The United States Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has unveiled its annual list of "highway boondoggles," a list of "budget-eating highway projects" that will "harm communities and the environment, while likely failing to achieve meaningful transportation goals."

The organization reports that the projects contained within the 2019 list will cost more than $25 billion to build, "sucking money away from road repair, transit, and other local needs." 

Studies have shown that rather than alleviating traffic congestion, highway widening projects actually incentivize people to drive and ultimately cause an increase in traffic congestion.

The top highway boondoggles for 2019 include:

• The "Complete 540" project in North Carolina that aims to extend a ring road surrounding Raleigh through the city's southern suburbs, threatening wetlands while encouraging urban sprawl into low-lying, floor plains. The $2 billion project, if built according to current plans, will be the most expensive highway infrastructure project in North Carolina's history. 
• The North Houston Highway Improvement Project, a $7 billion expansion of the city's Interstate-45 route. The project is slated to displace roughly 1,300 residences, including public housing projects, and over 300 businesses.
• The High Desert Freeway in California is proposed as a 63-mile highway cutting across northeast Los Angeles County, connecting the communities of Palmdale and Lancaster with Victorville and Interstate-15. The $8 billion project could become the first new highway built in Los Angeles County in 25 years.  
• In Michigan, authorities are working on a $1.4 billion expansion of Interstate-75 through northern Detroit. The project is proposed for a largely suburban area that local authorities have, according to PIRG, referred to as being " too dispersed to support a high level of transit service.”
• Illinois, on the other hand, is pushing a $4 billion expansion of the Illinois Tollway that runs through the western Chicago suburbs.
• Miami, Florida is at work expanding Interstate-395, a $802 million effort that will include what The Miami Herald has referred to as a "high-tech tarantula." 
• In Pennsylvania, $300 million is being spent on an effort to widen Interstate-83 through York County. 
• Oregon's Interstate-5 could see a $450 million expansion if current plans come to bear. The project would increase the number of "lane-miles" through Portland's Rose Quarter neighborhood by 50 percent. 
• In Virginia, Interstate-81 will undergo a series of modernization efforts, including the addition of new traffic lanes, shoulder widenings, and curve improvements to the tune of $2.2 billion.