politics
Joe Brimmeier dodges debate with lease rep & new anti-PTC website
Posted Mon, 2008-06-23 17:18Turnpike Commission CEO Joe Brimmeier has declined a challenge from the lease representative Jim Courtovich to debate the lease in public forums.
He said in a hand delivered letter to Pennsylvania Transportation Partners that he wouldn't debate because the state legislature would decide the issue.
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Florida Governor backs Turnpike - vetoes House speaker Rubio favors for supporter
Posted Mon, 2008-06-16 18:24
Florida Governor Charlie Crist has vetoed corrupt legislation pushed through the legislature by House speaker Marco Rubio - legislation he admitted would protect the gasoline franchise on the Turnpike of a patron and supporter Max Alvarez.
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Toll authorities in Orlando area get hellish publicity from populist judge over violations messup
Posted Wed, 2008-04-23 21:37
A bombastic and one-sided opinion by an appeals court judge has got toll authorities in central Florida some hellish publicity in the local media. Judge John D Galluzo of the 18th Circuit (Seminole and Brevard counties) has dismissed all sixteen unpaid tolls and violation penalties against a firefighter Christopher Baird. 1310 words read more »
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Ohio Turnpike chairman declares his "leading candidate" for Suhadolnik job
Posted Wed, 2008-02-13 06:59The news is hardly out that Gary Suhadolnik is leaving and the Cleveland Plain Dealer declares a Democrat pol looking for a job is "the front-runner to take his place." The anointed pol is George Distel, a five term state representative for Ashtabula in the northeast corner of the state. Distel is not eligible to run for re-election this November
because of term limit laws.
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because of term limit laws.199 words read more »
Legislator tries for state tax credit compromise on Penn Turnpike's tolling I-80 but war goes on
Posted Fri, 2007-12-07 23:35
A Pennsylvania politician Scott Conklin from the middle of the I-80 corridor (Dem, Centre Co) says it's "time to be realistic" and to "find something practical" to address his constituents' concerns about tolling I-80. He's filing a bill in the state house to provide a tax credit of up to $500 per year for toll bills on I-80 as verified by E-ZPass electronic toll accounts. 1251 words read more »
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Kolluri says key to unlocking value of New Jersey pikes is ending political veto power over tolls
Posted Tue, 2007-12-04 21:02
New Jersey transportation commissioner Kris Kolluri said today that the key to unlocking the value of the state's tollroads is a realistic and predictable future toll rate regime free of political interference. 805 words read more »
New Jersey Gov represented as shady salesman "hocking the highways"
Posted Sun, 2007-12-02 10:51The Asbury Park Press, the leading newspaper on the Jersey shore has taken discussion of Governor Jon Corzine's protracted policymaking on the future of the state's tollroads to a new level of passion by portraying him on their frontpage as a sleazy salesman under the headline "Hocking the Highways". (see nearby) There was a subhead "Broken promises of New Jersey's toll roads".
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Penn Pike chief provokes fierce denunciations
Posted Wed, 2007-11-21 21:40
Pennsylvania Turnpike CEO Joseph Brimmeier is provoking fierce attacks on the Turnpike Commission. His hometown newspaper the Pittsburgh Tribune Review's editorial this morning is an example. Under the headline "Turnpike termerity: stop the games" they denounced the Turnpike demand that US Congressman John Peterson from northern Pennsylvania provide ID and proof of residency before they would consider his request for details of the Commission's spending on lobbyists.374 words read more »
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Appeal to those who heard Joe Brimmeier in Vienna - please be in touch
Posted Wed, 2007-11-21 07:46Would anyone who heard Joe Brimmeier speak at IBTTA in Vienna who has a clear recollection, notes or a recording, please contact me by telephone 301 631 1148 or email editor@tollroadsnews.com
IBTTA staff made a tape of the session but I'm told it was destroyed.
Because of Brimmeier's track record of nasty attacks on anyone who crosses him it is likely people will only want to speak off the record, and I undertake to treat all communications in confidence.
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IBTTA staff made a tape of the session but I'm told it was destroyed.
Because of Brimmeier's track record of nasty attacks on anyone who crosses him it is likely people will only want to speak off the record, and I undertake to treat all communications in confidence.
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TxDOT backs away from Trans Texas Corridor 69 plan - to look first at using existing highway
Posted Wed, 2007-11-14 13:31
Texas DOT are retreating from the concept of Trans Texas Corridors along the route of their #2 TTC - the planned TTC69. Further planning will focus first on upgrading existing highways with new corridor right of way a secondary option. The department is accommodating opposition to the grand - some would say grandiose - plans for wide totally new corridors sweeping across the countryside as announced by Gov Rick Perry in 2002, and pictured in the concept shown below.
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Massachusetts legislators file bill to seize toll setting power from Turnpike board and freeze tolls
Posted Fri, 2007-11-02 20:43
A bill has been filed in the Massachusetts state legislature to block toll increases approved on Monday by the Turnpike Authority board. The bill SB2086 is titled "An Act relative to freezing the Massachusetts Turnpike tolls at current levels."
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Oberstar gives JLO Safe Routes to School Award - FHWA, AASHTO tag along (COMMENT)
Posted Mon, 2007-10-29 20:08
What next? Congressional prizes, orders and medals issued by the grandees of Capitol Hill? Why not titles next? Knighthoods, baronies? Their issuance would be occasions for self promotion and fundraising, and what else is it that modern politicians look for.US Congressmen are taking it upon themselves to issue "awards." In their own name, to boot.
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Toller in S Calif offers state parks $100m to seal deal on Foothill South TR
Posted Fri, 2007-09-28 18:32
The Foothill Eastern TCA tollroad in southern California has made an offer of $100m to the California State Parks System in an effort to resolve a longstanding dispute over the routing of the final 26km (16 miles) of the Foothill CA241 tollroad. The extension often called Foothill South most of which is in Orange County will hook into I-5 just inside San Diego County. 775 words read more » Envirofraud - unscrupulous road haters threaten mobility by distorting the science
Posted Sat, 2007-09-15 11:42
Air pollution scaremongering long been used by environmental groups to block the road building needed to alleviate congestion - even though the resulting stop-&-go and idling traffic worsens emissions. In many US metro areas air quality data have been misused by environmentalists and their friends in the regulatory agencies to bar all lane additions - except for HOV lanes. And they are wastefully empty.
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Larry Craig - off topic... well not entirely
Posted Sat, 2007-09-15 11:19American politics should be located in the sports and entertainment sections of newspapers. Most politics is a sporting contest to win, though the players play fast and loose with the rules. Trouble is the umpires only get to adjudicate at most every two years, and meanwhile the teams run wild.
Some of politics is sheer entertainment. Think of the old rogue Bill Clinton, but that comedy
series is in rerun.
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Sen K B Hutchison flip - says toll prohibition bills don't really prohibit tolling
Posted Thu, 2007-09-13 14:26
Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (Repub) has now issued a statement claiming that none of her "toll prohibition bills" really prohibit tolling! A statement of Sept 12 from her office says: "Efforts to toll newly constructed lanes or new highways would not be prohibited in Sen Hutchinson's amendment (S AMDT 2825 to HR3074), or in S2109 or HR3510."
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Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure - Murthamoney
Posted Sun, 2007-09-09 20:50
The Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure (CICI) sounds like an outfit that would promote sensors built into roads and bridges and might be of interest to tollroads. Tollroads are leaders in road instrumentation - with electromagnetic and fiberoptic loops in the pavement, light curtains in toll lanes, laser and optical profilers overhead, radar detection and tracking of vehicles, weigh in motion gear, pavement modules to predict icing, weather stations, video surveillance, and more. 731 words read more »
Dallas area MPO says choice of NTTA conforms with federal rules neglecting mention of Cintra/GS selection
Posted Thu, 2007-08-09 22:28
The Dallas area metro plan organization (MPO) says it has reached agreement with the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) on terms for its development of SH121, a new tollroad north of Dallas. 488 words read more »
North Carolina Turnpike setback - legislature won't provide $52m/yr "gap" finance for TRs
Posted Fri, 2007-08-03 19:32
The North Carolina Turnpike Authority's (NCTA) big plans for toll projects are stalled by the failure of the lower house to provide revenue to cover what the Turnpike calls "gap financing" - the difference between the estimated cost and the bonds the Turnpike estimates it can float. 445 words read more »
Orlando Toll's PR man's bribery charge settled
Posted Fri, 2007-08-03 19:12
Ron Pecora the longtime marketing and PR consultant to Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) won't face bribery charges in court after all. State prosecutors agreed to drop the prosecution without an admission of guilt from Pecora and in return for 100 hours of community service.
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