Free Republic

Workers in Johnson County could have hundreds of additional dollars taken out of their paychecks annually to help pay for roadwork in the county and an expansion of the county jail — work expected to cost more than $130 million in the next five years. The Johnson County Council unveiled an income tax increase proposal to fund $110 million in road, bridges and infrastructure improvements across the county, mainly due to the construction of Interstate 69, and an estimated $20 million jail expansion project that would address a frequently overcrowded jail that the state has ordered the county to fix....

Motorists on Interstate 270 could start seeing lane closures next week as construction crews begin resurfacing and restriping a highway spur that leads to the Beltway. The work marks the beginning of a $100 million project to ease traffic backups on the roadway, according to state transportation officials. “This is the first step in a major project to break daily gridlock,” Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete K. Rahn said in a prepared statement. The initial phase of the effort involves surfacing improvements on the section of I-270 that connects with the outer loop of the Beltway. The project, which is expected...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2008 – U.S. Army engineers are busy building roads and security outposts that are helping put previously isolated Afghans onto the path of peace and prosperity, a senior U.S. military officer posted in Afghanistan said today. Soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division’s 36th Engineer Brigade have constructed nearly 200 miles of secondary roads across daunting terrain since they arrived in eastern Afghanistan in March 2007, Brigade Commander Col. Richard Stevens told Pentagon reporters during a satellite-carried news conference. Those mostly gravel roads “traverse some of the most remote, mountainous and, if I may say, rugged terrain...

...and so it is upon us once again. Construction or as some put it, destruction season. Those of you who have ever been in Chicago know what I am talking about. You see, Chicago has five seasons. Now, before you start thinking about how you will tear this apart please know that I understand that there are necessary road repairs that need to be done with our bridges and the like. So, get lost. It's just that I have been seeing backward methods that seem to just fill time and damage the roads rather than improve them. Here is what...

NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 10, 2005 — Donkey cart, bicycle and the occasional jury-rigged car have dominated transportation methods in the bumpy, rugged rural Najaf Province of Iraq for many years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region South District has been paving the way for modern asphalt roads in these areas in order to facilitate agriculture sales and to provide better routes to village schools and hospitals. "The intent of these projects is to provide paved roads for everyday use by the local population." Art Bennett, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “(Gulf Region South) is currently managing the construction...