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That PIRG report's revenue estimates are wrong. The report is based upon FHWA's Highway Statistics. Highway Statistics relies on state-reported data that doesn't account for many motorists' user fees as revenue streams. That's not FHWA's fault. States don't report data correctly. Many states...

The MassDOT people were saying we need to shore the existing overpass up to prevent imminent collapse. In the meantime they'd work on the planning, funding, and design for a new at-grade road. The alternatives are: 1) Tear it down now and go ten years without a replacement while the...

User fees (tolls, excise tax, registration and licensing fees) and taxes (gas taxes) paid by drivers exceed the cost of maintaining roadways significantly. I don't recall the numbers exactly, but it's in the realm of 120 billion paid by drivers to 90 billion spent on roads. The dialogue about...

Huh? Nothing I said argued against replacing the overpass with a boulevard. I was just saying you can't tear it down and replace it with no road at all for ten years, as some are advocating here. Have they modeled such an alternative? If so, I can't find it. My guess is it wouldn't be pretty.

Yes, it takes years to design an at-grade major arterial roadway that will replace an existing overpass, in the middle of a dense urban area, along with the work involved in preparing the associated permits, environmental studies, drainage work, utility relocation, landscape design, etc, along...

What DePaola is saying is perfectly reasonable. It takes time to design infrastructure. Even if an at-grade boulevard could adequately handle the traffic volume, it takes time to design it. In the meantime, you don't want the overpass to fall down. And you can't just eliminate a major arterial...

Inevitably though, politicians will get addicted to the revenue and make decisions based upon maximizing it. That means skipping highway expansion to preserve revenue streams, or other policy distortions. I agree with you on the facts. But I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to have...

The economics of it are unimpeachable; I strongly oppose it nonetheless on civil liberties grounds. The only way to do it efficiently would give the government a complete history of where we are and where we've been at any given time. I also have doubts about its practicality; I doubt that we...

If "traffic" means traffic volume, you're right. Volume does tend to increase if you add a lane to a road, ceteris paribus. It's an unpriced commodity. So congestion is the de facto pricing mechanism. The more congested a road is, the more people will hold off on taking a trip. That can be fine...

From the 50's through the 70's road planners lacked context-sensitive balancing. No argument there. But that attitude is largely gone. Ten years ago the Sullivan Overpass was torn down and never replaced. The Casey Overpass is going to be replaced with an at-grade roadway. By all means it looks...

In terms of "50's era", I assume you're referring to the fact that they're building highway overpasses at all, not that they're an outdated type of overpass? Can you give an example? MassDOT seems quite responsive to these things where there is a good policy case to be made - case in point would...

The people that rip on MassDOT are generally just misinformed. These guys are professionals who do an amazing amount with the resources and constraints they have, both MassHighway and the MBTA. There might be some bad apples at the operational level, as in any organization, but the middle...

Cars do become less efficient, but not less safe. But limits don't change average speeds, so it's not relevant either way. I'm not saying faster is safer. I'm saying we live in the real world. You have to look at the effect that speed limits have on real-world driver behavior, not the effect if...

Many of the responses in this thread as far as Big Dig tunnels are right on the money. The engineering was largely sound, and the problems could have been easily predicted and mitigated (epoxy issue excepted). The problem was solely with oversight and maintenance, and was the direct result of...

Reading: http://www.9395info.com/ Canton: http://www.mhd.state.ma.us/cantoninterchange/ The Braintree split has a pretty modern design already, and the redesign of the on- and off-ramps in the area of Crown Colony is a big improvement. What the area really needs when it comes down to it is a...

Without addressing the details of this plan - the idea of electronic tolling or a vehicle miles traveled tax needs to die. Just raise the gas tax to pay for highway projects and index it to inflation so it's more automatic in the future. Tolls have huge overhead costs. Even under an ideal...

How about Long Island? There's extra underutilized space there, and it's right at the edge of the harbor.

Many, probably a majority, of the original 50's-era bridges and interchanges have been replaced over the last ten years, are under construction, or are fully funded and designed and awaiting construction. I believe this applies to all of the bridges from Route 9 in Needham to Route 24, and it...

Most of the traffic would be going onto 128. The exit/onramp you're referencing would primarily connect Route 3 to the Middlesex Turnpike and allow traffic between those two roads to connect without entering Route 128. I doubt much traffic would continue straight onto Wheeler/Blanchard - most...

Route 128 doesn't have a median. The few areas that still appear to have one are under construction or will be in the very near future due to the Route 128 Add-a-Lane project. The right of way is insufficient in most areas to expand beyond eight lanes in each direction. Route 495 definitely...