News

All too often the state is tempted into activities to which it is either ill-suited or which are beyond its capabilities… It begins to believe that it knows how to manage business. But let me tell you, it doesn't, as we discovered in Britain in the 1970s….

2013-04-08: The Kansas Turnpike lives on, kind of. Governor Sam Brownback's surprise move late January to disband the Authority and turn the state's big tollroad over to the state DOT has been soundly defeated in the state legislature. Late last week the state house and senate agreed on changes to save face for the Governor - they're all Republicans.

2013-04-07: An angry Penn Pike worker writes - You have nothing nice to say ever about the PA Turnpike. You didn't find it newsworthy that one of my coworkers was KILLED in the line of duty in October 2012. And you print an article from a motorist who said we stand around and do nothing. You are truly clueless. You didn't think this was newsworthy on your site?

2013-04-04: The Philadelphia Inquirer's Paul Nussbaum reports this morning that there's a major federal investigation of crimes allegedly committed in the name of "economic development" involving the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) the bistate agency that operates the four major toll bridges linking Philadelphia with the south Jersey suburbs on the east bank of the Delaware River.

2013-04-03: March 28 North East Texas RMA and TxDOT opened an important 10.2 mile, 16.5km stretch of their Toll 49 loop on the westside of Tyler providing the first link to the interstates - to I-20.  Called Segment 3B the new stretch provides a straight shot off the interstate to the southern part of the Tyler area.

2013-04-02: Orlando Sentinel readers were told this morning that local toll authority officials were "fretting" over possible train wrecks on the FL528 Beachline Expressway. "Expressway frets over wrecks with proposed Miami-to-Orlando train" reads the headline in the major area newspaper.

2013-04-01: The 130 tollroad down the east side of the 1.87m pop Austin TX metro area is seeing strong growth in traffic and revenues. In the first two months of the year traffic on the 49 mile, 79km TxDOT portion (segments 1 thru 4) is up 20% over last year despite higher toll rates.

2013-03-31: Federal permitting of highway projects has reached new levels of absurdity in North Carolina. The Feds have suspended consideration of permits for the southeast extension of NC540 belt route unless North Carolina DOT reinstates studies of a 'Red Route' which by state law it is not allowed to do. Project planning  for the southeast extension - a southside part of the 540 belt route around the NC capital - has been on hold for over two years now.

2013-03-28: Operators of the 130 tollroad down the east side of the Austin TX metro area are trying to attract trucks, and they are offering promotional toll rates for a year. The big 18-wheelers and others will only be charged car rates. There have previously been month-long discounts like this.  They worked but a TxDOT person told us they think the deep discounting for a longer period will work bette.

2013-03-27: As a small boy I remember the iceman who'd deliver an ice block each day in summer, other times of the year less often. About 15 inches by 10 x 10 an ice block was quite heavy and of course slippery. The iceman used a kind of hook on a handle to grab an ice block from his vehicle and threw it on his shoulder where he perched it on a tailored shoulder pad for the last leg of its delivery. The dog knew him and the place was left open.