SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Papas Fritas writes:
"Michelle Rindel reports at AP that despite being two of the largest cities in the Southwest, Las Vegas and Phoenix are linked by a road that narrows to two lanes, hits stoplights in a Depression-era town and until recently backed up traffic over the Hoover Dam. An effort to improve what's now a 4 1/2-hour drive to cover the 300 miles of desert between Sin City and the Valley of the Sun with a more reliable road has heavy-hitting allies, including business leaders and the Republican governor of each state. 'Long-term jobs are created by our connectivity,' says Steve Betts, noting that the stretch would be the first piece of a new shipping route between Mexico and Canada.
That the cities aren't already linked by an interstate is a fluke of timing. The Phoenix and Las Vegas populations exploded just after the national road-building frenzy that started in the 1950s. The Las Vegas metro area, population 2 million, is 40 times larger than it was in 1950. The Phoenix area, population 4.3 million, has grown 13-fold over that span. Highway supporters won a key victory last year when Congress formally designated Interstate 11. The legislation provides no funding, but it allows builders to tap into interstate construction dollars. An interstate could link Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas as partners in a 'megaregion' that competes with other regions, and could open a trade route from Mexico to Pacific Ocean ports and Canada. Arizona and Nevada are currently losing much of that flow and its attendant development to Texas and California, according to Betts, chairman of CAN-DO, an acronym for Connecting Arizona and Nevada-Delivering Opportunities. Still, other critics worry that pushing further toward the interstate dream would contribute to urban sprawl and hurt the environment. 'The last thing we need is another freeway,' says Sandy Bahr, president of the Arizona chapter of the Sierra Club. 'We need to look for other transportation modes.'"
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday March 08 2014, @10:56PM
Significant sections of the road are four lane. Its only the two lane sections that slow down traffic during some periods to sub 60mph.
As for comparing it to California, that is a pointless exercise. The amount of disruption and seizing of heavily built up property in California make just about any development outrageously expensive. You can't make the case that no road can be built anywhere in the US until California gets their pet projects.
Vegas to Phoenix is largely desert, and most of the four lane is already marked out and surveyed in those few sections that are not already four lane. Actually finishing the road would be crazy cheap compared to a similar project in California.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Sunday March 09 2014, @02:42AM
Los Angeles to Vegas is mostly desert, too. It's only the first 40 miles that's through urban sprawl... but there are already multiple parallel freeway routes that span that particular stretch of it. The 10, 60, 210, 91, etc.
It's the other 237 miles through mostly desert and vastly less populated areas, where there is no alternative route, and one accident or brush fire shuts the whole thing down.
Considering the 4-billion dollar price tag getting slapped on it, I find that quite hard to believe.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.