HOT means “Horrible On Taxpayers!” I am only one NC citizen and I really am not affected directly by this Toll Lane fiasco. But I took the time to do the research and write the following email to ALL of the members of the NC GA on the Transportation committee! We really need a lot of citizens writing a lot of legislators. If you dont stop this now, youre going to be saddled with this albatross for a long long time! I could not upload the pictures of HOT lane toll roads, but I will try. Here is my letter: Dear Representative or Senator....(NAME); Suppose your family has grown and you can use an addition to your house! One contractor comes back with a fair price bid of under $100K complete for just what you need. Another, however, wants to make the project much more extensive beyond what you want or need, and will only charge you $88K! But he possibly will add another $75K on top of that, and also collect access fees you really cannot afford over the next 50 years from your family for just using the addition! Not only will the fees total many times the original cost, the contractor will also have access to lots of personal information about the members of your family, including names, email addresses, law enforcement records, social security, insurance, credit card information and possibly medical records… and they get to share the information! How does THAT deal sound to you? [NOTE: If you are inclined to believe the assurances of NCDOT that Cintra will not have access to this information, please refer to the following from Widen77.org and begin to ask yourself if it is now well past the time for the NCGA to start paying more attention to the citizens of NC. Please see hotlink immediately below and consider talking more with the Widen77.org folks, of which I am NOT a member: wideni77.org/2014/07/about-that-confidential-information/ ] Now multiply all these cost figures in the first paragraph by a thousand, viz., $100 million, etc., and you now have a picture of the incredibly lousy deal a few operators in Raleigh want to stick North Carolina citizens with for their nightmarish I-77 HOT lane project with the financially shaky Spanish contractor Cintra! Just the initial upfront cost to NC ($88 million) for the 27 miles of limited access toll lane and much needless bridge, overpass, etc., construction will be about the same for outright cost for adding just the one normal general lane for what is actually needed (only about 13.5 miles), and a solution with no real access restrictions. And one of the worst features of this scam is that it will not reduce congestion on I-77. If anything, it will ENSURE it for the next 50 years! Do you want to put your name to that? In fact, if NC would have moved ahead with general lanes when it got the first bids of about $75 M just a few years ago, we could have had exactly what we needed for much cheaper than the upfront cost of HOT Lanes and NC citizens on I-77 would not be stuck in traffic jams like they have been for years and still are today. If that werent absurd enough, keep in mind that thanks to the toll-road advocates, I have heard that North Carolina poured about $50M down a veritable rathole on consulting fees to Parsons-Brinkerhoff, a close associate corporation closely linked to Cintra, and who both have tentacles interwoven in endless U.S. communities and governments. Parsons is known for its outrageous cost overruns and shabby workmanship! (NOTE: For example, Parsons was responsible for the Boston Big Dig that was supposed to cost about $2.5 billion and wound up costing north of $15 BILLION! As a result of their use of substandard ceiling slab fasteners, the roof of the tunnel collapsed on a womans car and killed her!) Here is another example of where our taxpayers were forced to squander about as much on needless consulting as it would have cost to simply build the 13.5 miles of one additional general lane outright and be done with it! [Important: A lot might be more obvious to you if you click on the Hotlink Below] If someone tells you that the purpose of the HOT lanes is to relieve congestion, the most honest thing I can say is that they are lying to you. In virtually every instance across this country, this typical toll lane scam adds a lane or two that only the well-to-do can afford and leaves the same damned congestion in the general lanes they had before the operators frivolously squandered billions in taxpayer money. On the Washington DC Beltway, Rt. 495, years were wasted adding two lanes in the very congested Tysons Corners area. We visited the area just after it was completed and found to our dismay the same overcrowding and congestion as before and two virtually empty toll lanes. (We saw only two cars in the toll lanes on the trip.) The residents call them Lexus Lanes! Is THAT what you really want for our citizens? In example after example across the United States, these HOT lanes only make congestion worse. It increases traffic jams, costs our citizens much more, and inevitably become financial albatrosses around our necks for decades, along with all the other restrictions they impose. I am enclosing a few photos of what HOT lanes usually result in. Well, who does benefit from these schemes? Definitely companies like Cintra and Parsons Brinkerhoff who collect BILLIONS in toll fees. This shabby deal can stop a citizen from getting their state vehicle registration renewed if they think a driver has not paid their extortive tolls, tolls that have consistently inched up over the years at multiple locations to $10 or more one way, and projected to cost over $40 for a round trip in 20 years! (The $2 toll proponents keep tossing out is pure poppycock and requires astronomical numbers of cars to make the figures add up!) Keep in mind too that much of this money is extricated from North Carolina and even the United States and sent overseas. Are you comfortable with all this money leaving our state? Who actually benefits from this? I suggest you check out the following hot link and learn how the Boston law firm controlled by Susan Tilliss family represents firms like Parsons Brinkerhoff (and other big firms that benefitted in our state thanks to political intercession!) And so far, Mr. Thom Tilliss campaign has received over $10,000 in campaign donations from employees of the law firm of Campbell, Campbell, Edwards & Conroy. Of course, this had no effect on his decisions! Please do not crawl into bed with the operators of this deal! dailyhaymaker/?p=6868 The NC Attorney Generals office also ought to look into whether or not other donations from Cintra, Parsons, Campbell, Campbell, Edwards & Conroy, etc., have been made to state or local politicians and officials, such as to MUMPO, the local planning organization, at least, perhaps, before a federal agency like the FBI decides to do this on its own. At the very least, you should support HB1274 to require a citizens referendum on ANY toll road. Sincerely, Mel Morganstein, Charlotte, NC
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 00:26:21 +0000
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