Tell Me This Is a Joke

Below is a quote from this Sunday's Atlanta Constitution. *************************************************************************************************** How big is too big? The Georgia Department of Transportation may be about to learn. In a new era of tolls and private investment in roads, the state is considering road projects that dwarf anything in its history: $500 million to expand western I-285, $1.4 billion for Ga. 400, $4 billion for I-75 and I-575. Peanuts. As expensive as those projects are, Atlanta needs something far, far bigger and better connected, say a growing number of state Transportation Board officials. Namely, expand the whole Atlanta major highway system, add a web of truck-only lanes and HOV toll lanes to the freeways and, perhaps, new toll roads like a redrawn Northern Arc or Midtown tunnel. Think $30 billion to $50 billion. And no, the state doesn't have the money. But you do. DOT consultants are calling it "the whole enchilada." Metro Atlanta is drowning in congestion, the board members say, and a project here and there won't cut it. Private investment, paid back by tolls, would have to fund all or part of it. Companies — or one private consortium — could finance it, build it, and lease it for decades, reaping returns by collecting tolls and probably sharing profits with the state. ****************************************************************************************************** This is just the opening of the article. Am I the only one who thinks that before these projects are finished, gasoline and other fossil fuels are going to be either non-existant or beyond the pocketbook of any comsumer? Who in their right mind would invest in a boondawgle like this. Who is going to have money for tolls when the gas is so expensive that you cannot buy it? I thought this was a joke at first, but these nitwits are seriously shortsighted.