Freeway/Transportation Growth & Projections

The first article, Summit shows need to speed freeway construction, from the Arizona Republic, reports that Arizona business and government leaders met yesterday for the Arizona Transportation Acceleration Summit, hosted by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, to talk about accelerating freeway construction above the schedule approved by voters in 2004. Much of the discussion was on the South Mountain Freeway and freeways into Pinal County. Although no specific freeway projects were identified as candidates for acceleration, summit participants agreed to move forward to speed up construction plans and will present a detailed package to the state Legislature in January.

http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/print.php?referer=http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/0615ar-freeway0615Z14.html

The second article, Summit zeros in on transportation, growth, from the Phoenix Business Journal, also reports on yesterday's transportation summit. It quotes speaker and local economist Elliott Pollack as saying accelerating the freeways is vital to meet population demands. "What's real is that growth will continue to be in the periphery," he said. "Light rail and bus will never move a large percentage of the people commuting. Your bang for the buck remains in freeways," he added. Summit participants agreed that Arizona is behind the curve when it comes to building roads and meeting transportation needs. Today, the state's population is about 5.1 million. That figure is expected to be 7 million by 2010, 9.5 million by 2025 and 13 million by 2050. Currently, legislatures are expected to approve a state budget that includes $345 million for transportation, but that is just a drop in the bucket as to what is needed to accelerate the freeways.

http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2006/06/12/daily35.html?t=printable