Toll road
A toll road known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing implemented to help recoup the cost of road construction and maintenance. Toll roads have existed in some form since antiquity, with tolls levied on passing travellers on foot, wagon, or horseback; the amount of the toll varies by vehicle type, weight, or number of axles, with freight trucks charged higher rates than cars. Tolls are collected at toll booths, toll houses, stations, bars, or gates; some toll collection points are unmanned and the user deposits money in a machine which opens the gate once the correct toll has been paid. To cut costs and minimise time delay many tolls are collected by some form of automatic or electronic toll collection equipment which communicates electronically with a toll payer's transponder; some electronic toll roads maintain a system of toll booths so people without transponders can still pay the toll, but many newer roads now use automatic number plate recognition to charge drivers who use the road without a transponder, some older toll roads are being upgraded with such systems.
Criticisms of toll roads include the time taken to stop and pay the toll, the cost of the toll booth operators—up to about one-third of revenue in some cases. Automated toll-paying systems help minimise both of these. Others object to paying "twice" for the same road: with tolls. In addition to toll roads, toll bridges and toll tunnels are used by public authorities to generate funds to repay the cost of building the structures; some tolls are set aside to pay for future maintenance or enhancement of infrastructure, or are applied as a general fund by local governments, not being earmarked for transport facilities. This is sometimes prohibited by central government legislation. Road congestion pricing schemes have been implemented in a limited number of urban areas as a transportation demand management tool to try to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. Toll roads have existed for at least the last 2,700 years, as tolls had to be paid by travellers using the Susa–Babylon highway under the regime of Ashurbanipal, who reigned in the 7th century BC.
Aristotle and Pliny refer to other parts of Asia. In India, before the 4th century BC, the Arthashastra notes the use of tolls. Germanic tribes charged tolls to travellers across mountain passes. A 14th-century example is Castle Loevestein in the Netherlands, built at a strategic point where two rivers meet. River tolls were charged on boats sailing along the river; the Øresund in Scandinavia was once subject to a toll to the Danish Monarch, who derived a sizable portion of his revenue from it. Many modern European roads were constructed as toll roads in order to recoup the costs of construction, maintenance and as a source of tax money, paid by someone other than the local residents. In 14th-century England, some of the most used roads were repaired with money raised from tolls by pavage grants. Widespread toll roads sometimes restricted traffic so much, by their high tolls, that they interfered with trade and cheap transportation needed to alleviate local famines or shortages. Tolls were used in the Holy Roman Empire in the 15th centuries.
Industrialisation in Europe needed major improvements to the transport infrastructure which included many new or improved roads, financed from tolls. The A5 road in Britain was built to provide a robust transport link between Britain and Ireland and had a toll house every few miles. In the 20th century, road tolls were introduced in Europe to finance the construction of motorway networks and specific transport infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels. Italy was the first European country to charge motorway tolls, on a 50 kilometres motorway section near Milan in 1924, it was followed by Greece, which made users pay for the network of motorways around and between its cities in 1927. In the 1950s and 1960s, France and Portugal started to build motorways with the aid of concessions, allowing rapid development of this infrastructure without massive state debts. Since road tolls have been introduced in the majority of the EU member states. In the United States, prior to the introduction of the Interstate Highway System and the large federal grants supplied to states to build it, many states constructed their first controlled-access highways by floating bonds backed by toll revenues.
Starting with the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1940, followed by similar roads in New Jersey, New York and others, numerous states throughout the 1950s established major toll roads. With the establishment of the Interstate Highway System in the late 1950s, toll road construction in the U. S. slowed down as the federal government now provided the bulk of funding to construct new freeways, regulations required that such Interstate highways be free from tolls. Many older toll roads were added to the Interstate System under a grandfather clause that allowed tolls to continue to be collected on toll roads that predated the system; some of these such as the Connecticut Turnpike and the Richmond–Petersburg Turnpike removed their tolls when the initial bonds were paid off. Many states, have maintained the tolling of these roads as a consistent source of revenue; as the
Bilbao
Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. It is the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the tenth largest city in Spain, with a population of 345,141 as of 2015; the Bilbao metropolitan area has 1 million inhabitants, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in northern Spain. Bilbao is the main urban area in what is defined as the Greater Basque region. Bilbao is situated in the north-central part of Spain, some 16 kilometres south of the Bay of Biscay, where the economic social development is located, where the estuary of Bilbao is formed, its main urban core is surrounded by two small mountain ranges with an average elevation of 400 metres. Its climate is shaped by the Bay of Biscay low-pressure systems and mild air, moderating summer temperatures by Iberian standards, with low sunshine and high rainfall; the annual temperature range is low for its latitude. After its foundation in the early 14th century by Diego López V de Haro, head of the powerful Haro family, Bilbao was a commercial hub of the Basque Country that enjoyed significant importance in Green Spain.
This was due to its port activity based on the export of iron extracted from the Biscayan quarries. Throughout the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, Bilbao experienced heavy industrialisation, making it the centre of the second-most industrialised region of Spain, behind Barcelona. At the same time an extraordinary population explosion prompted the annexation of several adjacent municipalities. Nowadays, Bilbao is a vigorous service city, experiencing an ongoing social and aesthetic revitalisation process, started by the iconic Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, continued by infrastructure investments, such as the airport terminal, the rapid transit system, the tram line, the Azkuna Zentroa, the under development Abandoibarra and Zorrozaurre renewal projects. Bilbao is home to football club Athletic Club de Bilbao, a significant symbol for Basque nationalism due to its promotion of only Basque players and one of the most successful clubs in Spanish football history. On 19 May 2010, the city of Bilbao was recognised with the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, awarded by the city state of Singapore, in collaboration with the Swedish Nobel Academy.
Considered the Nobel Prize for urbanism, it was handed out on 29 June 2010. On 7 January 2013, its mayor, Iñaki Azkuna, received the 2012 World Mayor Prize awarded every two years by the British foundation The City Mayors Foundation, in recognition of the urban transformation experienced by the Biscayan capital since the 1990s. On 8 November 2017, Bilbao was chosen the Best European City 2018 at The Urbanism Awards 2018, awarded by the international organisation The Academy of Urbanism; the official name of the town is Bilbao, as known in most languages of the world. Euskaltzaindia, the official regulatory institution of the Basque language, has agreed that between the two possible names existing in Basque and Bilbo, the historical name is Bilbo, while Bilbao is the official name. Although the term Bilbo does not appear in old documents, in the play The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare, there is a reference to swords made of Biscayan iron which he calls "bilboes", suggesting that it is a word used since at least the sixteenth century.
There is no consensus among historians about the origin of the name. Accepted accounts state that prior to the 12th century the independent rulers of the territory, named Senores de Zubialdea, were known as Senores de Bilbao la Vieja; the symbols of their patrimony are the church used in the shield of Bilbao to this day. One possible origin was suggested by the engineer Evaristo de Churruca, he said. For Bilbao this would be the result of the union of the Basque words for river and cove: Bil-Ibaia-Bao; the historian José Tussel Gómez argues that it is just a natural evolution of the Spanish words bello vado, beautiful river crossing. On the other hand, according to the writer Esteban Calle Iturrino, the name derives from the two settlements that existed on both banks of the estuary, rather than from the estuary itself; the first, where the present Casco Viejo is located, would be called billa, which means stacking in Basque, after the configuration of the buildings. The second, on the left bank, where now Bilbao La Vieja is located, would be called vaho, Spanish for mist or steam.
From the union of these two derives the name Bilbao, written as Bilvao and Biluao, as documented in its municipal charter. An -ao ending is present in nearby Sestao and Ugao, that could be explained from Basque aho, "mouth"; the demonym is "bilbaíno, -a", although the popular pronunciation bilbaino/a is frequent. In euskera it is bilbotar, sometimes used in Spanish within the Basque Country; the village is affectionately known by its inhabitants as «the botxo», that is, «the hole», since it is surrounded by mountains. The nickname "botxero" is derived from this nickname. Another nickname that Bilbao receives is that of "chimbos", which comes from birds that were hunted in large numbers in these places during the XIX century; the titles, the flag and the coat of arms are Bilbao's traditional symbols and belong to its historic patrimony, being used in formal acts, for the identification and decoration of specific places or for the validation of documents. TitlesBilbao holds the historic category of borough, with the titles of "Very noble and loyal and unbeaten" ("Mu
Autovía A-8
The Autovía A-8 is a highway that connects all the regions on the Northern Coast of Spain. It is known as the Autovía del Cantábrico and connects Baamonde and Bilbao, where it continues as the Autopista AP-8 to the French border; the road passes Gijón, Santander and Bilbao. Most of this infrastructure is open to traffic. Completion is expected in 2015 or 2016. Pending stretches under construction are: Pendueles-Unquera and a new by-pass of Torrelavega by Renedo de Piélagos. Geological and geographical difficulties have caused the construction budget to sky rocket; the A-8 is the main beltway of the Greater Bilbao conurbation, which has about a million inhabitants in the metropolitan area. This causes great traffic congestion along the stretch of 30 kilometres of the highway that passes by Bilbao and its metropolitan area, from Galdakao to Muskiz. A new toll by-pass of the city, known as Supersur is being built; the by-pass will be 36 km long and most of its length will be tunnels under the Pagasarri range, as there is no physical space to build it elsewhere.
Autovía A-8 in Google Maps
Gijón
Gijón or Xixón is the largest city and municipality in the autonomous community of Asturias in Spain. It is located on the Bay of Biscay 24 km north-east of Oviedo, the capital of Asturias. Early medieval texts mention it as "Gigia", derived from the identical Greek and Latin term "gigias", meaning "giant", both of which refer to the Greek mythological giant Gigas; the medieval "Gigia" name, in turn, more refers to the ancient Roman wall built on the peninsula of the Cimadevilla district of Gijón. This wall was called the "Gegionem" by the Romans and is itself a compound Latin term being either "geg-ionem", meaning "giant-ness/gigantic", "gegi-onem", meaning "concrete giant", or "gegio-nem" meaning "giant end"; the use of the term meaning "giant" referred to either the pre-Germanic Astur peoples who inhabited the area being of large physical stature or the largeness of the wall itself. The first evidence of human presence in what is known nowadays as the municipality of Gijón is located in Monte Deva, where exists a series of tumulus, in Monte Areo, where there are some neolithic dolmens.
These dolmens were discovered in 1990 and were built around 5000 BC. The first noticed settlement is located in Campa Torres, it has its origin between the 6th and 5th centuries BC. It was populated by Astures and Romanized. Noega was progressively abandoned when the Roman wall in the peninsula of Cimavilla, called the Gegionem, was built. Despite the Barbarian invasions leaving no trace, it seems the territory was submitted to the power of the Visigoth king Sisebut in the 7th century. From this moment there appears the first Christian worship demos, where one of its places was the Roman villa of Veranes. Gijón was capital of the Muslim territories in the Cantabric Sea, under the power of Munuza, who dominated the city between 713 and 718 or 722. In this last year, Asturians won the Battle of Covadonga, started in 718 and led by Pelagius, who would become the first King of the Kingdom of Asturias; until 1270 there were no reliable references to Gijón as a settlement, with only short mentions in some documents.
In this year, Alfonso X of Castile conceded the category of puebla. In the 14th century, the war between Alfonso Enríquez, Count of Gijón and Noreña and Henry III of Castile finished with the village of Gijón fenced and destroyed disappearing. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Gijón was again developed. A new dock was built in the port adding commerce to the area. In the 17th and 18th centuries Gijón started to have great development, growing out of the old city center; this happened. In the 18th century, due to the French invasions, the wars and the financial trouble in the era, the development stopped until late in the century, when the Oviedo-Gijón road was created and the port was recognized as the best one in Asturias, favouring the start of industrial activities in the village; the 19th century brought with it great development, with the commerce of coal, the Gijón–León road and the Langreo–Gijón railway. All this supposed the quick expansion of the port, due to the heavy traffic intensity in it.
A new port, El Musel, was built in 1893 and it was the first coal port of the peninsula. Gijón was going through a conversion to an industrial village with a new bourgeois and an urban development, opening new streets and squares, with new municipal equipments like water, garbage collection, so on. All this industrial development brought new manpower to the city and the creation of new neighbourhoods like Natahoyo, La Calzada, Tremañes or El Humedal. In the 20th century, with the Spanish Civil War, the city supported the Republican faction; the army was located in El Coto. The resistance was eliminated in August 1936; the village was the capital of the Sovereign Council of Asturias and León until 20 October 1937, when the troops of General Francisco Franco occupied the city. Ferrous metallurgy was the main industry of Gijón from the last years of the 19th century until the last decades of the 20th. Uninsa was created in 1971, it merged with Ensidesa. In the last years of the century was converted in Aceralia, integrated in Arcelor.
The last decades of the century brought an industrial crisis affecting the ferrous metallurgy and the local shipbuilding. This facts brought new terrain for the creation of new beaches and new neighbourhoods, it was created a campus of the University of Oviedo. The city is situated on the coast of central Asturias, from sea level to an altitude of 513 metres at Picu Samartín and 672 metres at Peña de los Cuatro Jueces, bordered on the West by Carreño, the East by Villaviciosa, to the South by Siero and Llanera The city is situated along the Asturian coast and is distinguished by the peninsula of Cimavilla which separates the beach of San Lorenzo and adjacent neighbourhoods to the east from the beaches of Poniente and Arbeyal, the shipyards, the recreational port and the Port of El Musel to the west, it is close to the other main Asturian cities and Avilés. Gijón has a temperate oceanic climate typical of the Atlantic coast of Spain, with cool summers and wet and mild winters; the onshore flow from the Atlantic Ocean creates a cool summer and mild winter climate where severe heat and cold temperatures are rare.
The narrow temperature range is demonstrated by the record August temperature being only 6.4 °C warmer than the all-time record January temperature. The climate is wet and cloudy by Spanish standards, but is indeed drier than other locations on the Atlantic in the country. Humidity is high year-round. Summer temperatu
Pamplona
Pamplona or Iruña is the capital city of the Autonomous Community of Navarre, in Spain, also of the former Kingdom of Navarre. Pamplona is the second largest city in the greater Basque cultural region, composed of two Spanish autonomous communities and Basque Country, the French Basque Country. Pamplona has a moderate climate being at 446 metres in terms of elevation. In addition to its elevation, Pamplona being inland results in cool nights by Spanish standards; the city is famous worldwide for the running of the bulls during the San Fermín festival, held annually from July 6 to 14. This festival was brought to literary renown with the 1926 publication of Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises, it is home to Osasuna, the only Navarrese football club to have played in the Spanish top division. Pamplona is located in the middle of Navarre in a rounded valley, known as the Basin of Pamplona, that links the mountainous North with the Ebro valley, it is 92 km from the city of San Sebastián, 117 km from Bilbao, 735 km from Paris and 407 km from Madrid.
The climate and landscape of the basin is a transition between those two main Navarrese geographical regions. Its central position at crossroads has served as a commercial link between those different natural parts of Navarre; the historical centre of the city is on the left bank of a tributary of the Ebro. The city has developed on both sides of the river; the climate of Pamplona is classified as oceanic with influences of a semi-continental mediterranean climate. Precipitation patterns do not vary much over the course of the year as is typical of marine climates, but both classifications are possible due to the Mediterranean patterns of somewhat drier summer months. Sunshine hours are more similar to the oceanic coastal climate in nearby Basque locations than typical Spanish mediterranean areas are, but rainfall is lower than in Bilbao and San Sebastián. In the winter of 75–74 BC, the area served as a camp for the Roman general Pompey in the war against Sertorius, he is considered to be the founder of Pompaelo, "as if Pompeiopolis" in Strabo's words, which became Pamplona, in modern Spanish.
However, in times it has been discovered that it was the chief town of the Vascones. They called it Iruña, translating to'the city'. Roman Pompaelo was located in the province of Hispania Tarraconensis, on the Ab Asturica Burdigalam, the road from Burdigala to Asturica. During the Germanic invasions of 409 and as a result of Rechiar´s ravaging, Pamplona went through much disruption and destruction, starting a cycle of general decline along with other towns across the Basque territory but managing to keep some sort of urban life. During the Visigothic period, Pamplona alternated between self-rule, Visigoth domination or Frankish suzerainty in the Duchy of Vasconia. In the years 466 to 472, Pamplona was conquered by the Visigoth count Gauteric, but they seemed to abandon the restless position soon, struggling as the Visigoth Kingdom was to survive and rearrange its lands after their defeats in Gaul. During the beginning of the 6th century, Pamplona stuck to an unstable self-rule, but in 541 Pamplona along with other northern Iberian cities was raided by the Franks.
Circa 581, the Visigoth king Liuvigild overcame the Basques, seized Pamplona, founded in the town of Victoriacum. Despite the legend citing Saint Fermin as the first bishop of Pamplona and his baptising of 40,000 pagan inhabitants in just three days, the first reliable accounts of a bishop date from 589, when bishop Liliolus attended the Third Council of Toledo. After 684 and 693, a bishop called Opilano is mentioned again in 829, followed by Wiliesind and a certain Jimenez from 880 to 890. In the 10th century, important gaps are found in bishop succession, recorded unbroken only after 1005. At the time of the Umayyad invasion in 711, the Visigothic king Roderic was fighting the Basques in Pamplona and had to turn his attention to the new enemy coming from the south. By 714-16, the Umayyad troops had reached the Basque-held Pamplona, with the town submitting after a treaty was brokered between the inhabitants and the Arab military commanders; the position was garrisoned by Berbers, who were stationed on the outside of the actual fortress, established the cemetery unearthed not long ago at the Castle Square.
During the following years, the Basques south of the Pyrenees don't seem to have shown much resistance to the Moorish thrust, Pamplona may have flourished as a launching point and centre of assembly for their expeditions into Gascony. In 740, the Wali Uqba ibn al-Hayyay imposed direct central Cordovan discipline on the city. However, in 755 the last governor of Al-Andalus, Yusuf al Fihri, sent an expedition north to quash Basque unrest near Pamplona, resulting in the defeat of the Arab army. From 755 until 781, Pamplona remained autonomous relying on regional alliances. Although sources are not clear, it seems apparent that in 778 the town was in hands of a Basque local or a Muslim rebel faction loyal to the Franks at the moment of Charlemagne's crossing of the Pyrenees to the south. However, on his way back from the failed expedition to Saragossa in August, the walls and the town were destroyed by Charlemagne (ahead of the Frankish defeat in the famous Ba
Lasarte-Oria
Lasarte-Oria is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, northern Spain. It was founded in 1986. Official Website Information Basque. LASARTE-ORIA in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi Encyclopedia Information available in Spanish
Errenteria
Errenteria is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community, in the north of Spain, near the French border. The river Oiartzun cuts its way through the town, one that has undergone severe pollution up to recent times on its lower stage. Agustinak/Agustinas Alaberga Beraun Kaputxinoak/Capuchinos Etxe Berriak/Casas Nuevas Gaztaño Erdialdea/Centro Fanderia Gabierrota Galtzaraborda Iztieta Lartzabal Listorreta Olibet - Ugarritze Ondartxo Perurena Pontika Zamalbide Lousada, Portugal Tulle, France Schorndorf, Germany September 1982 Rentería attack Official website ERRENTERIA in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi Encyclopedia
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