The mammoth bond package includes $3 billion in borrowing from future federal road payments, a funding mechanism Perdue criticized before taking office.
The announcement was Perdue's most sweeping statement yet on his plans to reduce congestion and improve air quality around Atlanta. As he has hinted since taking office last year, Perdue will focus almost exclusively on highway improvements, not mass transit.
``Georgia's highways are a valuable economic asset,'' Perdue said, defending his plan. The first change will be more high-occupancy lanes on metro Atlanta highways and an expansion of the HERO program, the network of state trucks dispatched to clear accidents and stalled cars from highways.
Approximately $1.4 billion is included to accelerate expansion of HOV lanes on congested corridors, such as Georgia 400 north of 285.
The governor's proposal also calls for statewide improvements to Georgia's Interstate system to, among other things, increase capacity on congested rural freeways, including money for adding lanes to Interstate 85.
Environmentalists immediately bashed Perdue's plan, saying road expansions only encourage more traffic and longer commutes.
``We should focus on getting people out of single-passenger cars,'' said Colleen Kiernan of the Sierra Club. ``It doesn't seem like Perdue is interested in that at all.''
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/4/160670