OP-ED | Busway Deal Done, Many More ‘Unfundables’ Remain
by Heath W. Fahle | Nov 25, 2011 2:19pm
(10) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Opinion
When the roof of the family home has a leak, few people react by putting in a pool. But that is roughly what Gov. Dannel Malloy committed the state to do this week as he gave final authorization for the 9.4 mile, $567 million Hartford-to-New Britain busway. It will receive funding while many of the state’s traffic trouble spots go unaddressed.
Last week the Hartford Courant highlighted the state’s worst roads as calculated by the number of traffic accidents per year. The dubious distinction of Worst Road went to Middletown’s Rt.9/Rt.17/Rt. 66 corridor, the site for an accident at the rate of one every three days. Over a half a million people live in the impacted area – or about one in seven Connecticut residents. In their November 2007 report on the issue, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) described the problems this way:
A number of conditions or dynamics that ultimately define the operational efficiency of the transportation system in the study area are readily identifiable. These system deficiencies have a cumulative degrading effect on area-wide traffic operations.
Though long on the state’s radar, the Department of Transportation cited a lack of money for its failure to make fixes. The DOT’s Major Long Term Unfundable Initiatives list suggests that the project’s final cost is yet to be determined but it includes a ballpark figure of between $300 million and $400 million to fix the issue. Accounting for the cost overruns and mishaps that usually characterize projects of this scale, its true price tag is likely to be in the $500-600 million range – or about one busway.
As it should, the Unfundables lists reads like a Who’s Who of the state’s transportation headaches. It also tells jokes, describing the costs of expanding I-84 from Waterbury to the NY state line and a future expansion of I-95 from Branford to Rhode Island only as “TBD - billions”. The replacement of the Aetna Viaduct, the source of much of Hartford’s balkanization, is ballparked at between $1 and $2 billion. The cost for doing the entire list will be something in excess of $10 billion.
There is no doubt that Hartford’s transportation system has its dysfunctions (though Nutmeggers that commute via I-95 would probably be happy to trade Hartford’s gridlock for that in Fairfield County). The reason that Hartford is Hartford is because of the Connecticut River, but the whiz kids that built I-91 separated the city from its lifeblood by at least six lanes of asphalt, jersey barriers, and steel.
The failure to complete the circumferential around the capital city means that three of the state’s major thoroughfares, I-91, I-84, and Route 2, intersect right in the middle of the city. One hiccup on any part of the highway system can translate to hours of gridlock. If the busway’s advocates are right, it will have some positive impact on these issues.
It is equally true though that getting Americans out of their cars and into mass transit is a dream held by a small but hardy band of social engineers, including many busway proponents. A buses-only highway might not be as gratifying as commuter rail or culturally iconic like a subway, but at least it is something. If every place was like New York City, every place would be quite a bit better – or so the thinking goes.
With billions of dollars in must-do projects, amenities like the busway should take a back seat to addressing the state’s worst roads. If your neighbor put in that pool instead of fixing the roof, it would seem foolish. But when the state does a similar thing, its government.
Heath W. Fahle is the Policy Director of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy and a former Executive Director of the Connecticut Republican Party. Contact Heath about this article by visiting www.heathwfahle.com
Tags: busway, highway, congestion, transportation, Heath W. Fahle
(10) Comments
posted by: meridenite | November 25, 2011 6:35pm
How much of the fuel taxes esp. the 7.5% hidden tax is diverted to the general fund that could be used for these projects?????
posted by: CTRailCommuters | November 25, 2011 6:57pm
Rather than blame the CDOT for building for the future, your criticism is better directed at the legislature for not properly funding that agency.
It shouldn’t be “either, or”, but both…
And yes… a busway makes much more sense than rail, in this case.
JIM CAMERON
Chairman
posted by: Commuter | November 25, 2011 8:21pm
This is pretty useful information, despite the fact that you misrepresent the Busway / Middletown choice. The Federal money that pushes the Busway into the “Fundable” column is not available for other purposes. The state’s contribution as reported several times by multiple outlets, is $112 million.
And, while the Busway may prove to be a boondoggle, the realities of lead times and technical considerations involved in building light rail don’t argue well for holding out for that.
The articulated buses appear to permit a degree of flexibility in terms of scheduling and access in terms of how they integrate with the neighborhoods, that might prove very workable. We’ll see.
If so, and if the local zoning along the route permits it, this may prove to be a good demonstration of transit-based, density oriented infrastructure and what it can do for the capitol area.
posted by: Noteworthy | November 26, 2011 10:05am
I love the opening line. When the roof is leaking, who puts in a pool? Malloy takes it to a new level - he not only puts in a pool, he buys a new mercedes, an 80 inch big screen TV and a barca lounger.
From the UCONN Health Center expansion to roads to EITC - all wants while critical needs go unaddressed. It is no wonder Dan the Tax Man Malloy has an approval rating in the 30s. Most of us have the common sense to fix the roof.
posted by: Heath | November 27, 2011 6:45am
CTRailCommuters:
Rather than blame the CDOT for building for the future, your criticism is better directed at the legislature for not properly funding that agency.
It shouldn’t be “either, or”, but both…
And yes… a busway makes much more sense than rail, in this case.
JIM CAMERON
Chairman
My criticism is of the Governor and the process that sets priorities in state government. I don’t single out the DOT nor do I view them as the source of the problem. It’s the administration in charge of it that is to blame.
posted by: Heath | November 27, 2011 6:52am
Commuter said:
This is pretty useful information, despite the fact that you misrepresent the Busway / Middletown choice. The Federal money that pushes the Busway into the “Fundable” column is not available for other purposes. The state’s contribution as reported several times by multiple outlets, is $112 million.
All of these projects are going to be funded with a mix of federal and state dollars. Which projects the feds fund is ultimately about the priorities set and pursued by state officials.
posted by: Commuter | November 27, 2011 1:40pm
Heath, you know better than that. Being disingenuous is unbecoming.
But, prove me wrong. Show us:
1. What the funding is that is available for the Middletown project.
2. That the Malloy Administration declined to pursue it.
Do you mean to suggest that Malloy is not aggressively pursuing every nickel from the Federal DOT he can? That would be interesting to hear, if you can produce some facts.
3. Since when do the state governments dictate federal policy to the Feds? They might have input, but you appear to assert a degree of control. Perhaps you can clarify this?
posted by: GoatBoyPHD | November 27, 2011 1:49pm
This mess is somewhat more complicated.
Some say it’s an argument against Federal funding of highway projects entirely. The entire process corrupts the proper prioritization process of local decision making. Funding stale projects from the mid 1990s may not be the best use of funds but these projects are vetted and shovel-ready.
Instead, if the Federal Government is going to allocate deficit dollars for infrastructure it should allocate Block Infrastructure Grants to be used at the state discretion and not for specific named projects.
The problems with market distortion are many. From most of what I read Hartford business is expanding to the burbs—Day Hill Road in Windsor, East Hartford’s warehouse district on Route 5, to Farmington, etc.
Do the New Britain Highway and the Central Row bus transfer hub properly support these changes in regionalization? Or is the mindset that Hartford is a destination spot a built in fallacy to all these funding decisions?
Once the NB bus dumps people off on Central Row how easily are they shuffled around.
Did anyone speak with the 25 largest regional employers and their staffs and solicit ideas on mass transit? As in “where do they come from and what would need to be done to make you a user of mass transit” and to solicit employer buy in and support?
The EZ-ride van thing assumes someone will take the van to work rather than act as a private bus driver for smaller load connector routes to mid sized employers.
The problem? All that would come out of operating budget instead of bonding and it wouldn’t have that “Billion Dollar Improvement in Transportation Infrastructure” stamp for the 2012 election campaigns.
Heath, the only problem wiht that laundry list is the criticality ranking.
The Waterbury Route 8 Interchange for example. It’s awkward and confusing for first time and occasional users. It’s rarely bottlenecked for significant periods of time now that Waterbury highway construction is cleaned up. It would be a nice to have: a great sweeping overpass that feeds Route 84. Hardly a state necessity given population trends. It adequately serves the traffic in a slo-growth state. The safety problem is largely due to drivers trying to negotiate from the Left Lanes to the Right Lanes in heavy traffic. Increased signage and colored marked lanes have been suggested to feed traffic to the Right Lane earlier.
posted by: Gimme a Break | November 27, 2011 10:16pm
The issue with the Middletown project has very little to do with safety. The project would replace the two traffic signals. Despite the high number of accidents, most of the accidents are rear-end fender-benders when one driver decides to actually stop at the stop sign on the on-ramp while the trailing driver thinks the coast is clear and feels no need to stop until he/she hits the bumper of the car in front. Besides, the merchants in Middletown like the signals. It slows people down and merchants hope people then will stop in. The project may rate high on the congestion relief measures, but it is not all that serious a safety issue.
posted by: Commuter | November 28, 2011 3:57am
GoatBoyPHD - I think the point of the busway as currently rendered is not simply to move people from point A in New Britain to point B in Hartford. Although relieving congestion is still part of the picture, there is the relatively recent focus on transit-oriented development, walkable communities, and mixed use building that adds up to a more human scale and affordable lifestyle. The advantage of these articulated buses is that they can be scheduled more flexibly than train and, as you point out, this project is shovel ready. When it comes to transportation infrastructure, I’ve heard five years is nothing in terms of lead time.