Question 3: To what extent do you intend to support investment in maintaining Minnesota’s highway system and expanding its mass transit system given the age of the state’s highway system, population and business growth, and the mass transit needs of an aging and dispersed population?

BORRELL Response to Question 3

Minnesota’s transportation infrastructure in in crisis. It seems we do not know how to build roads and bridges that will survive our climate. There are over 12,000 miles of Minnesota state highway. We are replacing about 100 miles per year! Do the math. It doesn’t add up to wise planning or resource management or our highway system.

The metro area faces a different monster. Not long ago we invested $1 billion in metro freeway improvements. For some reason, and there are conspiracy theories, we seem to have "designed in" traffic jams—some say to encourage alternative mass transit and bus ridership! If this is so, and there is evidence, then our government has not only done us a great disservice, but has wasted hundreds of millions of our tax dollars. What other explanation defies the lack of common sense of 6 lanes reduced to 4 and then back to 6 several places in the metro area? It is a "designed in" bottleneck. I think it is a shameful waste.

Dick Borrell would support:

1. Increased funding for highway construction and improvements across Minnesota.

2. Opening ‘express lanes’ 24 hrs/day to all passenger vehicles.

3. Designing highways for projected future use, not past volume.

4. Designating a percentage of the lottery proceeds to the highway fund, to be used for highway construction and improvements.

5. Elimination of all traffic bottlenecks.

6. Research leading to roads that survive MN seasons.

7. Highways that move Minnesotans quickly and safely.

8. A study to see if it would be worthwhile to invest in light rail or any other high volume mass transit system.

9. Investments in greater Minnesota’s airports, navigation systems and commercial air traffic.

Prepared and Paid for by BORRELL FOR GOVERNOR, Mike Wanchena, Treas.,