Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Highway Expansion

Ohio DOT Cedes Ground in Its Sneaky Highway Expansion Campaign

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 8, 2015 | 11 Comments

Opponents of a $1.4 billion highway expansion project outside Cincinnati have won some important concessions from Ohio DOT, but the agency’s stealth campaign to build an “interstate to the sea” isn’t over yet. Last week, ODOT announced that it will no longer pursue the relocation of State Route 32 through communities on the eastern edge of Cincinnati. “We’re […]

Putting TIGER Spending in Perspective

By Angie Schmitt | May 1, 2015 | 2 Comments

The House’s current transportation spending bill calls for reducing the share of federal spending that goes to TIGER, a grant program for sustainable transportation projects in cities, from $500 to $100 million. The budget, meanwhile, holds highway funding steady. TIGER is an enormously popular program. In its second year, it received close to 1,000 applications […]

Is the Lord For or Against a Texas County Road Bond? Opinions Mixed

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 9, 2015 | 14 Comments

Things are really getting heated in Montgomery County, Texas, just outside Houston, over a proposal to issue $350 million in bonds to maintain and expand roads. Like fire-and-brimstone heated. Earlier this week, at a county commissioners meeting, volunteer Mary Hammer Menzel referred to road bond opponents as “tools of satan” in her opening prayer, reports the Montgomery County Courier. […]

Cincinnati’s Highway Revolt on the Verge of Victory

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 25, 2015 | 2 Comments

Could the end be near for the $1.4 billion Eastern Corridor highway project proposed for eastern Cincinnati? Language added to Ohio’s transportation budget, which is being debated right now, would specifically “prohibit [Ohio DOT] from funding the Eastern Corridor Project in Hamilton County.” The amendment was introduced by Republican state lawmaker Tom Brinkman, who represents an eastern portion […]

Americans Are Driving Less, But Road Expansion Is Accelerating

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 20, 2015 | 14 Comments

Americans drive fewer miles today than in 2005, but since that time the nation has built 317,000 lane-miles of new roads — or about 40,000 miles per year. Maybe that helps explain why America’s infrastructure is falling apart. The new data on road construction comes from the Federal Highway Administration and reached our attention via Tony Dutzik at the Frontier […]

Wisconsin Dumps One Urban Highway Boondoggle in Favor of Another

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 19, 2015 | 5 Comments

One of the nation’s most poorly conceived highway proposals will become slightly less ridiculous. Transportation officials in Wisconsin recently announced they will no longer consider double-decking a portion of Interstate 94 in Milwaukee. The billion-dollar project would have raised the highway to building height in the Story Hill neighborhood. Wisconsin DOT hasn’t seen the light, […]

Show More Stories