| A clear change of policy is
underway when the Legislature instructs the
Department of Transportation to consider local
economic development in its planning process, and
sets aside significant money to study the
implications of the expansion of Highway #2 in
particular. The change and the set-aside raise at
least two questions: do new or expanded highways
promote economic development and does the proposed
Highway 2 expansion survive a cost-benefit
analysis? At the Roundtable, the answer to the
first question appeared to be, "it depends."
Highway construction is at best a necessary and
not also a sufficient condition. There must also
be transportation "magnets" to attract increased
car traffic, new development possibilities, and
adequate local population numbers. It doesn't
follow, in other words, that if "we build it, they
will come."
So far as I could gauge it, the consensus at
the Roundtable was that these conditions are not
present in connection with Highway #2 expansion.
Moreover, the cost, estimated at more than
$1,000,000,000, would drain federal and state
money away from every other project now in the
planning stage, including some important safety
up-grades on more traveled routes. No one doubted
that the Hiline desperately needs more economic
development. But even if federal dollars could be
found to fund the entire Highway #2 expansion, it
was felt that money could be better spent in more
immediately significant ways to build local
infrastructure and promote new businesses.
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