Indiana's Bridge Deal Boondoggle, Part 1: A Financial Fiasco
- Indiana gives away $1.7 billion to Kentucky -
- Indiana’s costs up by $200 million while total project costs decline by $1.5 billion -
- $432 million diverted from other projects to close funding gap recreated by Indiana’s botched negotiators -
- Tolling likely to mean Indiana pays well over half the project –
- Indiana potentially exposed to major risk by agreeing to build a tunnel in Kentucky through Louisville’s most affluent suburb that the state has no expertise to construct -
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
At The Urbanophile: "Indiana's Bridge Deal Boondoggle, Part 1: A Financial Fiasco."
Me thinks this series by Aaron M. Renn in The Urbanophile will be required reading these next few days.
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5 comments:
I am reminded daily, via the I-65 fiasco, that 4 months into the crisis not a single police cruiser is ever seen on the Indiana side of the river helping with traffic flow. There are at least 5 cruisers with men on the job as soon as you enter Louisville via 2nd St bridge.
Secondly, after 4 months the best minds we have in transportation planning apparently think the only help Hoosiers need getting to Kentucky is to put a plastic lane divider on the Kennedy bridge, thus ensuring only people from the west (new albany) will have to wait even longer in the backup. Brilliant. Take down the friggin dividers, station a police cruiser where 41 merges with 65. How hard is that? One cruiser?!
Who would trust a regional transportation planner after this? There is no plan, there never was a plan, to move Hoosiers from their cheap greenspaces to their jobs and schools etc in Louisville.
I enter 65 from I265 every day. I see 4-5 state police cars every day. "Traffic" seems to be eliminating the dividers pretty quickly. I agree about the dividers. All they did was back up traffic further into Indiana.
All through this, the problem on SB 65 isn't the southbound through traffic. It's the poor folks that have to get on 64. Once getting to the bridge, going further south on 65 is the proverbial piece of cake.
Build the East End Bridge ONLY.
Mark, wouldn't it be better to move just one of those State Police cars further toward the bridge, like where 41 comes in...the stress and road rage really builds there. The state police told me recently, after a semi-tractor ran into me at that merge, that it's a nightmare there. He said something like I go to 8 of these a day, meaning crashes like mine, at that merge. There is just enough space in the merge for one "lights-on" police car.
I wasn't trying to argue with you, Gina. I'm not familiar with where you are talking about. I get in the far left lane on SB 65 and just stay there until I get across the bridge. Unlike some of the idiots flying down the right hand lanes and then trying to merge back over to the left lanes when approaching the bridge. (today, there wasn't anybody "flying" in any lane)
There are a lot bad spots and I'm sure not enough police to go around.
I meant where HIghway 31 merges with 65...that's confusing, sorry.
Get the trucks there own bridge, at their expense, anyone can see they dominate 65. One bridge - freight only - paid for by the companies putting all of Americas freight through our city.
The companies like UPS, Ford GE, Humana, Samtex,... that deploy these road eaters have the cash to build roads and bridges. Pay to play.
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