Heads and tales: Earth last
By Wade Kwon
Overflow: Something stinks in Jefferson County. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that the county has violated 13 categories of a court agreement to fix the sewer system at a cost of $3 billion. That means sewage can spill into basements and streets — even in dry weather — instead of reaching a treatment plant. Yuck. Some violations go back as far as nine years.
• Sewer rules broken [Birmingham News]
Gasping at straws: Birmingham-based McWane Inc. is shelling out $3 million in fines to the feds for rigging air pollution tests and using equipment out of compliance. The crimes took place at one of its subsidiary companies in Provo, Utah. And you thought McWane only poisoned the hometown crowd … Nope, enough death and malfeasance for everybody.
• McWane settles Utah pollution charges [Birmingham News]
Highway to … well …: Interstate 65 will expand to eight lanes, with construction commencing this summer. The 38-mile project will extend from Gardendale to the Shelby County Airport. We don’t usually mention road projects, especially because they’re short-term solutions that lead to worse traffic and pollution. (Repeat after us: More capacity leads to more cars, which leads to … more traffic.)
But, the interstate will include high-occupancy vehicle lanes, the first in Alabama. We like HOV lanes because they’re cheap (paint and some signs), fast and increase the passengers-to-vehicles ratio, a critical requirement of better transportation planning. Too bad we didn’t put in HOV lanes 10 years ago — but we could change lanes on U.S. 280 and I-20/59 tomorrow …
• I-65 to widen through county [Shelby County Reporter]
Also:
- Mayor, county commission “hug it out”
- Calera mom stuns supermarket shoppers by telling daughter “no”
- Get your Valentine’s hopes up now, before it’s too late
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Saturday, February 11, 2006, 1:45 pm
Exactly how would HOV lanes change things on 280? It is not a limited access highway, like the four interstates that roll around the Ham. HOV would be great on those, but 280 would require years and millions of dollars of investment just to replace one lane with an HOV lane (with HOV exits, etc.).
I’m curious how Alabama commuters will handle the concept of HOV lanes. They’re not exactly concientious drivers to begin with. Plus, with little enforcment on state freeways, I suspect the HOV lanes will be populated with LOVs as well.
Still, progressive thinking for once.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006, 1:35 pm
Nonsense. Plenty of highways and interstates have HOV lanes without separate exits. You could transform a lane on 280 overnight to a HOV lane to accomodate multi-occupancy vehicles and public buses.
Wait, do buses run on 280? Yeah, all one of them.
Are you saying that lax enforcement by cops means we shouldn’t bother with HOV lanes? I don’t want to get rid of speed limits, no matter how unevenly they’re enforced.
I’d prefer to spend so-called millions on HOVs rather than adding lanes fruitlessly.