Dear Gena Abraham… Please know we care
May 19, 2008 at 12:12 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsThe Georgia Public Policy Foundation, the banner carriers of the Peach State’s free-market movement, hosted DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham last week to update powerplayers and bigwigs about the transportation agency’s pulse.
Here’s Abraham in a Florida Times-Union article about the event, talking about some of the good deeds that have gone unnoticed in light of all the romantic hullabaloo during her tenure (emphasis added):
In her speech, [Abraham] complained that news reports of [her relationship with former board Chairman Mike Evans] were distracting the public from information of substantive progress at the agency, namely a commitment to proceed with a long-discussed commuter-rail line from Atlanta to Lovejoy.
“I want to mention something that I am very excited about that the board passed in the last board meeting that didn’t get written about. Everything else in my personal life did. The board was very, very excited, and so was I about passing a resolution to look at commuter rail,” she said.
*Cough, cough* Ahem.
In more substantive news, the article also includes this choice nugget:
Another way of paying for [transportation projects] would be through privately run toll roads or, at least, toll lanes. Perhaps that’s why the luncheon was sponsored by Transurban, an Australian company that operates toll lanes for rushed commuters in Washington, D.C., and a toll road in Richmond, Va.
Common sense would tell me these speedy lanes would benefit the folks who could afford them — and who aren’t getting pinched by high gas prices — and cripple those who can’t, leaving them sitting in traffic in the Average Joe lanes, burning gasoline and seconds of their lives.
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May 19th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Keywords = 99 year contract
Key facts – Pocahontas 895
14-kilometre/9-mile toll road in Richmond, Virginia, US
Links Interstates 95 and 295 to create a southern bypass of Richmond
Fully opened to traffic in September 2002
Acquired by Transurban through negotiation with the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Pocahontas Parkway
Association in 2006
99-year concession (a contract to operate the road), and
Operations, maintenance and manual toll collection handled by Transurban.
Offshore Law Firm = Appleby Spurling Hunter, Bermuda and Cayman Islands