MassDOT secretary: "We will build no more superhighways"

Assuming:
a. Rich Davey is MassDOT director for life
b. Rich Davey is immortal

Sure.

Otherwise....
 
Gee...can't believe nobody thought of that one before.

Candidate30794.jpg
 
^ Yeah, either he didn't know about this history or this was meant as a repudiation of the likes of the Big Dig, and not literal new highways.
 
so next can we get rid of some of the highways we already have?
 
It's good to see a more complete transportation strategy. Cars and highways are critical, but in a world of limited cash and space, they aren't always the best options. Roads should certainly be maintained up to good quality, and where efficiencies can be had (new interchanges, bridges, etc.) I am very supportive. But trains and bikes work for well over a million trips each day within this state alone, and they haven't got their necessary funds in a long time.

I hope with Davey's T background he has a strong mobilizing effort on Beacon Hill to be put into better maintenance, rolling stock, and subway lines (GLX, BLX, OLX, Indigo Implementation, Shorter Headways SS-128 via worcester line). Those 5 rapid transit projects in the 128 belt would do get things for mobility and economic growth.

(to the haters: yes reform T unions, bikers run red lights, blah blah blah)
 
Fuck you superhighways! Time for highwaystonowhere. We need a highway from Gosnold to Cuttyhunk.
 
Well, I could sit here and join you guys in riffing on Secretary Davey, but I decided I was going to try and be constructively critical on the state transportation blog

EDIT: Well, that was surprisingly quick. Comment was approved.
 
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Oh cmon, Ct11 is not that bad. If it was completed, it would actually be part of the link between Hartford and Providence. It branches off of Rt 2 and bypasses route 85.

Now it you want a CT highway in the middle of nowhere not connected to anything, try 189. http://www.kurumi.com/roads/ct/ct189.html

And yeah, the busway is idiotic.
 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
While we're on the subject of wasteful CT transportation spending .... my firm recently bid on a $600M dedicated busway between New Britain and Hartford.
Click to expand...

...the only transit project in the country a worse vat of waste, corruption, and ridership vs. expenditures vs. service levels projections violating every law of physics and mathematics...than South Coast FAIL.

And they're actually building the fucking thing. And it's salting over the ROW for Amtrak's 2040 Inland HSR vision (but that's OK because Gov. Malloy says we'll just rip up the Busway and rebuild it). And blocking the 3rd and 4th track berths on the Springfield Line, which Amtrak reserves full-force legal rights to reactivate when it sees fit (but that's OK because Gov. Malloy says we'll just rip up the Busway and rebuild it). And they haven't yet worked out the easement costs for Amtrak on the ROW, which now that they're locked in means Amtrak is going to gouge them on. And they're building it with large portions not yet in final design. Because the design contracts have no-bid revision clauses allowing limitless overbills for every change the contractor--in Texas, which designed most of the thing without sending any field engineers onsite--makes, thereby encouraging them to make shit up on a whim to change on the design. And the design bids curiously went to a lot of companies tied to convicted felon Gov. Rowland...coincidentally.

Oh, yeah, and the impact to cross streets in West Hartford and Hartford from the Busway ramp system reduces traffic Level of Service on those streets to an "F" grade, worse than what was there before. And West Hartford may sue to stop the project anyway after it's half built. And there are one-way segments between intersections that slow the buses, because building a road on a railbed leaves inadequate width. And it has to hit 13,000 riders a day...basically every single bus packed full including off-peak, to break even.

And $600M is low. It's probably going to be $800M to $1B when all said and done.


There's a CDOT traffic engineer who posts on the SomethingAwful.com forums who was on this project and posted a lot of insider dish on what an irredeemable cesspit this is. It's like Connecticut suddenly found something aspirational in the Big Dig's criminal graft.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
There's a CDOT traffic engineer who posts on the SomethingAwful.com forums who was on this project and posted a lot of insider dish on what an irredeemable cesspit this is. It's like Connecticut suddenly found something aspirational in the Big Dig's criminal graft.
Click to expand...

Oh come on, you can't just make a statement like that and then not provide a link to the thread(s) in question.
 
Commuting Boston Student said:
Oh come on, you can't just make a statement like that and then not provide a link to the thread(s) in question.
Click to expand...

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3177805

If you don't have a SA account you can only view it from the 15th of the month on, or something. Fascinating thread for explaining the logic behind totally arcane traffic engineering decisions.

Since it's not the 15th and I can't access it to find which of the hundred-something pages the juicy bits are on, here's the RR.net thread where I quoted the dude:

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=69097&start=75#p934091
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=69097&start=120#p1040293
 
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