The NAFTA superhighway yet to be built

With the appointment of House and Senate conferees for the Federal Highway Bill this week, there’s renewed hope that Congress may be able to pass a bill this year. The House passed an extension of the current federal highway program known as SAFETEA-LU April 18; however, the Senate previously passed a two year bill called MAP-21, or S. 1813, paving the way for the one remaining interstate highway yet to be built in America to be completed. That interstate is I-69, also known as high priority corridors 18 & 20.

However, it won’t be built as a freeway, the Senate has ensured it will built as a foreign-owned tollway using a public private partnership (P3) due to the structural shortfall in traditional road funding encompassed within the bill as well as the reliance on tolling to make-up the shortfall. The House lacked the votes to pass its long-term federal highway bill, HR 7, and opted to pass a straight extension of SAFETEA-LU in order to set-up a conference committee to hash out the differences on a short-term fix.
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-nafta-superhighway-yet-to-be-built?CID=examiner_alerts_article