Interstates exist for the good of the United States as a whole and not for any particular locality or construction company. Only two points of view are being aired about this issue I want to opinions of the United States as a whole. The government of Alabama wants to allow a foreign company to build and maintain control of the new route. I think this is a bad idea. I also think it is a bad idea to allow private enterprise to build the highway for profit and maintain control. Highways are public land. The United States will maintain control and it will be built as a non profit. The locals don't care who builds the road as long as they don't have to pay a $6 toll. Currently interstate 10 and highway 98 are over stressed where they cross the Mobile Bay. Highway 98 however has plenty of room for cyclists and there is parking for fisherman. I think the best way to solve this issue is to eliminate traffic that does not need to cross the bay. That is interstate 10 can be connected to interstate 65 on the east side of the bay. To show you how ridiculous the problem has become I need to point out that interstate 165 does not connect to interstate 10. Traffic is already being forced 15 miles out of the way. If it costs $1 a mile to drive then people might be inclined to pay a $10 toll it it saves them 20 miles of driving. You can see a new connector can save 20 to 30 miles of driving. In addition a connector from Daphne straight north would be the fastest hurricane evacuation route. By avoiding the bay and the massive bridges that will need to be built the new connector can be built faster and cheaper.
Mods: not sure if this should be merged with the I-10 Bayway thread (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=25493.0) or if it qualifies for Fictional Highways. It has a mix of both.
Regarding your proposal, I highly doubt it could be built "faster and cheaper". For starters, you have a lot more mileage building a new alignment north of I-10 to connect to I-65...20 miles at a minimum. That's over twice the distance of the Bayway and across the Mobile River to Virginia Street. Second, you'd have a lot of right-of-way acquisition, earth moving, and wetland impact along that 20+ miles, considerably adding to the cost. Lastly, if you forced even half of the I-10 traffic up to I-65, you would need to widen the I-65 crossing, which is not only 6 miles long (only 1.5 miles shorter than the Bayway) but has a bridge design over the main river channel that would be impossible to widen without replacing it.
This needs to be merged with Alanland.
Quote from: NE2 on August 16, 2019, 01:53:50 PM
This needs to be merged with Alanland.
No, it doesn't.
I was not aware of the other post I did look for one on Google. Delete it if you like.
The simplest fix to this (just kidding, it's not simple at all) would be to construct wider and deeper tunnels somewhere south of the current ones, on top of widening the causeways. Good luck with that.
I'm kicking this up to a higher court so to speak. That is after doing some more research I now believe it is illegal for a foreign government or a private corporation to control a public highway. To be sure any one can build a toll road but it can not be labeled as an interstate or a state highway. I will be posting on the legal forums and quoting some quite arcane public land law. If interstate 10 gets damaged by a hurricane they are still required to fix it wether a toll road exists or not.
Quote from: bicyclehazardThat is after doing some more research I now believe it is illegal for a foreign government or a private corporation to control a public highway. To be sure any one can build a toll road but it can not be labeled as an interstate or a state highway.
Tell that to Indiana (I-90), Virginia (I-95, I-495), Texas (TX 130), or any of a multitude of other locales.
Given existing precedent, case law at the Federal level will most likely be against you. Furthermore, in the existing cases, the "private corporation" doesn't explicitly control the highway...they operate it. The parent state still owns the highway.
I'm being censored on expertlaw. I can think of no reason they would do this and they have not told my why my posts were censored. All of this may be mute. The Lt Governor has changed his mind and is now against the project.
Quote from: bicyclehazard on August 21, 2019, 08:43:38 AM
I'm being censored on expertlaw
(https://media.giphy.com/media/dEdmW17JnZhiU/giphy.gif)
Quote from: bicyclehazard on August 21, 2019, 08:43:38 AM
I'm being censored on expertlaw.
"Censor" is something the government does. Private websites cannot censor.
Quote
All of this may be mute.
"Mute" means to either not speak or to lack the ability to speak. You are probably looking for "moot", meaning, "of no practical relevance".
And, AFAIK, Lt. Governors generally have the same powers as vice-president, which is to say, almost none.
Aren't there better things to worry about than who is running a toll facility in Alabama and bicycle right-of-way access?
If you look at his other posts, you'll see he appears to be one of those so-called "sovereign citizen" types, or else a troll.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 21, 2019, 02:27:29 PM
If you look at his other posts, you'll see he appears to be one of those so-called "sovereign citizen" types, or else a troll.
Yes, basically someone with nothing better to do than to make trouble for others. We have someone in our neighborhood who tries to do the same thing at every HOA meeting.
Quote from: bicyclehazard on August 18, 2019, 10:40:04 AM
I'm kicking this up to a higher court so to speak. That is after doing some more research I now believe it is illegal for a foreign government or a private corporation to control a public highway. To be sure any one can build a toll road but it can not be labeled as an interstate or a state highway. I will be posting on the legal forums and quoting some quite arcane public land law. If interstate 10 gets damaged by a hurricane they are still required to fix it wether a toll road exists or not.
Can an fully private toll road void your car license / drivers license plates for not paying? Can they use say the EZ-pass network to get out of state drivers?