Could $1.2 million from three local communities start a controversial highway project that $15 million from the Colorado Department of Transportation couldn’t? That`s the hope of elected officials in Broomfield, Arvada and Jefferson County, which each have given $400,000 to the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority, reports the Broomfield Enterprise.

Tens of thousands of Massachusetts Turnpike motorists have been socked with falsely inflated bills because the company that provided the transponders for the so-called Fast Lane system violated its multimillion-dollar contract by failing to inspect the system, a state audit has found. State Auditor Joseph DeNucci -who investigated the overcharges after a front-page Herald expose in February – found that Fast Lane provider TransCore failed to inspect transponder equipment over the past two years as mandated in its $11 million-a-year contract.

Texas’ top transportation official, the chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, forcefully defended the department’s pursuit of private toll roads in an unusually direct speech in Irving today, reports the transportation blog of the Dallas Morning News.