When Good Highways Go Bad

The politicians are clamouring for billions more in taxes to pay for billions more in road construction projects, which they control. Route 288, a $450 million bypass around southwestern Richmond, is a case study of a project whose funding moved to the head of the line when powerful special interests line up behind it. Not only did the project crowd out other primary road projects in the Richmond region, it required a $129 million bail-out from the General Assembly earlier this year -- a fact that has gone largely unnoticed by politicians and pundits in Northern Virginia, Norfolk and Roanoke, who are normally hyper-sensitive about favoritism to Richmond in the allocation of state pork.

To read more about Route 288, see Bob Burke's story, "When Good Highways Go Bad."

Steve Haner has posted a response to Burke's story on the Bacon's Rebellion blog.