No Bacon, please Part II

Had a few moments to check out my representative's website and it turns out he (Kenny Marchant, 24th TX) promotes himself in a news release as the only Republican from the DFW area on the House Transportation Committee. So guess what he's bringing home to DFW? Yep, the bacon....here are a few highlights with some of my notes (see here for the complete press release)

• $400,000 - 14 foot wide concrete hike and bike trail approximately 2.2 miles long in Grapevipe. Nope, doesn't seem necessary to me, and not just because I don't live in Grapevine. This quote is funny from the press release - "This bill will go a long way to ease traffic congestion and highway safety in our area". So what exactly does building a hike and bike trail have to do with easing traffic congestions and highway safety?
• $3.2 million - SH 114/SH 121 "Funnel Project" - preliminary engineering study, also in Grapevine. Preliminary studies that cost so much money don't give me warm and fuzzy feelings. How much is going to be funneled into this project before it is all over?
  
• $1.6 million - SH 183 (Airport Freeway) from SH 360 to I-35 E in Irving. I drove this road a few weeks ago when I got back from Binghamton and the road seemed fine for the most part to me until you get to the south end (near I-35E, which is also near Texas Stadium). The south end could use some repairs (and some better signage at a couple of exits as I nearly missed my exit because the sign was a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" sign that was tiny compared to the signs for other exits) and maybe some widening, although I imagine Sunday traffic on the road will be alleviated once the Cowboys pack up for Arlington in 2009. So what is the money to be used for?
  
• $800,000 million - Loop 12/I-35 E and SH 183 west extension to MacArthur in Irving. This really sounds like it should be a part of the project above as it's in the same area. So why two separate funding projects?
• $2.6 million - preliminary design for a DART hub station at intersection of Union Pacific and cotton belt rail lines in Carrolton. Just like my remarks on the "funnel project" above - If it takes $2.6 million for the preliminary design, I'd hate to see how much it would cost to build the damn thing.
  
• $4.4 million - ramp from east bound I-20 to south bound Clark Road at the southern terminus of Spur 408 in Duncanville. Okay, this one is actually in the town where I live, and is the only project on the list that I whole-heartedly approve of. It is beyond annoying that you can't get to Clark Road from I-20 and with Cedar Hill growing the way it is, there really does need to be more than one exit to it off I-20 besides FM1382. Of course, I do question why they didn't do this four years ago when they were working on the ramp from east bound I-20 to north bound Spur 408 four years ago (for those of you not familiar with this part of Dallas County, Spur 408 ends at I-20 and becomes Clark Road, which is the west dividing line between Duncanville and Dallas and eventually leads to Cedar Hill - from I-20 in both directions you can exit onto Spur 408, but not onto Clark Road). I guess they can't walk and chew gum at the same time around here, which is also evidenced by the fact that this is for a ramp on east-bound I-20 only. What about west-bound I-20 to Clark Road? But, since we're currently living without this ramp, and the money could be put to higher priority uses, I can live without this project right now.
  

Also in 24th TX are two of the projects I listed in my first post, the $3.6 million for the I-35E/I-635 interchange in Farmer's Branch and the $800,000 for the Trinity River Bridge on I-30 in Dallas.

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