Havasu_Dreamin
07-14-2006, 07:40 AM
Just a heads up.....
From the Tri-State News Network (http://www.justsaynews.com/)
All Vehicles Stop For Needles
NEEDLES, CA - Travelers along Interstate 40 heading westbound can now expect delays at the state's inspection station, located just west of the California-Arizona state line, known locally as the I-40 bridge over the Colorado River. The California Department of Agriculture says the Needles location has been singled out for a new pilot project that was recently appropriated by the California legislature. Agency spokesman Jay Van Ryan says the state budgeted over $380,000 for a 12-month study.
Van Ryan says the aim of the pilot program, "is to kind of get a baseline - get a sense of exactly what we are stopping, in terms of threats to agriculture."
The agency's stopping of all vehicles at the Needles station comes after about three years of requiring only larger vehicles - RV's, semi trucks and cargo vans - to pull over for state inspectors. Van Ryan told TSN, "we've just gotten authorization through the budget to do this - just at the one station at Needles."
He explained the station was picked specifically by the agency because of its sharing a border with Arizona and the close proximity to Nevada. Van Ryan said, "it's also a primary spot for some of our 'higher risk' vehicles coming in."
Other factors: I-40 runs through agricultural areas in Texas and as far east as Florida; Van Ryan says I-40 is very well traveled as opposed to the seasonal "and less traveled" routes to the north like I-80, "which runs across Northern Nevada to the California border."
From the Tri-State News Network (http://www.justsaynews.com/)
All Vehicles Stop For Needles
NEEDLES, CA - Travelers along Interstate 40 heading westbound can now expect delays at the state's inspection station, located just west of the California-Arizona state line, known locally as the I-40 bridge over the Colorado River. The California Department of Agriculture says the Needles location has been singled out for a new pilot project that was recently appropriated by the California legislature. Agency spokesman Jay Van Ryan says the state budgeted over $380,000 for a 12-month study.
Van Ryan says the aim of the pilot program, "is to kind of get a baseline - get a sense of exactly what we are stopping, in terms of threats to agriculture."
The agency's stopping of all vehicles at the Needles station comes after about three years of requiring only larger vehicles - RV's, semi trucks and cargo vans - to pull over for state inspectors. Van Ryan told TSN, "we've just gotten authorization through the budget to do this - just at the one station at Needles."
He explained the station was picked specifically by the agency because of its sharing a border with Arizona and the close proximity to Nevada. Van Ryan said, "it's also a primary spot for some of our 'higher risk' vehicles coming in."
Other factors: I-40 runs through agricultural areas in Texas and as far east as Florida; Van Ryan says I-40 is very well traveled as opposed to the seasonal "and less traveled" routes to the north like I-80, "which runs across Northern Nevada to the California border."