Enough is enough

The main thrust of the following item from Slashdot.com is true for more than just highways. We are (most of us, I warrant) 'way too enamored of shiny new things. How much of what do we really need?

      We Don't Need More Highways122

Posted by timothyon Saturday October 06, @08:25AM
from the we-need-more-hang-gliders dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "When it comes to infrastructure, politicians usually prefer shiny new projects over humdrum repairs. A brand-new highway is exciting: There's a ribbon-cutting, and there's less need to clog up existing lanes with orange cones and repair crews. So it's not surprising that 57 percent of all state highway funding goes toward new construction, often stretching out to the suburbs, even though new roads represent just 1.3 percent of the overall system. Now Brad Plumer writes in the Washington Post that many transportation reformers think this is a wrong-headed approach and that we should focus our dollars on fixing and upgrading existing infrastructure rather than continuing to build sprawling new roads). UCLA economist Matthew Kahn and the University of Minnesota's David Levinson made a more detailed case for a "fix-it first" strategy. They noted that, at the moment, federal highway spending doesn't get subjected to strict cost-benefit analysis, and governments often build new roads when they arguably shouldn't (PDF). And that's to say nothing of data suggesting that poor road conditions are a "significant factor" in one-third of all fatal crashes, and cause extra wear and tear on cars."

Comments

[bogie]

It may be easier to build new roads. No, I don't know that for a fact, but NH has been trying to upgrade I93 since we moved here. This was supposed to be a 10 year plan, but they spent 10 years fighting lawsuits from people "concerned" about birds, frogs, noise, pollution and even that the upgrade design wasn't sufficient to carry traffic projected for sometime into the future (said suit brought by an environmental group). So, this 10 year upgrade didn't even get started until 2006. It's projected to be done in 2018 - the increased cost drove up the actual build time, and upped the cost by 1,000% (okay, I'm just throwing a number out there, but the cost was increased substantually by the lawsuits and rising costs over the years).

Meanwhile, I haven't heard about such a fight to get new roads built, of course the only new roads they build here are local, and go to new construction, so maybe our circumstance is different from what Slashdot is referring to.

[Cop Car]

Bogie--Oh, I think that it is undoubtedly easier in many cases to build something new.

Building roads and highways varies widely from place to place; but, from the perspective of having lived/worked in many places, I don't recall (Oh, yes, such perfect recall, I have!) the various factors that you mention differing between new construction and up-grade/maintenance construction.

Part of my concern is for what seems to happen with the old roads that had previously carried the traffic when a completely new road is built to carry that traffic. Mostly, I think, the old roads don't carry enough traffic to warrant spending the money to keep them up and they become a pain and eyesores (much like many buildings that are vacated in favor of new - a real blight in our neck of the woods these days).

BTW: Is the "1,000%" before or after inflation - lol.

[bogie]

Sounds like circumstances are much different - usually dont' build new roads to replace old roads except short little by-passes around towns (such as Hillsboro had built about 8 years ago). That project actually had very little opposition as the in-town traffic in Hillsboro was a great big bottle-neck to those trying to get to Concord (or Keene). Wal-Mart had a much harder time just trying to build a store around here (after 4-5 years, they gave up).

[Ole Phat Stu]

See this old BBC video : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8556915.stm

[Cop Car]

Stu--Inventive! It's rather like what we have in the USA where people are asked to adopt a 2-mile stretch of highway, pledging to do monthly cleanup of litter in the right-of-way. A blog friend in England posted a couple of months ago about a huge pothole about which she and her husband (having had separate mishaps with it) were having a go-round with the Essex County Council, last June. Road upkeep is a challenge for many locales.

In the airplane/military business, we worked with life-cycle-costs; but, the concept has not much been used in other branches of government. Or, at least, it is not well publicized and the evidence is hard to come by.