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...

Truckers entering New York City by bridges and tunnels operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will receive a 50 percent discount on tolls during overnight hours this summer. From July 10 and Sept. 1, trucks will receive the discount between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. at the Henry Hudson Bridge, Whitestone Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, RFK Triborough Bridge, Queens Midtown Tunnel, Hugh L. Carey Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge. The move is part of an effort to alleviate “the near-term summer crisis,” MTA said in...

The cost of driving in Pennsylvania is going up on two fronts in the new year. First, the state tax on wholesale motor fuels will increase Jan. 1 — 8 cents for gasoline and nearly 11 cents for diesel fuel. Those costs are expected to be passed on to retail prices at the pump. A week later, tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike will increase for the ninth year in a row, this time by 6 percent. The change will increase the cost of a trip from Ohio to New Jersey from $48.90 to $51.85 for cash and from $34.93 to...

A tractor-trailer hauling glue and loose tea overturned along the Pennsylvania Turnpike Tuesday morning. The big rig wrecked around 9:15 a.m. on the ramp from the eastbound Turnpike (I-276) to the Northeast Extension (I-476) in Plymouth Township Montgomery County, said state police. The 26-year-old driver luckily escaped with only a non-life-threatening hand laceration, said police. The force of the crash caused the trailer to crack as it came to a stop on its side along the grassy shoulder. As SkyForce10 hovered overhead a short time after the wreck, traffic slowly got by as crews worked to right the rig. Police...

Talk about crying over spilled milk. Authorities said an overturned tractor trailer spilled up to 6,000 gallons of milk onto a highway in Mt. Airy, Md., causing hours of delays on Wednesday morning. The incident happened about 6 a.m. on the eastbound side of Interstate 70. Milk spilled and at one point blocked all four lanes on the eastbound side. As of mid-morning, some of the lanes were getting by but traffic was reported to be heavy in the area. No one suffered major injuries.

A pair of elephants helped rescue the truck they were riding in when it got stuck in the mud on a trip from New Orleans to Dallas. It all happened on Tuesday around 7:03 a.m., when the tractor trailer transporting three elephants pulled over from Interstate 49 near the Powhatan exit in Louisiana and accidentally got stuck in some mud, the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s office said in a statement. “When deputies arrived on scene, they were astounded to find two elephants keeping the eighteen wheeler from overturning,” the sheriff’s office said. The elephants on the truck were being transported to...

Fayetteville, N.C. — Cumberland County investigators have arrested a woman accused of breaking into tractor-trailer trucks parked at rest areas and truck stops along Interstate 95.

State police from Belle Vernon and Greensburg chased a tractor-trailer for 34 miles through Fayette and Westmoreland counties in Western Pennsylvania as the driver threw items at his pursuers from the cab of his truck early Saturday. Christopher Boyer, 47, of Mifflintown, Juniata County, shoved a steel canister from his truck that hit and disabled a police car during the chase, according to state police. He also tossed a refrigerator, a mattress, his socks and his shoes. He was under the influence of Xanax, police said. cComments Another unintended cost of fracking. Dick at 3:25 PM February 15, 2015 Add...

HARRISBURG – A tractor-trailer driver faces charges after police say he forced a driver into the median in a road rage incident on Friday. State Police at Harrisburg charged Stepan Brezden, 42, of Willowbrook, Illinois, with one count of reckless driving and one count of driving on roadways laned for traffic after a road rage incident on Interstate 81 south near Lemoyne. Police said Brezden was driving his tractor-trailer erratically while “engrossed in a bout of road rage” with another driver. During the incident, police said Brezden forced the driver, a 22-year-old Mechanicsburg woman, into the center median of the...

Having tolls removed from a major route in British Columbia, Canada, has taken some of the sting out of the cost of operating a trucking business in that province, but there’s still plenty of sting to go around. In late September, the government removed a $20 truck toll and $10 passenger vehicle toll from the Coquihalla Highway, which connects the city of Hope to Kamloops, B.C., in the Canadian West. Provincial officials said that truckers were pleased with the move, and they were. “Given the price of fuel, truckers are very happy with this,” Bridgitte Anderson, spokeswoman for British Columbia...

The Texas Department of Transportation is asking Nueces County residents to attend a public meeting in Driscoll to comment and provide input on proposed upgrades of US 77 to a controlled access facility that meets interstate standards. The purpose of the meetings is to review proposed options for upgrading US 77 and to present recommendations, TxDOT officials said. The first round public meetings were held in early March. This second round of public meetings is being held as part of TxDOT's continued effort to gain public input on issues related to proposed improvements and to provide an opportunity for public...

TEXARKANA — The company selected to design Interstate 69 has revealed plans to also implement the world’s first air rail freight system in the corridor, possibly starting in Texarkana, Texas. “You [Texarkana ] have railroads here, you already have an interstate, bringing I-69 is another interstate, you’ve got Oklahoma, you’ve got I-49,” said Gary Kuhn, senior project manager for Zachary American Infrastructure. “This is what the logistics world likes to see — that opportunity to go from one mode to another very efficiently.” In a presentation to the Wilbur Smith Rotary Club, Kuhn said the freight shuttle is a new...

Drivers who get safely off Interstate 35E after arriving in Dallas from Austin or San Antonio have a certain look of relief – like they just outran a buffalo stampede. Only on I-35, the stampede is trucks. The white-knuckle experience helps make the case for some kind of reliever road, even a tolled one. Making that same case has been a harder sell for U.S. highways along the Gulf Coast and East Texas. Drivers there can judge their own level of congestion, and they have insisted that their mostly rural corridor doesn't warrant the major undertaking of a parallel turnpike....

McALLEN -- State senators on Tuesday ordered transportation officials to assess Texas' highway system and prioritize which regions are most in need of new roads. "We're expecting a full report, not some two-page letter," said state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security. "You can't begin addressing the funding problems until you know when the roads are expected to come on line." The transportation committee, which met Tuesday morning at McAllen City Hall, has been at odds with the Texas Department of Transportation since earlier this year, when the agency announced the halt...

County commissioners reaffirmed their stance against the Trans-Texas Corridor, and they took another step toward keeping county government transparent when they met Tuesday. First up on the court's agenda, commissioners heard a presentation by Connie Fogle on behalf of the newly formed Pineywoods Sub-Regional Planning Commission. According to Fogle, the Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 391, requires state agencies to coordinate with local commissions to "ensure effective and orderly implementation of state programs at the regional level." "Critical in the code is the word 'coordinate,'" she said. "This does not mean the commission has to cooperate. The intent is to...

Continuing a lifelong practice of helping rural East Texans, Nolan Alders attended a meeting in Austin Tuesday as a member of the citizens' advisory committee for the Trans-Texas Corridor highway project. Alders was among 18 representatives of communities that run along the route of the proposed highway, which runs from Laredo to Texarkana. The committee members prepared for their roles as community representatives, and heard comments from state transportation leaders, including Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Amadeo Saenz and Commissioner Ted Houghton of the Texas Transportation Commission. TxDOT literature says the TTC-69 committee — and another committee to represent...

SH 130 Concession Company LLC finalized the legal details of a financial close with Texas DOT on a $1,360m toll concession to build SH130 segments 5&6 Thursday and Friday last week in bankers' offices in New York City - at Orrick, 666 Fifth Avenue. The actual money flows should occur on Thursday or Friday (Mar 13 or 14) this week, Jose Maria Lopez de Fuentes, president of Cintra North America, told us this morning. Hundreds of documents and over 20 lawyers were involved last week representing TxDOT, private equity people, banks, mostly European, the TIFIA loan group from FHWA, and...

There's been a lot of talk about the new Trans-Texas Corridor — the next-generation "super-highway" — and opinions are varying. Now the debate is coming to Lufkin's doorstep. On Monday, the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range and TURF will hold a workshop at Lufkin's Pitser Garrison Civic Center on how to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor 69. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A portion of Texas citizens have voiced their opposition to the TTC-69 in public meetings held by the Texas Department of Transportation, but believing they are not being heard, four cities and their...

The Nacogdoches County commissioners court voted Tuesday to support numerous community members who have recently turned out in droves opposing the proposed I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor by adopting a resolution against the project. The resolution is expected to be sent to the Texas Department of Transportation and to the governor's office. Precinct 4 Commissioner Tom Strickland said that it's apparent most people in Nacogdoches County approved of the original project — a standard Interstate roadway. But now most are opposed to the large TTC structure. 145th District Court Judge Campbell Cox II submitted a map that showed several oil and gas wells...

TYLER - Heated debates are cropping up in rural East Texas communities as the Texas Department of Transportation hold hearings on the proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor. It's the first construction project of it's kind in the country. The Texas Department of Transportation says they want it to make room for a growing state. "A thousand people a day move to texas," says spokesman Larry Krantz,"where are these people going to drive? The population in Texas is going to explode by 60% in the year 2030." Their plans involve moving commercial trucks off existing interstate highways and onto one of two...