'Pork' worth fighting for/More federal funding sought for I-10

The Arizona Republic
Mar. 11, 2006 12:00 AM

I was driving on Interstate 10 around the Agua Fria River last weekend, nothing you would classify as rush hour. "Driving" is a more passive verb than I normally use for this activity. Mostly I was just sitting amid a Stonehenge of tractor-trailer rigs.

This is at hinterland's edge. While Goodyear and Avondale are fully into growth bloom and the petals on Buckeye's flower are beginning to unfold, it still is right past where desert meets city. It's the Valley freeway stretch that most resembles LA.

Those who have driven (that verb again) Los Angeles know that it often is anything but zippy. Any time of day or night you can find yourself at a crawl for what never seems a good reason. As best I could tell, the slowdown by the Agua Fria was because someone changed a tire. This doesn't happen in most of the Valley, certainly not with this regularity. In the same place the day after the tire-changing incident, the same thing happened - with nary a culpable Firestone in sight.

What do we do? A parallel reliever freeway is planned, but it's not scheduled to arrive before hundreds of thousands of new West Valley residents who will be "driving" that stretch. That's also assuming we get past the NIMBY-slowed decisions on where the south of South Mountain Freeway leaves I-10 in or near Ahwatukee (they prefer, rather vociferously, "near" to "in") and where it enters I-10 on our side.

Sen. Jon Kyl, in the West Valley recently, said that portion of I-10 is the most dangerous in the entire interstate system. He offered hope of increased federal funding for it, although it came attached to one dirty word that neither of our U.S. senators likes much: "earmark." That's Congress' more palatable term for "pork."

When senators earmark legislation, they add spending for something back home, generally not even a federal responsibility (think "bridge to nowhere"). They generally are added without debate or even representatives being able to see them in advance. Most of them do it frequently (our senators being exceptions), one huge reason why your child, born or not, already is deeply in hock. Visualize hyenas happening upon a fallen antelope.

Sen. John McCain, the best-known battler of earmarks, is spot-on fighting that destructive procedure. I would, however, cut the similarly reluctant Sen. Kyl some slack if he employs it and hope that our senior senator would do the same, for two reasons: 1) Kyl would do it in daylight rather than like most of those nocturnal thieves, and 2) this is, after all, a federal thoroughfare, originally designed by President Eisenhower for defense.

To tell you the truth, I think we need toll roads, but there are only four like-minded people in Arizona.

Hal DeKeyser, a Valley journalist for 25 years now working in marketing/public affairs, real estate and energy-efficient building materials, can be reached at hdekeyser@cox.net.