Forbes: Streamline road projects
By Brian Kirwin | Sunday, September 25th, 2011 |I’ve been begging for a bill like this and Congressman Randy Forbes has done it.
Forbes calls it the “414 Plan,” referencing the 414 days it took to replace the fallen bridge in Minnesota.
“If we can rebuild a collapsed interstate bridge in 414 days, we can certainly build a road in less than 13 years,” says Forbes.
He’s SO right. One of the big problems in funding transportation solutions is the decades-plus it takes to build one of them. The Transcontinental Railroad was built in six years, but we can’t build a bridge tunnel of a few miles in less than 16 or 18 years.
This plan “suspends for five years all federal regulations that do not pertain to the safety or durability of highway facilities, or of public and workplace safety” and “dispenses with costly, outdated federal requirements while continuing to afford states and localities flexibility in utilizing federal funding for road and bridge projects.”
You can read HR2924 here.
Time equals money, and while Democrats cry about wanting to raise taxes to fund these obscenely expensive and multi-decade projects, Rep. Forbes attacks the real problem – federal regulations that make these transportation solutions excessively pricey in the first place.
I hope this bill gets a tremendous number of cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. This bill is a job creator and key to our transportation future.
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About the author
The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
Comments
6 Responses to "Forbes: Streamline road projects"
Oh yeah, complain about the Democrats when it is the Republicans who want to put tolls on everything.
Dwight Eisenhower must be rolling in his grave.
Now there’s an intelligent response. Can we also pass a law forbidding leftists from invoking the name of Republican Presidents in vain?
BK
Even Obama knows better. After all he laughs out loud about shovel ready jobs or whispers it to his media aclytes under pain of silence. But you have to follow the money. Dems benefit from all the red tape in a multitude of ways.
Amend the bill to include mass transit and Virginia Beach light rail happens very fast.
valentinus,
I am not invoking in vain. Dwight Eisenhower is the father of the modern interstate system which included the idea that they be freeways. Most limited access highways before Dwight got involved were tollways.
Today’s Republicans can not figure out how to build a highway without putting a toll on it.
I can refer to Dwight Eisenhower in support of my position honestly. I can also refer to Ronald Reagan in support of my position on transportation as well. Want to hear that one?
David, under today’s federal regulations, Eisenhower’s Interstate system would never have been built in the first place.
Entirely agree with Henry…Let’s expedite mass transit and light-rail. We need to ensure we have adequate mass transit for our overburdened road structure.
It would be so great to have light-rail in Virginia Beach, there is so much support for Norfolk’s. In addition, we need our high-speed rail to get funding also.
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