Showing posts with label PennDoT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PennDoT. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Pennsylvania Turnpike

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is an organization that has been knocked for years as being a dumping ground for politicians who can't find another patronage job for their cronies. Fair criticism  or not you have to ask why there are 2 organizations governing the highway system in Pennsylvania.

A PennDot official has just been named to be the CEO and Auditor General Jack Wagner released an audit showing 7,000 employees and contractors have a free pass. A commenter at KeystonePolitics brings up the point that construction workers need to get to the job site so that number may be inflated. Maybe they should carpool.

John Micek reports that toll booths will become a thing of the past with all electronic tracking. If you have an EZPass that already happens but if you don't the system will take a picture of the license plate and send you a bill. Good luck collecting that bill.

In the near future we will be paying more tolls and the interchanges will be automated. For now I love blowing past the schmucks stopping to pay the the toll while I fly by in the EZPass lane on my way to Allentown, Philly or the Delaware beaches.

On a related note just about everybody agrees that our highway infrastructure is in need of repair. Roads need to be fixed and bridges are not safe. The federal gas tax has not been raised since Clinton was President and it is the primary funding source for highway improvement and repair. I know it's regressive but I look at it as more of a user fee. I drive and I want my roads and bridges to be safe. I'm willing to pay 10, 15 or 25 cents more for a gallon of gas in exchange for the piece of mind that the bridge I'm driving across won't collapse. Another idea is an Infrastructure Bank.




Sunday, September 30, 2012

Road Rage

As I pointed out in a post last weekend First Street is closed in the Hudson section of Plains but the repairs to the RR crossing in Laflin is complete so I'm not trapped despite the efforts of that evil PennDoT government  bureaucrat James May who wants to restrict my freedom.

The First Street sidewalk repairs are done then they moved on to fixing the bridge over Gardner's Creek but there has not been much progress.


Here is a picture of the bridge last weekend.






This is a picture of the bridge today.





Nothing has happened in a weeks time.

These people are taking credit for this project.



Wednesday, September 19, 2012

PA Voter ID

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court kicked the voter ID law back to the Commonwealth Court with a narrow question. Can PennDot handle the task before the election?  I'm not optimistic.

SPPE has more.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court sends Voter ID law back to Commonwealth Court