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Originally Posted by dude1394
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do you actually believe what you're regurgitating?
from today's dmn:
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Tarrant County toll road project to get $250 million in stimulus funds
10:04 AM CST on Friday, March 6, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
mlindenberger@dallasnews.com
State transportation officials voted Thursday to spend $250 million in stimulus funds to advance a major toll project in Tarrant County.
In all, the Texas Transportation Commission awarded some $1.2 billion for projects throughout Texas even as it has endured criticism from lawmakers who wanted a greater role in deciding which projects would be funded.
"Today's vote reflects four months of hard work by TxDOT staff and community leaders," commission chairwoman Deirdre Delisi said in a written statement. "Now, it's time to put Texas to work."
The North Texas work will be done on the DFW Connector, a $917 million project that mixes free and toll lanes near Grapevine and D/FW Airport.
By spending the $250 million in stimulus money on that road, the state may be able to free up tax dollars for other projects in North Texas.
Also on Thursday, the Regional Transportation Council voted to spend its smaller share of the stimulus – about $144 million – on two interchanges connected to Southwest Parkway, a Tarrant County toll road expected to be built by the North Texas Tollway Authority. That project could begin as soon as this spring.
These decisions mean that all of the stimulus money earmarked for large projects in North Texas will be spent in Tarrant County.
But the regional council agreed Thursday that Tarrant County will relinquish some money it had been promised from the State Highway 121 toll project in return.
That money will be used to pay for a wide variety of smaller projects in Dallas, Denton and Collin counties.
The RTC also voted to spend $90 million on transit projects in North Texas, drawing from a separate stimulus fund. About $61 million goes to DART, which will use it on the extension of the Orange Line to Irving.
The first phase of that line will reach Las Colinas in late 2011.
In addition to the funding for big projects across Texas, the transportation commission agreed to spend about $500 million on maintenance. Also, responding to criticism from lawmakers, commissioners on Thursday added $60 million for projects in economically distressed counties.
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if you truly believe that these projects are not employing people, are not going to improve our region's transportation efficiency, not going to yield benefits to our local economy, you're deceiving yourself...