Highways paved in black gold

If Shakespeare were alive today, and no doubt opposed to government waste, he might say kill the highway lobbyists — or at least their wasteful projects. The Sierra Club came out with its list of 50 best and worst transportation projects based on environmental impact. The worst projects are astoundingly costly — frequently running into the billions of dollars. The widening of I-5 in San Diego County is priced at $4.5 billion. That's more than the nationwide TIGER competitive grant program over its entire life, including the $1.5 billion first-year stimulus allocation. Then there's the $2 billion South Mountain Freeway in Phoenix. And the Trinity River Parkway in Dallas, estimated to cost $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion. There are dozens of wasteful freeway projects detailed in this report. Some very good projects are also identified, which tend to have more modest price tags, such as the Capital Bikeshare and the Tucson streetcar line.

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