Category Archives: Freeways

Will Busalacchi advocate for state transit funding?

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County Executive Chris Abele’s appointment of former State Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi to head up the county’s transportation division is an unnecessary insult to Milwaukee, given Busalacchi’s unending efforts to make Milwaukee just another throughway for people driving home to the exurbs.

Will Busalacchi suddenly turn in his roadbuilder underpants to become an advocate for transit funding? Not if he is consistent with his past. Here’s just a small JS snippet from his days as head of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation:

And Busalacchi, in a response to (Mayor Tom) Barrett, said the city and county and not his department are responsible for the mass transit improvements needed to meet the planning goals for 2035.

“What is lacking is local and regional consensus and commitment to actually develop and implement these services, all of which are local responsibilities,” Busalacchi wrote.

Yup. Here’s a quick guide to Busalacchi’s state funding priorities: Unnecessarily expanded freeways, good; maintaining state roads and highways, not so very good at all; supporting transit, really bad.

Walker: heading into the transportation funding abyss?

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Is Gov. Walker’s road-building binge going to keep Wisconsin mired in the budgetary blues?

His proposals to charge ahead with freeway creation and expansion all over the state never did make much economic sense — hey, gov, the economy will not be helped if trucks can get between cities on new freeways, but break their axles on ruined local roads — but they seem less and less reasonable when the federal highway trust fund is considered. Congress just can’t get a deal done on funding, which means that state taxpayers may end up funding more of the road binge than Walker and his gang are letting on.

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—A six-year $556 billion highway and transit construction program proposed by President Barack Obama is the latest casualty of Washington’s spending stalemate.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), who is leading talks on the issue, said Wednesday she is now considering a two-year measure that would freeze federal spending on road, bridge and transit projects at existing levels.

The White House had called for a six-year infrastructure bill in his fiscal 2012 budget in part as a measure to create jobs and boost the economy. But lawmakers haven’t agreed on how to pay for the bill, amid a broader debate over how to slash federal spending.

Ms. Boxer, the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said “funding challenges” could require a two-year, $109 billion bill setting funding at existing levels plus inflation. The bulk, if not all, of the funding for such a bill would come from the federal gasoline tax. Lawmakers would still need to plug a $12 billion shortfall under that bill, because gas-tax revenue is falling.

This just won’t solve it

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As Gov. Walker pushes the state and country toward further dependency on oil and the despotic, murderous regimes it supports, new figures from the Energy Information Administration show a tiny, tiny increase in domestic oil production. The increase is not enough to even hint that Walker’s road-only policies are good ones, and the increase comes mostly from a jump in environmentally damaging shale production. Nothing to feel much good about here.Domestic oil production

Gas prices hit April high

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From the Energy Information Administration’s This Week in Petroleum (emphasis added):

The U.S. average retail price of regular gasoline increased more than a nickel from last week to $3.84 per gallon. This is $0.98 per gallon higher than last year at this time and is the highest price in April since EIA began tracking weekly data in 1990. The East Coast region tallied the biggest gain in price, more than six cents higher than the previous week, and was followed by the Gulf Coast where prices increased over five cents. The West Coast notched a gain of about five cents to send the average price to $4.08 per gallon; it remains the only major region in the country where gasoline averages more than $4 per gallon. The Midwest registered a four-cent increase on the week. The gasoline price in the Rocky Mountains was also about four cents higher but the region continues to have the lowest gasoline average in the country with the price at $3.61 per gallon.

No, really. Again, don’t worry about it. We don’t need alternative transportation that will reduce reliance on gasoline. Highways are all we need. Don’t think about it. Don’t think at all.

Hoan-ie Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down

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What are Summerfest officials supposed to do now that Graef-USA has announced that festival patrons may be injured by falling pieces of the Hoan Bridge? Will there be signs posted? Will the ground immediately under the bridge be blocked off?

If pieces of the bridge fall and hurt someone, who will be liable? Summerfest? The state? Wait — wouldn’t the state be immune from such lawsuits? The patron, under the theory that he or she should have known about the unsafe bridge? Did the Wisconsin Department of Transportation give Summerfest a head’s up that it was going to deliver a major blow to the festival’s attractiveness? Maybe extreme risk enthusiasts will be lured by the possibility that they might be crushed while walking to the Taj Mahal concert! If nothing falls from the Hoan and no one is hurt during Summerfest, can the festival get some compensation for the damage WisDOT has done to it? Was Summerfest mentioned so folks get scared and don’t stop to ask questions about the project? Aren’t patrons of ethnic festivals at risk, too?

And what about that horizontal cracking on the new Marquette Interchange retaining wall? Hmm?

Other questions — did Graef-USA have to bid for this particular “Summerfest patrons might diiiieeee!” work, or was it a no-bid job, like its work for then-County Executive Scott Walker on the O’Donnell Park fiasco?

And most importantly, why, if our existing infrastructure is in need of multi-, multi- multi- multi-millioin dollar repair work, is Gov. Walker pushing ahead with unaffordable, unneeded, multi-billion dollar highway expansion projects? Doesn’t this guy know anything about fiscal responsibility?