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LurkersWillLurk t1_jbkal5l wrote

PennDOT is fundamentally incapable of doing anything other than blowing billions of dollars on highway expansions that ultimately don’t reduce congestion

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j428h t1_jbkdk45 wrote

The money is either for them, or PSP.

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ktxhopem3276 t1_jbkmk5o wrote

It takes trucks out of lewisburg shamokin and selinsgrove. It’s a good idea in theory but it became too expensive. The issue is it comes at the expense of underfunding major city public transit. Building rural highways is heroin to some people; they get addicted and can’t say no to projects no matter the cost. It must be easier to enrich your campaign donors building rural highways than inner city public transit not to mention inner cities are gerrymandered out of power and the state senate design is biased toward rural areas

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Steelplate7 t1_jblg6su wrote

I work in Selinsgrove and live in Middleburg. This needs to be done. Anyone who has navigated the “golden strip” of 11/15 knows how bad the traffic sucks and most of it is thru traffic.

It will be a huge economic boon to the local economy to have traffic that actually WANT to be in the area instead of trying to get where they’re going.

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ktxhopem3276 t1_jblln1r wrote

I used to drive the new interstate 99 portion of 15 from NY to Williamsport and then down to Harrisburg. This new project goes nicely with that

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Jsingles589 t1_jbmimr8 wrote

I live in selinsgrove, and yes, this project solves a lot of annoying truck traffic going through shamokin dam.

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imamunster123 t1_jboz8r7 wrote

Grew up literally one street off the strip in Hummel's Wharf, can confirm. This has been needed for a long, long time.

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69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_jbonjco wrote

Nobody lives in the areas served by this proposed freeway. Why piss away over a billion dollars to put a highway from nowhere to nowhere in?
 
According to Google Maps it takes sixteen minutes to drive from Selinsgrove to Middleburg. How much shorter a commute are you looking for here?

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Steelplate7 t1_jbqfqat wrote

Tell you what…look at a fucking map instead of worry about where I live/work.

I was just using my location to give a general idea of how familiar I am with the situation.

There is a real issue with thru traffic that makes it damn near impossible to navigate that strip.

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69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_jbtv8bw wrote

> Tell you what…look at a fucking map instead of worry about where I live/work.

 
You told us where you live and work. I checked a map. Driving from A to B takes sixteen minutes.

 
> There is a real issue with thru traffic that makes it damn near impossible to navigate that strip.

 

Apparently not, since people do it every day.

 
We don't need to piss away a billion dollars on a highway from nowhere to nowhere so you can get home four minutes earlier.

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Steelplate7 t1_jbulen4 wrote

You still don’t get it. The issue is NOT me getting to and from work. It is doing anything else in our area…which goes way beyond me.

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69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_jbus1r2 wrote

I have family in the area and drive on 11&15 whenever I'm out there. It isn't congested in any sense of the meaning unless you're a country bumpkin who doesn't understand what real traffic looks like.

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Steelplate7 t1_jbulhh5 wrote

No…let’s spend multiple billions of dollars so you can have 10 more buses. Fuck off…

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69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_jburz7x wrote

Ten new buses would cost about $7 million and move more people in any given year than your billion dollar highway from nowhere, to nowhere.

 
There are 80-100K people living in the entire area this highway would service. There are more people than that living within a twelve mile radius of me.
 
$1b so a few bumpkins can get home a couple minutes earlier from work is an insane amount of waste.

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Jsingles589 t1_jbmj7qp wrote

I live in Selinsgrove and my brother in law is a structural engineer who specializes in bridges and roads.

The article correctly explains that this cost increase has relates to material costs and inflation.

Not sure why you’re attacking PennDOT for that…

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Swimming-Figure-8635 t1_jbmokvz wrote

Because it's a boondoggle that should have never been built. Can you imagine the absolute insanity in red PA if you proposed spending $1 billion on SEPTA?

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Jsingles589 t1_jbms4a2 wrote

I don't agree with you.

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69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_jboop1t wrote

If PennDOT were proposing to give SEPTA or PRT > $1b for expansion the middle of the state would have a total shitfit.

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Super_C_Complex t1_jbq3cen wrote

Highway expansions never reduce congestion.

There will always be more cars than roads.

What we need is comprehensive mass transit

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69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_jbkpn61 wrote

These highway projects are planned out over the course of decades. The Mon-Fayette Expressway in Allegheny County was planned when the Mon Valley was heavily populated and had a lot of high volume employers. By the time it was built population patterns in the county had changed dramatically.

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ktxhopem3276 t1_jbllbsd wrote

The cvst is a better investment. 15 miles for $1billion and the first half already has 3000 trucks a day and it’s a growing area with many distribution centers and the 81 is ten times more congested. The mon fayette should go down as one of the dumbest highways ever constructed. If they had started building it at the monroville end first, it would have been easier to cancel or indefinitely delay the rural segments but those fuckers screwed us and built the most useless parts first. I wonder what the total cost for all segments of the mon fayette costs inflation adjusted.

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69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_jbooz7j wrote

> The cvst is a better investment. 15 miles for $1billion

 
That may be a "better" investment, that does not mean it's a good investment. Fewer people live in the area that would be served by this abortion of a project than live in the Mon Fayette service area.

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ktxhopem3276 t1_jbouugo wrote

the csvt cooridor is still a busy road especially for trucks. Having driven both the csvt and mon fayette I feel the csvt is more beneficial due to the truck congestion but that’s just anecdotal. The csvt isn’t feasible to be served by public transit.

The mon fayette is going to cost $5billion or more by time it’s finished while some of the mon fayette should be transit oriented like the old inter urban to California, PA.and a busway to monroeville

I’m not saying I like either project but it is interesting to compare them. I’m going to do some more reading. I wouldn’t really care about them if they weren’t built at the expense of city transit

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