Interstate highway construction slowed dramatically in the 70s after federal funds largely dried up except for the remaining critical arteries like the Colorado I70. Since then, a dozen highways proposals have come and gone because of eminent domain and environmental impact lawsuits in Southern California alone.
The I710 expansion, for example, was finally axed a few years ago after six decades of opposition from South Pasadena and the surrounding cities. At one point the state was considering a plan to tunnel under the town for about a $billion a mile because the opposition was so intractable (well funded and connected) before Caltrans gave up and started selling all the housing they'd been accumulating for decades for the project.
Re:Hyperloop: Pipes of Fancy
by roywiggins on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @11:19PM
(#24139643)
During the era of freeway construction they usually built the enormous interchanges through marginalized neighborhoods. Nobody with political power cares because they don't live there; nobody who lives there can prevent it happening.
It's worth pointing out that since the 1950s the government has been doing just that and more to build the vast network of interstate highways and state roads. People don't bat an eyelash at demolishing nature for a monster interchange, but propose more rail and suddenly it's so important to consider the environmental impacts and the eminent domain issues.