Highway Construction is Delayed by Politics, not Environmental Regulations

Republicans in Congress are trying to streamline the environmental review process for highway construction projects -- great for them. I doubt there is any bureaucracy in the world that can't be streamlined. But if their goal is to build roads faster, they are looking in the wrong place.

Congressman John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.), chair of the House highway and transit subcommittee, recently said that “The average federal highway project takes 15 years from concept to completion in the U.S. because of excessive regulations.” If only it were so simple. Every study ever done on why transportation projects gets delayed has found that environmental issues are rarely the holdup. The main holdups are 1) money, and 2) democracy. The number one reason projects are delayed is that legislators don't appropriate the money, and streamlining regulations won't help there. The number two reason is opposition by neighbors. Every major project I have ever worked on has faced organized, concerted opposition from people living nearby. Now sometimes these people are able to use environmental laws to fight projects they don't like, but mainly they work by pressuring elected officials. Faced with a hearing room full of angry voters, legislators and governors and Congressmen often say, "We will study the matter some more," or "We will find ways to make sure the road has absolutely no impact on your quality of life," or some such thing that inevitably leads to delay. The maps highway planners use have symbols for wetlands and forests and aquifers and all sorts of environmental stuff, but the symbol that determines the route the road takes is the capital R meaning "Residence." Roads are almost always routed to require moving the smallest number of voters, prairie dogs and whorled pogonias be damned.

The way to build roads and light rail lines fast is to tell the neighbors to go to hell. This is, for example, how New York's Tappan Zee Bridge was built, by a governor who didn't bother to ask anyone living nearby what they thought of the project. Two charming little towns were destroyed, and the once famously lovely lake changed forever. In today's climate, the road most likely could not be built. I am not sure that would be such a bad thing. But don't waste your breath blaming environmentalists for the change. What has changed is that now Americans expect their government to do what they want it to do, and they get really angry when they are ignored.