NJ Turnpike Scheduled Public Meeting And Submitted Draft EA On $10.7 Billion Extension
NJ.com (subscription required for full access) reported, “The first public hearing on the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s controversial $10.7 billion widening project is coming to Newark later this month.” Dubbed “a public information center,” the open house event scheduled for the evening of February 27 will focus on the first phase of the Newark Bay-Hudson County Extension Program. In addition to displaying project information boards, turnpike authority officials will be available to answer questions. According to the article, “Dates of subsequent public hearings in Bayonne and Jersey City . . . will be announced soon, officials said late Wednesday. Opponents of the project criticized the authority in January for not setting dates for the public to comment on the project. Two are scheduled before the end of February and a third in March, an authority spokesman said in January.”
In a news release about the public event, the turnpike authority (NJTA) noted that it submitted a draft Environmental Assessment of the proposed improvements between Interchanges 14 and 14A to the US Coast Guard on Monday, February 12. (The EA document together with its voluminous appendices can be downloaded from NJTA’s primary website and the extension program website’s environmental responsibility page.) The release asserted that the program’s initial projects, scheduled to begin construction in 2026, “will protect the safety of drivers and residents alike by replacing all 16 bridge and viaduct structures between Interchanges 14 and 14A. . . . The new structures will relieve traffic congestion, accommodate the forecasted growth in the corridor, boost the resiliency of a designated coastal evacuation route, and address the anticipated impacts of climate change.”
Two Billion Dollars Of Bond Financing Approved For Louisiana’s Calcasieu Bridge Project
On Thursday, Louisiana’s State Bond Commission approved $2 billion in bond financing for the proposed replacement of the I-10 Calcasieu River Bridge in Lake Charles, Louisiana Illuminator reported. Toll revenue would pay support at least $1.3 billion of the borrowing. The commission’s approval was an important step forward for the controversial P3 project but did not completely sew up financing. The state has previously committed $390 million in tax revenue and a small amount of borrowing to the project, most recently estimated to cost $2.1 billion. A federal government grant will provide an additional $325 million. However, the state legislature hasn’t appropriated another $400 million that is needed to cover the revised financing plan put forward by new Governor Jeff Landry last month. His plan replaces the original state deal with Plenary-led Calcasieu Bridge Partners, which was concluded under the prior administration. A legislative committee disapproved that plan because of its unpopular toll financing provisions.
Indra And Parsons Won North Carolina Turnpike Toll System Contract
Indra announced Wednesday that the North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) awarded it a contract to implement, in partnership with Parsons, a dynamically priced, open-road tolling system for the I-485 Express Lanes under construction in metro Charlotte. According to Indra’s news release, the firm will install equipment supported by 3D LiDAR technology, video analytics and AI on ten gantries to create a collection system similar to the one it developed for 66 Express, the Virginia managed lanes facility outside the Washington, DC, beltway. “The solution will also include a central operational system to facilitate transaction management and operations and integrate AI algorithms. Parsons will assume responsibility for engineering design, installation, quality control, as well as share responsibility for system maintenance.” Indra stated its solution will yield accurate data and lower NCTA costs for implementation, maintenance and energy use. It described its partnership with Parsons as key to the award and noted that the contract followed the partners’ “pre-qualifying for a framework agreement in an open competition with major national and international integrators.”
These are a few of the toll industry developments TRN covered last week. If you’re not a subscriber to Daily News Briefs, click here for a free, 14-day trial. Read the news as it happens every weekday.
Volume On Texas SH-130 Concession Peaked In 2023
SH-130 Concession Company issued a news release spotlighting its 2023 performance record, which showed, among other things, a 10 percent year-over-year rise in traffic volume and more than 12.6 million transactions. Volume, which has increased by 62 percent overall and by 84 percent with respect to heavy truck traffic since 2019, reached an all-time high last year. The company operates and tolls a 41-mile southern section of Texas State Highway 130 between Austin and San Antonio under a long-term lease with TxDOT. It notes that long distance drivers saved many thousands of hours by using the facility as an alternative to parallel route I-35. Significantly, despite the 2023 increase in volume, tollway crashes decreased again last year, to 25 incidents per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, a rate “materially lower than statewide averages for similar roadways.” The company’s news release includes an update on a major factor in the facility’s success, the growth of population and economic activity in the highway corridor.
TxDOT’s Houston District Is Accepting Public Comment On Inner Katy Managed Lanes Alternatives
Community Impact Newspaper provided additional details on the two options Texas DOT has pitched for adding managed lanes to a 6.3-mile stretch of I-10 in Houston. Last week, the department publicly released the design proposals for the I-10 Inner Katy Managed Lanes Project (Voss Road to I-45). Both would add two managed lanes in each direction — either elevated (Alternative 1) or non-elevated (Alternative 2). Both also would require reconstruction of cross streets, include accommodations for bicyclists and pedestrians and entail some braided ramps. The article detailed real estate acquisitions that would be required for Alternative 2, which would necessitate displacement of 52 homes and 30 commercial buildings. That’s an issue for LINK Houston, a public advocacy group whose director of policy, Peter Eccles, maintained a better alternative to those impacts and to managed lanes in general is to advance the Houston transit system’s METRORapid University Corridor Project. TxDOT will accept public comment on Inner Katy project design through February 26. According to the newspaper, it plans to select an alternative later this year. Construction could begin in early 2028 and is expected to take six to eight years.
Federal Aid In Hand, Hood River Bridge Authority Prepares To Select Replacement Project Contractor
Columbia Gorge News reported, with a newly secured $200 million grant from USDOT’s Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects program (INFRA), the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority (HRWSBA) has reached more than half of its $520 million funding goal to replace the key interstate bridge linking growing communities in Oregon and Washington. “Leveraging these new funding commitments, the project is in the process of selecting a progressive design-build contractor . . . and is on schedule to start construction in 2025.” HRWSBA co-chair Mike Fox said the project can be “shovel-ready within the next 18 months.” The newspaper broke down the sources of funding now available and noted that project leaders are still hoping to secure $105 million from Oregon, which would bring the state’s commitment up to par with the $125 million already pledged by Washington State. The article included a recap of a recent online Q&A forum during which tolling and bridge aesthetics were the main topics of interest.
Oregon Public Broadcasting also covers this story, adding some context about federal funding for other interstate bridge replacements in the Columbia Gorge.
Lawmakers Requested More Information About Proposed Oregon DOT Toll Diversion Responses
On February 9, at another of its hearings on Oregon DOT tolling, the legislature’s Joint Special Subcommittee On Transportation Planning received presentations on the “effectiveness, safety, and diversion impacts” of proposed toll points in metro Portland. According to KGW, the presenters explained that charging is likely to cause a variety of changes in motorist behavior, but committee members were most concerned about the department’s plans to address potential congestion of secondary routes. The discussion turned in part on what Oregon can discern about diversion’s traffic and economic impacts from the introduction of Hampton Roads tunnel tolls a decade ago when Virginia awarded an operating concession to a private partner. Although WSP USA vice president Matthew Woodhouse, a leading ODOT consultant, testified about secondary road modeling around toll points and possible congestion alleviation responses, such as traffic management modifications and toll rate adjustments, the committee wasn’t entirely satisfied. It asked ODOT to provide “more hard data” on how tolling might affect the routes motorists would take to avoid paying fees.
A video record of the committee hearing is posted online along with ODOT’s presentation slide deck. Another attachment to the meeting agenda summarizes the outcomes of a series of community meetings the special subcommittee recently held.
City Councilor Proposed Boston Hold Hearings To Explore Congestion Pricing
The Boston Globe reported, at the request of one of its members, the Boston City Council will consider conducting hearings to determine whether congestion pricing is a viable method of alleviating the city’s major traffic congestion and parking problems. On Wednesday, Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson made an exploratory motion for a study that generated little debate before it was referred to committee. She told her colleagues the concept also merits consideration as a way to improve air quality and produce revenue for public transit improvements. Fernandes Anderson, a Democrat, indicated she has no fixed idea at this point about a program structure and is proposing hearings as a way to discuss all possibilities openly. A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Republican Party “quickly weighed in against the idea of congestion pricing in Boston, calling it ‘unsustainable and unfair’ for Bostonians who are dependent on driving to work every day.
In its coverage of this story, NBC News Boston noted, “Not all city councilors are convinced that [congestion pricing] will work for Boston, especially with a historically unreliable public transportation system that’s at least $567 million under budget. ‘People aren’t going to get out of their cars if the T isn’t working,’ Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy said.” Nevertheless, she is willing to have a discussion about the idea, as is Mayor Michelle Wu.
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California Lawmaker Filed Bill To Permanently Ban Bridge Walking And Cycling Tolls
KTVU reported, State Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-19) yesterday proposed a bill (AB 2669) to prohibit pedestrian, bicycle or “personal micromobility device” tolls from being charged on certain bridges. If enacted into law, the measure would apply to state-owned toll bridges, the Golden Gate Bridge and spans privately operated under a state concession agreement. “While there are no current plans to implement tolls for pedestrians or cyclists on the Golden Gate Bridge or other bridges, Ting’s preemptive measure aims to solidify this accessibility for future generations.” The lawmaker told reporters, “We want to ensure that we have this right in perpetuity for cyclists and pedestrians to ensure that they can walk and bike across the bridge freely without being worried about paying a toll.” He also suggested that lawmakers should work on finding alternatives to all toll funding of public infrastructure and transit. The Golden Gate Bridge district administration, which is facing a systemic funding problem, had no immediate comment on the bill. The district charged a pedestrian toll from the bridge’s 1937 opening until 1970.
PlusPass And Verra Mobility Settled An Antitrust Lawsuit
According to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) report filed by Verra Mobility Corporation, the company and PlusPass, Inc. (formerly BancPass) entered into a “confidential business arrangement” on February 8 that incorporates a settlement of the federal antitrust lawsuit between the firms. Pursuant to the arrangement, Verra Mobility will pay PlusPass $31.5 million to acquire certain PlusPass assets and fully and finally resolve the litigation. The SEC report also discloses how Verra Mobility expects to make and recognize the stipulated payment.
PlusPass initiated the case in 2020 by filing a complaint that accused Verra Mobility and its private equity backers of monopolizing electronic toll-payment services for rental car companies that use E-ZPass and other collection systems. PlusPass claimed that Verra Mobility raised barriers to competition by “locking rental car companies into . . . costly exclusive dealing and tying contracts.” According to the docket of the case, PlusPass, Inc. v. Verra Mobility Corp., et al., No. 2:20-cv-10078 (C.D. Cal. Western Div. – Los Angeles, Nov. 2, 2020), the parties’ settlement agreement itself is confidential.
PlusPass is the Austin-based developer of mobile phone applications for making toll and other in-vehicle payments. Verra Mobility, an Arizona-based transportation technology company, focuses on electronic collection of tolls, parking charges and other transportation fees. It is the leading provider of toll and violation management solutions for the US rental car industry.
Missouri Bridge Will Become Toll-Free April 30
The Lake of the Ozarks Community Bridge connecting the east and west sides of a Missouri lake will no longer be tolled “on or about April 30,” Lake Media reported. That’s consistent with the bridge development district’s expedited debt retirement schedule and 18 years ahead of the original term to maturity of district bonds. The local agency opened the bridge in May 1998 following enactment of a state statute that allows development corporations and transportation development districts to build spans with the proceeds of toll financed bonds. Pursuant to law and an intergovernmental agreement, the debt retirement triggers a transfer of the bridge to state ownership. The development district will go into dissolution and Missouri DOT will maintain the bridge without charging tolls.
Industry People Made News
The Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) announced that Howard Mallen, CPA, senior director of finance, has been promoted to chief financial officer. He replaces Amy Potter, who previously held the dual roles of CFO and deputy chief executive. Ms. Potter will remain the agencies’ deputy CEO. Mr. Mallen joined TCA in 2013.
The Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) announced it has a new board chair, Osceola County Commissioner Brandon Arrington. He was unanimously elected to the post by fellow board members during their February 8 meeting. Mr. Arrington has represented Osceola County on the board since October 2019. The board also unanimously elected Christopher Maier, a Governor Ron DeSantis appointee, as vice chair, and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer as treasurer.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recently announced several committee leadership transitions. Tim Gatz, Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation and executive director of the Oklahoma Turnpike authority was appointed to a two-year term as chair the Committee on Funding and Finance. Vicki Kramer, the new director of the Nebraska Department of Transportation, will serve a two-year term as chair of AASHTO’s Committee on Transportation System Security and Resilience. Ms. Kramer, formerly chief of staff for Infrastructure Markets and Strategy for Kiewit Infrastructure Engineering, worked at NDOT earlier in her career. Matthew Linneman, North Dakota DOT deputy director for engineering and chief engineer, will helm AASHTO’s Committee on Materials and Pavements for the next two years.
AASHTO also announced the selection of the following three new committee vice-chairs: Jessica Griffin, planning division director for New Mexico DOT, Committee on Planning; Cameron Kergaye, director of research and innovation at Utah DOT, Special Committee on Research and Innovation; and Jason Hastings, chief of bridges and structures for Delaware DOT, Committee on Bridges and Structures. Mr. Kergaye was also named chair of AASHTO’s Research Advisory Committee.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire (D) this week appointed Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock as chair of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Houston METRO) board pending City Council and board approval. Brock is an energy company executive. She replaces Sanjay Ramabhadran, whose term expired.
Mick Syslo, PE, will be Nebraska DOT’s new deputy director of operations. Mr. Syslo will succeed Moe Jamshidi when he retires at the end of next month. Jamshidi will have served the department for more than 40 years.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) appointed Dr. Christine Casey as deputy secretary for freight policy at the California State Transportation Agency. The position does not require Senate confirmation.
Estonia May Adopt Road-Use And Congestion Fees As Means To Attain Climate Goals
ERR (Estonian Public Broadcasting) reported, “Drivers could face new taxes under legislation designed to help Estonia meet its climate goals.” Workgroups within the nation’s climate ministry “have suggested a congestion tax to reduce emissions, new congestion zones where only zero-emission cars could be driven, or a usage-based tax. Additionally, a road user fee is also being considered and cars with higher emissions could be charged more.” Officials are now assessing each option’s socio-economic impact and contribution to greenhouse gas emission reduction. In the meantime, Estonian entrepreneurs involved in a movement (Green Tiger) to design and build a balanced, “nature-friendly” economy have developed their own “transport roadmap,” and the plan supports equitable implementation of road-use charges and congestion pricing.