Highway solutions, wisdom from Tanzania

Gaining progress on building a Serengeti highway through Tanzania (Africa), is not quite the same thing as fixing the 1.3 mile road bottle neck on highway 1 in Pacifica, CA (USA) , or is it?  The balance is between the transportation needs of people and protecting the environment. Tanzania will move forward with a 75 mile gravel road compromise in the Serengeti Park area. Will Pacifica accept a solution to fix its 1 mile asphalt highway bottleneck at Calera Creek Parkway?    

Yahoo News 6/30/11.  "Tanzania still plans to build a highway through the iconic Serengeti park, a minister said Thursday, contradicting an announcement by UNESCO that the project had been abandoned.  'The government will continue with the project, but leave out 120 kilometres (in the park) as gravel. Gravel road will not have a big impact on wildlife,' Tourism and Natural Resources Minister Ezekiel Maige told reporters. Maige explained that sections of the highway running through the celebrated park will be not be tarmacked. He cited a 12-kilometre stretch between Mugumu and Tabora 'B', and two 57-kilometre stretches from Tabora 'B' through Klens Gate to Loliondo.

On Saturday, a UNESCO official told AFP that  'the World Heritage Committee has received assurance on the part of the Tanzanian government that the highway project is abandoned.' Environmentalists have campaigned against the highway project arguing that it will endanger millions of wildebeests and zebra that annually cross from Serengeti into the Masai Mara in Kenya, forming a migration spectacle that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists.

Tanzania's government has argued the country should start caring for its people as much as for its wildlife. The route is intended to link Musoma, on the banks of Lake Victoria, to Arusha. 'We understand that there is a lot of resistance from environmentalists, but we have to balance between people's development, especially efficient transportation and conservation issues,' Maige said."

Reference - definitions.
Tarmac. A road surface, usually thought of as concrete and asphalt, Free Dictionary, and Oxford Dictionaries.

Environment. Conditions by which one is surrounded (physical, chemical, biotic factors),  Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Pacifica environment. Mostly recognized as NIMBY, Your Dictionary.

Posted by Kathy Meeh