Banner at Jul 28 2008 protest in D.C.

The two Indiana residents (Hugh Farrell and Gina “Tiga” Wertz) charged with misdemeanors for intimidation and improper use of property in the campaign against the I-69 “NAFTA Superhighway” accepted a plea deal on July 14. The defendants each pleaded guilty to two counts of trespassing and were sentenced to two years non-reporting probation and a $10 fine, plus court costs. If the defendants do not violate their probation in the first 15 months, they can have it terminated at that point.

The defendants had previously faced felony racketeering charges, but those were dismissed by the judge earlier this year.

The details of the plea agreements will eventually be posted on Hugh and Tiga’s support site, mostlyeverything.net.

The defendants have made it clear that they worked closely with their lawyers to make sure the plea deals do not implicate anyone else in any illegal activity.

Disclaimer: Opinions, statements or any information contained in this or any other communication from Root Force should not be taken as reflecting the beliefs of the defendants in any criminal or civil legal action, nor upon their guilt or innocence. Root Force posts, emails, and web site content reflect the perspective of Root Force only, unless explicitly noted.

We have added the Gateway Sucks campaign to our list of anti-infrastructure contacts. In their own words, “Gatewaysucks.org is a loose voluntary association of individuals and organizations who are ticked off about Gateway.”

What is the Gateway Project?

“The project is a massive old-school highway-expansion plan being launched by the BC Government, spearheaded by Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.

“Key points of the scheme are:
• massive reconstruction and enlargement of the Delta shipping port
• construction of 10-lane Port Mann “Superbridge”
• Expansion of Highway One to eight lanes between Langley and East Vancouver
• construction of North and South Perimeter Roads through Delta, Langley, Richmond and Surrey

“Historic homes are being demolished, and ancient indigenous sites are under threat from the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) project … on the Fraser River bank.

” ‘Our neighbours are being forced out of their homes, and ecosystems are being bulldozed,” says Delta resident Ernie Baatz. “Schools and programs are being cut across the province to pay for this climate changing freeway. We have to stand up to this appalling waste.’ “

a coal train

From Erie Times-News:

“Pennsylvania State Police in Corry are looking for the person who tried to sabotage a railroad line.

“The incident was discovered Thursday when a train operator noticed that joint bars connecting sections of rail had been disassembled on the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad line about one-half mile east of Route 89 in Concord Township.

“Police said the sabotage could have caused a train to go off the tracks.”

traffic

Several items of transportation news:

• The Department of Transportation has approved a $386 million loan to the state of North Carolina for the construction of two new sections of the Triangle Expressway in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area.

The Triangle Expressway will connect the area’s major highways with 18 miles of roads, including “the new Triangle Parkway extending 3.4 miles north from NC 540; the existing North Wake Freeway extending NC 540 south for 2.8 miles; and the new Western Wake Freeway continuing NC 540 south for an additional 12.6 miles.” The stated goals include improving access to I-40 and to downtown Raleigh, and thereby improving access to the area’s three major research universities and to Research Triangle Park, which houses roughly 160 companies and 40,000 high-tech workers.

• The Department of Transportation has issued $60 million in grants for the improvement of ferry service in 19 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. All the projects are designed to deliver quick economic stimulus, serve “critical transportation needs,” and to be completed within 2 years. A complete list of grantees is available here.

• Government officials in Arizona and Nevada have proposed constructing a new interstate highway — I-11 — between Phoenix, AZ and Las Vegas, NV. The new highway would start from Interstate 10 in suburban Phoenix and follow what is currently US-93 to Las Vegas, with a detour around Boulder City. Although the idea is in preliminary stages — it has no funding, and Congress has not approved a new interstate — the state transportation agencies are building all new improvements along the route to federal interstate standards, just in case.

As with many other ambitious highway plans, funding problems may slow progress on the idea. Federal road funding comes from gas tax revenue, which has declined as people drive less and switch over to more fuel efficient cars.

I-69 Treesit Platform

From www.mostlyeverything.net (links added):

“Indiana State Police [ISP] today [July 9] widened its case against I-69 resistance to target yet another individual. Apparently not content pinning years’ worth of diffuse intentions and attempts from myriad actors onto just Tiga and Hugh, the state served Philip Shelton a search warrant authorizing his forceful detainment for the purpose of obtaining photos, fingerprints, and DNA samples. Four officers (2 ISP detectives, a uniformed ISP officer and another from the Department of Natural Resources) surprised Philip at his near-westside Bloomington home early this morning and escorted him to the State Police post. There, they executed the search warrant while repeatedly offering to buy him soda, then invited him out to lunch. Despite their buoyant charm, Philip declined and was driven back home.

“Shortly thereafter, the probable cause affidavit requesting the search warrant was obtained from the Pike County Circuit Court, and the nature of the state’s interest in Philip further revealed. This document states that there are three reasons to believe that Philip ‘participated in the planning and/or execution of the July 9, 2007 office invasions’ (during which supplies in various I-69 planning offices throughout the state were moved outside, in protest of evictions along the proposed I-69 route). These are, rather explicitly, that Philip is alleged to live with Hugh Farrell, that he was last spring stopped by police while providing information about I-69 to residents living around its proposed corridor, and that someone in a car registered to Philip allegedly visited an I-69 planning office to inquire about the project.

“In posting this affidavit, we do mean to highlight the absurdity of the state’s legitimating a forceful seizure of a DNA sample with a list of quite clearly legal acts. But the accusations levied against Philip are consistent with those of the larger case against I-69 resistance (and the years of surveillance upon which it is based), trends which ought give greater pause than a run of the mill ‘breach of civil liberties.’ What is being actively pursued is the criminalization of those social relationships, relationships already existing between friends and those being sought after, which, in their struggle to constitute other existences, are threatening to the projects of the state. As its collection of surveillance records unfolds (while, we’re reminded today, being built up further), one can see this increasingly well. In the language of the court’s ‘discovery’ and the mutterings of the detectives, with their talk of conspiracy, their fixation on rooting out individuals as members of some group (‘roadblock earthfirst’ – rarely defined but through internet citings), and their targeting of attempts to communicate, their intentions are clear and not to be taken lightly.”

Disclaimer: Opinions, statements or any information contained in this or any other communication from Root Force should not be taken as reflecting the beliefs of the defendants in any criminal or civil legal action, nor upon their guilt or innocence. Root Force posts, emails, and web site content reflect the perspective of Root Force only, unless explicitly noted.

An electric tower topples

The contraction of the global economy caused U.S. infrastructure spending to decline by an estimated 4.3 percent in 2009, according to analysts from HIS Global Insight, in spite of the $48 billion given to the Department of Transportation as part of stimulus packages. Non-highway spending is expected to decrease by 10.2 percent. The only infrastructure sector that did not contract was the power sector.

State budget shortfalls are largely to blame for the effect, the report said. Infrastructure spending is projected to fall another 1.6 percent in 2010, with a growth of 2.4 percent in 2011 if the economy rebounds.

Hit ‘em while they’re down, and slow that rebound!

banner at Jul 28 '08 DC I-69 protest

Hugh Farrell, who has been indicted on misdemeanor and felony charges of intimidation, improper use of property, and corrupt business influence for publicly organizing against the I-69 “NAFTA Superhighway”, has released an open letter to his supporters. In the letter he writes, among other things, about the significance of the fight against I-69:

“What the State really fears are collective dinners where many people can sit down together to begin, however awkwardly or painfully, making sense of a highway project that no layperson was ever meant to grasp. The State fears those moments when marginalized young people like me, from the cities or suburbs and seemingly disillusioned with everything, begin to break out of our imposed and self-imposed isolation. They fear it when we begin talking with people very different from ourselves, with farmers and others, about the different and similar ways I-69 will impact our lives.”

Hugh and his co-defendant Tiga face a maximum of 12 years in prison. Support is still needed, including funds, since less than a third of their total estimated legal costs of $30,000 has been raised so far. Please visit their support site at www.mostlyeverything.net.

Disclaimer: Opinions, statements or any information contained in this or any other communication from Root Force should not be taken as reflecting the beliefs of the defendants in any criminal or civil legal action, nor upon their guilt or innocence. Root Force posts, emails, and web site content reflect the perspective of Root Force only, unless explicitly noted.

The governments of Chile and Argentina are actively pursuing plans to build a Trans-Andean Rail tunnel to connect the Pacific and Atlantic ports of the respective countries. When completed, the rail line is expected to increase trade between the countries tenfold.

The current rail line between the countries is shut down for an average 45 days per year due to weather and technical problems.

Companies involved include Argentinian firms Corporación América (CASA) and José Cartellone Construcciones Civiles, Chilean group Urenda’s Empresas Navieras, Spanish group Comsa, Italian consultancy Geodata, Austrian engineering firm Geoconsult and Brazilian company Odebrecht.

The project is currently in study phase.

The Department of Transportation has given out $5.2 million in grants to promote the use of new technology in bridge construction and repair. Bridges are considered a critical weak point of transportation infrastructure, as was demonstrated in August 2007 when a bridge in Minneapolis collapsed due to aging gusset plates.

A list of the bridges receiving the grants can be found here.

In the morning of June 17th 2009, a few people dressed in black blocked the Hanlon Highway at Paisley Road [in Guelph, Ontario] during rush hour.

Fallen trees and branches were pulled across the southbound lanes and two smoke bombs were set off to draw attention to the banner, which was dropped from the railway overpass. The banner read: “PARK YOUR CARS! Solidarity with the Mohawk Nation.”

This action was done to disrupt the transport of goods and people, especially those belonging to the Linamar Corporation. Linamar is a member of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, which works to improve the efficiency of orth American trade. Amongst its plans is the militarization and fortification of the borders and their guards. Like in Awkesasne, Tyendinaga and Peru, we too stand against the SPP and its projects.

Solidarity with the Mohawk Nation means ATTACK!

The border crossing between Cornwall, Ontario and Massena, N.Y. has been closed for three weeks, with members of the Mohawk community of Akwesasne trapped in the middle. Community members are protesting in opposition to a plan to arm Canadian border guards on Mohawk territory.

traffic