifth anniversary of the Connecting Arkansas Program (CAP). CAP, the 10-year highway improvement program, is busy with construction projects throughout the state, according to a news release. “Since July 2013, ARDOT has completed 11 construction projects and has another six under construction, equating to more than 85 miles of highway and interstate improvements. Another eight projects with 60 miles of widening or new-alignment construction are scheduled for bid openings later this year,” according to the release. CAP is one of the largest highway construction programs ARDOT has conducted. The work is a...

WASHINGTON — Extended Interstate 66 HOV hours and high morning tolls aimed at reducing the number of cars hitting a chokepoint passing the Dulles Connector Road appear to be the biggest drivers of traffic changes since tolls for solo drivers began in December.A new state review of traffic and tolling data on I-66 and parallel roads over the first six months finds more concentrated and severe eastbound traffic delays through the Rosslyn area now than in the same period last year between 8 a.m. and 9:15 a.m., but significantly reduced traffic jams on I-66 inside the Beltway elsewhere and during...

WASHINGTON — Routine sign replacement above an orphaned freeway in Foggy Bottom uncovered a roadside relic Thursday morning, evoking memories of an ambitious and contentious era in highway design.Cones were in place and two left lanes were blocked by 10 a.m. on the Interstate 66 Potomac River Freeway. Road crews with grinder saws and hammers were lifted by bucket trucks up to a weathered overhead structure behind the Kennedy Center.As strips of rotting plywood were pried off the face of a nearly 50-year-old sign, the outline of an Interstate 695 shield and two white arrows came into view, indicating a...

The U.S. Department of Transportation last week announced the award of $616.9 million of Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants for facilities in 45 states and four U.S. territories. This is the fourth allocation of this year's AIP funding of $3.18 billion. Awards typically range from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions and are determined according to each airport's activity and capital needs. The money goes toward maintenance, repair and new construction of taxiways, terminals and other airport infrastructure. Among the 408 airport infrastructure projects this round of funding will support are a noise mitigation initiative...

MOUNDSVILLE — Trump Administration officials are continuing to listen as West Virginia officials push for an expanded Interstate 68 from Morgantown through Marshall County. Marshall County Commissioner Robert Miller led a contingent to Washington, D.C., last week to meet with Brittany Carter, the White House assistant director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Miller said the group discussed the I-68 project’s prospects of being included within Trump’s expected $200 billion infrastructure improvement plan, which should be presented to Congress by the end of this year. The I-68 project is expected to cost at least $1 billion. “$200 billion isn’t a...

After nearly 15 years of planning, hundreds of public comments, and a handful of lawsuits, a page turned Friday morning for a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 70 in north Denver.A slate of prominent transportation officials and politicians, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, formally broke ground on the $1.2 billion "Central 70" Project that will remake that section of freeway that officials call the lifeblood of the quickly growing Denver metro area."Without infrastructure, you can't grow. That's just a fact of life," Hickenlooper said after the event. "It's really building the foundation for the next 50 years of economic development for Colorado."Critics...

So tolls will soon be increasing along the 88-mile West Virginia Turnpike. This doesnÂ’t come as much of a surprise, as the move to double tolls had gained significant momentum in recent months.Years ago, there appeared to be a solid push among lawmakers in the deep south counties to eliminate tolls once the original bond indebtedness associated with the construction of the turnpike expired. But a number of factors, including the stateÂ’s budget crisis in 2017, derailed those efforts.Members of the West Virginia Parkways Authority Board voted on June 7 to double tolls effective Jan. 1, 2019. The move will...