Unexplained road construction.

There is an interstate loop in the city near my home as in many such citys. I noticed that there are a number of new concrete anchors such as those that hold the large over the road signs at various places along the loop. Just because I am the curious type, I started asking around as to what they are for. Nobody I have asked seems to know, which, honestly doesn't surprise me or raise any red flags. However, since there is so much happening with the TSA and other big brother agencies, I thought I'd just look it up online and see what info the dot had. Nothing. So I decided to make a few calls to the local police to find out. " Let me ask" was the response before a very long hold. Finally, the lady came back on line and asked who I was and why I wanted to know. I told her I was a citizen and was just curious. She then told me she didn't know and I should call the DOT. Now it's really bugging me, so I call the DOT and get more runaround and finally they said that they needed my full name and number before they would tell me. I declined, thanked them and hung up. Next I decided to go straight to the horses mouth, the guys doing the work. They were nice enough, but, no one knew what they were for. They said they weren't told anything more than what the plans told them.
I just find it odd that there are no worksite info boxes or inspection sheet info or any other indication of what they are doing. It very well could be something simple, it's just the lack of info that makes it curious. They also
widened a six mile stretch of the interstate from two to three and four lanes between the very small town where I live into the city. Also included in that was filling in and paving the median and adding a concrete barrier. That makes sense to me as for one purpose only, for slowing traffic through inspection stations. That thought was strengthened when I found out about the request for armored roadside booths by the homeland security.
Anyone else see anything similar?

while it does sound fishy, i wouldn't be to worried about it. I would however be worried if i started to hear this same story from all major cities or all major cities around a specific area. Something to definitely keep my eyes on thanks for posting op

the department of transportation must spend all the money in their budget whether they need to do work or not, so that they get as much money next year.

if they only spent half, they would get much less year to year.

and we couldn't have that now could we

reply to post by wirefly


The first thing that struck me reading all that was not how much information those agencies don't want to give you, but how much information you're not willing to give them.

The police, the DOT and members here have no information from you to go on, yet you want information and opinions from us all? Seems a little one sided don't ya think?

reply to post by Taupin Desciple


Just have to ask...why would police and/or DOT need to know the OP's personal info before answering a seemingly innocent and simple question?

reply to post by edaced4


No doubt.

His tax dollars ARE paying for it...

reply to post by edaced4


I think they ask that so if something should happen..you know trouble starting, protestor, something blowing up...they have a link back to who was asking questions.. Also could be that they didn't want the media asking questions in an unoffical way to make up some crazy stories for the local paper.. Cops and DOT are just as suspicious about us as we are of them.

Originally posted by Taupin Desciple
reply to post by wirefly

 

The first thing that struck me reading all that was not how much information those agencies don't want to give you, but how much information you're not willing to give them.

The police, the DOT and members here have no information from you to go on, yet you want information and opinions from us all? Seems a little one sided don't ya think?

What relevance would his details be to a general inquiry?
They dont need to know his details...just answer a simple question..its not at all one sided...if someone asks you for the time you dont ask to see proof of who they are now do you?

reply to post by wirefly


is the location a secret ?

reply to post by jenlovesturtles


As a concerned taxpayer, asking a government agency for information on a public works project shouldn't require for you to give your name and all kinds of other assorted personal information.

To me, it seems that the whole "but you might be a terrorist who will blow something up" excuse is a bunch of baloney.

This is the complete opposite of a transparent government. Because they are so tight-lipped, I'll bet it is something that is not a benefit for the people, but another nail in the coffin of our freedoms.

reply to post by FissionSurplus


I agree it is baloney, but alot of these questions we answer around here all the time when we call any of those agencies now that could be because I live next to a military base and things might be different here but I just assume the reasons are the same all over.

Sounds like they're creating a tollway there to try and net more money.

That would make the most sense to me before jumping to wild conclusions.

reply to post by zeevar


Asking about a location along a major highway is a lot different than asking about the time. Terrorism and all...

reply to post by jenlovesturtles


You may be right. Areas around military bases may be more paranoid.

someone please look-up the official explanation for the two miles on southbound 121 starting near custer rd.
that's in the nnta...north texas tollway asomething....owned by a saudi arabia company....
why are there eight of them ...one every quarter mile.....big camera poles with multiple equipment

Originally posted by zeevar


What relevance would his details be to a general inquiry?
They dont need to know his details...just answer a simple question..its not at all one sided...if someone asks you for the time you dont ask to see proof of who they are now do you?

edit on 8-5-2012 by zeevar because: repetition of quote.

Well, from our perspective here on ATS he was asking us why they would be doing certain things on a stretch of Freeway but didn't say where the freeway was. Someone mentioned toll booths. That's plausible on the east coast, but what if he lives in Utah? He gave us no information to go on. How are we supposed to answer his question?

As far as the police and the DOT, why would they give information about what they're doing without knowing who's doing the asking. No, I don't buy the terrorist argument for one second, but you do hear on the news from time to time about people shooting out automated highway information signs, speed cameras and even DOT workers maintaining it all.

If I were a DOT worker and someone called up and asked me what the OP did but didn't give his information, I wouldn't tell him anything either because I figure he has something to hide. Like a gun and a grudge for example. When was the last time any DOT in any state did something "nefarious" with the highway system? When was the last time some nut job went out at shot at something on the Freeway because he thought his freedoms were in jeopardy by all the cameras? True, it doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen.

Just seems to me that peoples' paranoia is getting in the way of their common sense. That, and he probably just didn't do enough digging on the DOT site to see what was going on.

reply to post by jenlovesturtles


So simply asking what they are spending
our taxes on makes me suspect?

reply to post by wirefly


in a word.. yes

then again paying for items in cash also makes people suspicious, owning more then one wig, walking into the back door of the hotel after checking in.

I worked at the front desk of a hotel right outside of a military base for years, last year homeland security came around and gave us papers with a list of things to report that were considered suspicious. These are just a few of those things. It doesnt take much to get noticed unfortunelty

And ANYONE asking questions about the base..ie where are the gates, where are the checkpoints ect...that was an instant phonecall!

But thats just around where I live things maybe different for other areas IDK

Sorry guys. My point was, as I queried in the last line of the op, has anyone else noticed any similar, unidentified (unposted, unadvertised and/or unreferenced) construction in their area.
Every other construction site here (Louisiana) is required to have all of the relative info and the guys doing the work usually have at least an idea what they are working on. I'll make another call tomorrow and ask about a different, referenced project and see if I get the same result.
The more questions I asked, the weirder it got. That ole "gut feeling" wouldn't go away, so, I thought I'd put it out there for you guys.

reply to post by wirefly


Oh no sorry I wasnt trying to be mean, I believe you pay tax dollars and deserve to know what they are doing with them as far as constrution in your area I was just trying to say maybe if you gave them the information they wanted they would have felt better about telling you.

asking you your name and number, addy things like that would be normal questions to me.