Boondoggles

This $1.6-billion project would also use valuable state resources even as basic transit needs in Fort Worth go unmet.

Despite $1 billion in budget cuts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Florida's 2020-21 budget still includes $90 million for this boondoggle, which could threaten the endangered Florida panther with extinction.

The I-526 extension would have minimal impact on travel times, saving drivers mere seconds at the expense of the region's protected wetlands.

The $5.3-billion project is a 52-mile, six-lane expressway that's almost entirely reliant on intermittent and insufficient federal funding, and scheduled to take at least 40 years to complete.

Illinois officials have budgeted $206 million for a new interchange on I-57 that would take drivers onto a road through undeveloped farmland 44 miles south of Chicago in Will County, Illinois.

The Texas Department of Transportation is currently reviewing plans for a major expansion to a 23-mile section of Loop 1604, a suburban highway loop that encircles San Antonio. The project, which would expand Loop 1604 between state Highway 16 and Interstate 35 north of the city, includes four to six additional lanes along the entire length of roadway, new frontage roads and a five-level interchange with Interstate 10. This $1.36 billion expansion, while likely failing to solve local congestion problems, would threaten one of the region’s primary sources of drinking water.

Ohio and Kentucky transportation officials are considering a new four-lane bypass around the eastern side of Cincinnati that would cause sprawling development and damaging community impacts, while overwhelming Ohio’s state transportation budget. The proposed Cincinnati Eastern Bypass (CEB) would entail approximately 75 miles of new freeway. 

America was already faced with the need to make critical transportation investments. And then COVID-19 hit, upending travel patterns and undercutting the traditional sources of government transportation revenue.

Obama's signature TIGER program became just another highway fund when President Trump rechristened it BUILD — but this may be the worst year yet.