freeze

Drivers stranded on the Illinois Tollway during the current deep freeze in the Chicago area have a good chance of getting help quickly. The Tollway is implementing a program which adds eleven patrol vehicles to the 460km (286 mile) tollway system with the prime task of assisting any stranded motorists.

Friday May 18 came and went without the Texas Legislature (Lege in local slang) managing to get agreement on a substitute for the HB1892 Kill-TxDOT/freeze-concessions which the pols who crafted it concede is a crude bomb with an overly large blast zone and likely costly colateral damage. But the Texan pols efforts to craft a legislative weapon with more precision guidance characteristics - SB792 - this week foundered over details of the target set.

Texas DOT have at last broken their silence over the state legislature's month long rampage through the state's tollroad program. In a four page response dated May 4 to a question from state Rep Fred Hill (north Dallas County) about the impact of HB1892 on projects in the Dallas area TxDOT executive director Michael Behrens says it "will delay projects currently in procurement... and may cause some projects to be halted altogether."

Texas acrobatic senator from north Dallas John Carona has done another flip. He's back in the freeze camp. SB1267 freezing toll concessions - with a few exceptions - has been passed by his transport committee after all.

Last week he said a moratorium was bad legislation and he wouldn't move it from his committee, even though he was one of the authors of the bill.