2 replies to this topic

[akahogfan]

I knew that we were going to be short a bunch of money, but I had no idea that it would be over $20 Billion.

http://www.arkansasb...s...27029&cID=5


Would it be plausible to turn some of the state highways into toll roads? I am mainly thinking about 412, but I am sure there are others that would work as well. I don't know the amount of traffic required to make the idea possible.

[Mith242]

akafish77, on May 29 2009, 04:46 AM, said:

I knew that we were going to be short a bunch of money, but I had no idea that it would be over $20 Billion.

http://www.arkansasb...s...27029&cID=5


Would it be plausible to turn some of the state highways into toll roads? I am mainly thinking about 412, but I am sure there are others that would work as well. I don't know the amount of traffic required to make the idea possible.

Well it's either turn some roads into toll roads projects or you'll just have to wait several decades for your project to ever get completed.  I know since people in Arkansas aren't used to the idea of toll roads that they aren't going to be a popular idea.  But I think if you basically tell people it's either this road is built as a toll road or you might have to wait a couple of decades people might start warming up to the idea.  Honestly you'd almost like to turn some roads back into gravel roads or something.  For such a small state area wise Arkansas has a lot of roads to maintain compared to a lot of other states.  But some areas of the state are growing at a nice rate and they obviously have road needs.  But other areas of the state are hemorrhaging people and have had economy problems for a while now. But the state still tends to put in new road projects there in hopes that they'll help turn the economy around.  That and those areas also tend to have more federal funds available as well.  But I still think the state is going to have to do something serious in the near future.  Either maintenance is going to have to be dropped for some paved roads that just aren't needed as they were in the past.  Or the state is going to have to eventually turn to toll roads.  If you hold off road projects for a couple of decades that certainly doesn't help the economy in the growing areas of the state.  Toll roads may be a bitter pill to swallow for a lot of people in Arkansas but I think it's something that's going to have to be done.

[Arkansas Student]

I would tend to agree, toll roads may not be popular simply because Arkansans aren't used to dealing with them, but they are actually quite common. We are just going to have to come to terms with the fact that a toll road may be the best solution for maintaining a particular stretch of highway, perhaps especially those that are not heavily used enough to warrant the investment of massive public funds for their continued upkeep. Nothing saying that some less-traveled roads couldn't be converted back to gravel or some other less-expensive-to-maintain surface. It's not the end of the world, and better than no road at all.