{"id":3181,"date":"2010-11-10T10:16:06","date_gmt":"2010-11-10T15:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=3181"},"modified":"2010-11-10T12:43:22","modified_gmt":"2010-11-10T17:43:22","slug":"our-first-images-of-a-rooftop-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/11\/10\/our-first-images-of-a-rooftop-highway\/","title":{"rendered":"Our first images of a “rooftop highway”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dream of a “rooftop highway” – a full-blown divided highway interstate running across the North Country between Watertown and Plattsburgh – has obsessed regional economic developers for the better part of 60 years.<\/p>\n

But perhaps for the first time, we can actually see what building such an Interstate would look like.<\/p>\n

The first 5 miles of what supporters hope will become the rooftop highway is under construction, connecting I-81 to Fort Drum’s main gate.\u00a0 It’s going to be called I-781.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking at these pictures, it’s hard not to be struck by a couple things.<\/p>\n

First, imagine dredging this wide a swath for 180 miles across the North Country, through forests, wetlands, neighborhoods, farm fields.<\/p>\n

Second, it will have taken more than 8 years and some $70 million just to build these five miles<\/strong> of highway.\u00a0 DOT engineer Kenneth Bibbins told the Watertown Daily Times yesterday<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It’s a large, complex project. We don’t get to do this much \u2014 new highway work \u2014 especially here in Watertown.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How “complex” would it be to build this road 36 times over?<\/p>\n

Opposition to the rooftop highway has been little more than a quiet mumble of disapproval all these years.\u00a0 That’s mostly because it seems so unfeasible, with its vast scope and $2-4 billion estimated price tag, not to mention the DOT’s assessment that Route 11 (the basic route of the rooftop highway) really isn’t that choked with traffic at all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that will change if the project takes a step toward reality.\u00a0 There have been rumblings of federal funding for an environmental impact study, which would include public hearings.\u00a0 I think it’s arguble that this could engender one of the biggest political battles in North Country history.<\/p>\n

Rooftop highway supporters<\/a> have most local governments on their side via a blizzard of resolutions.\u00a0 And they have a study<\/a> that promises 27,000 new jobs, and a sturdy belief that the only way for the North Country to escape its decades-long economic downturn is, as Business Development Corporation for a Greater Massena director and lead rooftop highway booster Jason Clark says, “a Big Road.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dream of a “rooftop highway” – a full-blown divided highway interstate running across the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10,4802],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3196,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3181\/revisions\/3196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}