Nine highway projects across the country are wasting at least $25 billion, according to the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group’s fifth edition of their Highway Boondoggles report.
The group recommends the cancelation of the projects and that states instead should invest in road repair and transit expansion.
“It’s clear, even after profiling 50 boondoggles over five editions of this report, that America still has a misplaced appetite for costly and disruptive highway expansion projects,” Matt Casale, U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s transportation campaign director, said. “To solve our transportation problems – from potholes to pollution to global warming – we need to put outdated highway projects in our rearview mirror.”
The most expensive project on the list is the $802 million “Connecting Miami” Widening Project that is widening I-395 and SR836 in Miami. Residents believe converting I-395 to a street-level boulevard and improving transit would provide greater benefit.
The other priciest projects are the $450 million I-5 Rose Quarter Widening project in Portland, Oregon, and the $300 million I-83 Widening in Pennsylvania.
The remaining six projects are located in California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, and Michigan.
The report also re-examined five projects profiled in previous editions to update readers on their outcome.