• The state Transportation Strategy Board may poll CT residents on new transportation funding sources early next year. According to the Courant, possibilities for new funding include tolls or a gas or sales tax increase.

• Governor Rell has indicated support for widening I-95 from Bradford to the Rhode Island border. The announcement was prompted by a follow up to the 1999 "Southeastern Corridor Study." But the huge project is likely dead on arrival due a variety of factors, especially its $1.6 billion price tag, 18 year time frame and strong opposition from a variety of elected officials, citizens, and environmentalists. Old Saybrook Selectman Bill Peace told the New Haven Register: "There’s no mass transit aspect to this study at all…. It’s going to take 18 years to finish and everyone knows that the day it opens it will exceed capacity."

• The US DOT announced that extending Route 11 is a pilot project for hurrying roads through environmental reviews. The $500 million project is a new 8-mile connector between Interstates 95 and 395. A September 2002 executive order from President Bush allows designated projects to be "fast tracked" through environmental impact study and permitting procedures. The Route 11 announcement rekindled fears of environmental and transportation reform groups that road building agencies and industry seek to escape public scrutiny.

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