Let’s do ALL the road work now

[89th]

Srsly, while everyone is home and there are barely any cars on the road, how about we finish all the damn road projects at once! Also, could employee a few extra people too.

[George K]

Absolutely, I love it!

As long as it's paid for with your dollars.

[Loki]

With what money? States are already laying off state employees to preserve cash.

[89th]

Paid in TP and Diapers, isn’t that the new currency?

Seriously, I’m referring more to projects that are already funded and in progress and that take a long time because of night/gradual lane closures.

[Copper]

The people who work on road projects are all at home too.

[Axtremus]

Love the idea in principle.
People staying at home solves the logistical problem of getting cars off the roads/bridges, great.
But still need to work out social distancing rules for workers who go to work fixing/building roads and bridges.

[89th]

Agreed. This is certainly a bit of a tongue in cheek observation/idea.

[mark]

poll does not seem to be functioning properly. I can't see the radio buttons.

[brenda]

Lots of road projects moving forward in my part of Minnesooooooota. They're getting ahead of schedule because there are fewer delays during the project to manage the traffic.

[LuFins Dad]

This is actually happening in Northern VA. At least on 66 and 28. I believe there is a project on Route 7 as well.

[89th]

[brenda]

@Copper
Not necessarily. Depends on what their state has decided are essential services or products.

[brenda]

As for funding, that money has already been dedicated to those projects. It's very unlikely that it would get pulled into another pot, so to speak. States set up and approved budgets, and contracts got signed. Sure, the state could walk away from contracts, but that has not been on the legislative table yet.
Hubby and I were just talking about how road projects fit in the social distancing concept. Of all the state projects, this type should allow for plenty.
If things get so bad that Minnesooooota doesn't fix the potholes and do the resurfacing, we'll be close to Hell, and able to get a lower contract price for asphalt from Hades. They can melt asphalt like nobody else can.

[Aqua Letifer]

I'm all for it as long as they can keep the construction workers safe.

[LuFins Dad]

If only we had done this then... Joe's "Infrastructure Plan" would be irrelevant.

[Mik]

Indianapolis did this in the early 2000's, called it the Hyperfix. It was a mess, but they got a LOT done. I would imagine there are overlaps where resources could be used more effectively.

[Klaus]

You can't just double or triple the amount of road workers, engineers etc. with the snap of a finger and a few $$$. You can't just start with a project within a few weeks if all the necessary and many preparatory works aren't done first. I think the amount of short-term speedup a politician can achieve in these things are rather limited.

[Loki]

@lufins-dad said in Let’s do ALL the road work now:

If only we had done this then... Joe's "Infrastructure Plan" would be irrelevant.

Only 6% of the bill is for roads and bridges. I thought everybody knew that already.

[George K]

@loki said in Let’s do ALL the road work now:

6% of the bill is for roads and bridges.

What's the percentage devoted to compensation for federal workers who need child care, I wonder.

Nah, never mind.

Any amount is outrageous.