Report reveals 9 highway boondoggle projects slated to cost $25 billion
Highway expansion projects too often come with big price tags and paltry benefits. Yet at least nine new expansions are planned across the country, including one in North Carolina.
Highway expansion projects too often come with big price tags and paltry benefits. Yet at least nine new expansions are planned across the country, including one in North Carolina.
On June 18, U.S. PIRG released our national network’s fifth edition “Highway Boondoggles” report, which profiles these projects. In North Carolina, the proposed “Complete 540” project is expected to cost $2.2 billion and would generate sprawl while destroying wetlands and threatening endangered wildlife. Collectively, the nine projects examined are slated to cost at least $25 billion.
In addition to the cost, the report demonstrates that boondoggle projects like these often fail to reduce congestion but do increase asthma-inducing air pollution and divert funding from road repair and public transit priorities.
“To solve our transportation problems—from potholes to pollution to global warming—we need to put outdated highway projects in our rearview mirror,” said Matt Casale, director of our national network’s Highway Boondoggles campaign and co-author of the report.
Photo: U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s latest “Highway Boondoggles” report covers nine new budget-eating highway projects including the proposed completion of the 540 (pictured above), which is slated to cost a total of $2.2 billion. Credit: Mr. Matté via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
