New westside housing and I-11

[wildflowers27]

It may be an example of "Build it and they will come" (from Field of Dreams). The I-11 Corridor site has an enormous amount of data and documents - I spent days a year or so ago reading through it and printed out some of it. The Purpose and Need Memorandum - Final from February 2017 I see has now been updated as of March 2019. Around page 24-25 of Chapter 1 - Purpose and Need talks about moving freight, adding capacity, the increasing congestion in Southern California, and how the I-11 "north-south corridor in the Intermountain West could become the corridor of choice for trade related traffic to and from Mexico, particularly as nearshoring is expected to increase."

I-11 & Intermountain West Corridor Study

Certainly it will be a huge economic boon to Arizona. My only wish is they build it going around the back of Green Valley (behind/west of the Sierrita Mine). On the map there is a "purple" alternative for this, starting above Amado and below Green Valley. The "blue" alternative goes up I-19 through Green Valley and would be less expensive to build. There is no easy answer.

Route Maps: I-11 & Intermountain West Corridor Study

[WilmaWildcat]

From two days ago.

Railroads face a freight slowdown
By DAMIAN J. TROISE, AP
July 25, 2019
https://www.apnews.com/60b7067e0ea64165bfddec23190ef3b5

Railroads are warning investors that freight shipments will continue to fall this year as the Trump administration’s trade fights hamper exports and cheap natural gas causes coal deliveries to dwindle.

CSX and Union Pacific both reported a slowdown in freight hauling during the second quarter. The railroads predicted freight volumes will fall further in the second half of the year. Bad weather and flooding have hurt crop production, which also impacts shipping volumes for the railroads.

The Association of American Railroads, which tracks the industry’s weekly shipments, has reported declines for almost every category of product this year. Coal and grain, which account for a large part of the freight industry’s revenue, have been particularly weak.

“At any point in time, some sectors of the economy are invariably doing better or worse than others,” the Association of American Railroads said in its latest monthly report. “Unfortunately, right now it appears that sectors responsible for much of the rail traffic base are the ones doing poorly.” (Continued)