Washington State Legislature Takes Up Bond Funding For I-5 Bridge Project
Washington State Standard reported, bills introduced Wednesday in the Washington State House (HB 1958) and Senate (SB 5734) would authorize the issuance of $1.6 billion in general obligation bonds for the replacement of the I-5 Columbia River bridge in metro Portland, Oregon. The debt would be repaid with a combination of revenue from tolls, gas taxes, and vehicle fees. The bonds would be backed by the full faith and credit of the state. Washington is proposing to issue the bistate project’s bonds because it has responsibility for implementing and managing toll collection. The legislation requires a 60-percent affirmative vote in each legislative chamber to become law.
The article looked at the new bridge’s current cost estimate, what each state is contributing to the overall project financing, and toll rate assumptions. Because of the high cost of construction, the existing bridge will undergo tolling while its replacement is being built.
ViaPlus Delivered SRTA Customer Service And Transaction Processing Upgrades
The Peach Pass website and mobile app upgrades successfully launched two weeks ago were delivered by ViaPlus as part of its project to implement a completely new customer service system for Georgia’s State Road And Tollway Authority (SRTA), operator of metro Atlanta’s extensive express lanes network.
The new system operates on ViaPlus’ Alpha™ back office, the scalable and cloud-enabled platform designed to process high-volume revenue transactions with advanced reporting capabilities. ViaPlus also delivered the new website and mobile app that enable SRTA users to benefit from expanded payment options and self-service account management features.
Faced with increasing traffic volumes and millions of free-flow ETC transactions, SRTA turned to ViaPlus last spring to design and deliver a comprehensive solution that the VINCI Highways subsidiary will also manage over its seven-year contract term.
Peach Pass account holders can pay Atlanta airport parking fees and the highway tolls charged in 18 US states, in addition to Atlanta express lane fees.
Kapsch Won Contract To Deploy Multi-Lane Free Flow System In Norway
Vegfinans AS, a regional government company that operates many of Norway’s toll roads, awarded Kapsch TrafficCom a contract to deploy the Autopass Multi-Lane Free Flow tolling system on existing facilities and previously non-tolled roads. Kapsch’s four-year contract has an estimated value of EUR 7.5 million (USD 7.75 million) with the potential to grow to an amount in the low double-digit millions.
The tolling system will be implemented on highways and in cities across six counties. According to a Kapsch news release, the company’s tender process submission “particularly excelled in the areas of climate impact and system quality, reaching full points in those two areas. Out of a total of six bidders, Kapsch TrafficCom distinguished itself by its focus on quality of the offered solution and environmental responsibility, which includes selecting eco-friendly materials, implementing efficient maintenance practices, optimizing delivery methods, and ensuring the repair and recycling of hardware.”
Kapsch noted that Vegfinans is “the largest toll charger in Norway in terms of loan financing of road projects.”
Conduent Campaigns To Get NJ Turnpike To Revoke Contract Award To TransCore
Conduent is generating media attention – and industry buzz – by launching a publicity campaign aimed at convincing the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) to revoke its award of an 11-year, $1.73 billion E-ZPass customer service center contract to TransCore.
NJTA selected TransCore’s proposal over Conduent and WSP submissions in September 2024 following an extensive best value procurement process. At the time, NJ.com reported that the NJTA evaluation team “consistently found TransCore’s technical and operational capabilities to provide services, superior to that of its competitors,” Conduent and WSP.
Conduent, the incumbent contractor, promptly filed a formal challenge that remains under NJTA review.
Over the past week, a Conduent consultant and some receptive state and federal lawmakers garnered media attention by promoting Conduent’s claim that customer data in TransCore’s hands isn’t secure because of its acquisition in 2022 by a Singapore-based engineering firm.
Citing their inability to comment while the challenge is pending, state officials and TransCore management have not responded publicly to the media coverage. However, TransCore President and CEO Whitt Hall, PE, issued a forceful response in a letter to U.S. Congressman Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ).
Hall asserted that Conduent is promoting “false narratives” about his firm and its parent. Among other things, Hall noted that a condition of the US government’s approval of the TransCore acquisition was that TransCore enter a National Security Agreement barring the disclosure of any personal data obtained through tolling to any foreign entity, including its parent company. Transcore’s compliance with the agreement is subject to US government oversight and audit, which TransCore sees as a customer data security asset.
Hall also made the case that TransCore is a well-established US company with 340 employees just in New Jersey. He added that one of TransCore’s demonstrated abilities is to migrate a Conduent back office system for an agency seeking a change of vendor.
It remains to be seen what effect, if any, Conduent’s public campaign will have on the NJTA contract challenge.
NJTA’s decision to change its customer service vendor didn’t come as a complete surprise to the tolling industry. Earlier in 2022, the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA) board chose TransCore to design, install, and operate a turnkey AET system for the Atlantic City Expressway. Days later, NJTA commissioners picked TransCore to convert the Garden State Parkway to AET. And there were indications in media reports that NJTA and some state lawmakers saw a need for Conduent to improve its customer service response time.
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.
Indiana House Committee Advanced Bill Opening The Door To More Tolling
The Times of Northwest Indiana reported Monday that the Indiana House Roads and Transportation Committee unanimously approved HB 1461, a major transportation funding measure. Among other things, it would create opportunities for tolling interstates as well as US highways and state routes. The bill, which also provides for some vehicle tax increases, is intended to address a looming shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars a year in budgets for the maintenance and improvement of state roads and bridges.
Indiana’s Legislative Services Agency estimates tolling could raise about $4.2 billion over five years and $38.2 billion through 2050, depending on where it’s implemented and whether the state awards tolling concessions to a private entity as it did in the case of the Indiana Toll Road.
The newspaper may have overstated the case, however, when it asserted, “The plan to pay for Indiana’s road maintenance needs can be summed up in two words: Tolls, everywhere.” The House committee chair, who is also HB 1461’s sponsor, said the measure “is absolutely still a work in progress,” adding, “In conversations about road funding, lots of things need to be on the table.”
NY Governor, NYC Business Leaders Try Persuading Trump To Leave Congestion Pricing Alone
ABC News New York reported, “New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will make her way to Washington, D.C. [this] week for, what could be, a consequential conversation over congestion pricing. The governor is expected to lay out reasons why the program should continue to President Donald Trump, a long-time opponent of the toll.”
According to Spectrum News 1, the meeting will take place when Hochul is in the capital for a National Governors Association meeting. She told reporters Tuesday her argument for continuation of the MTA program will have two bases, data showing that it is alleviating city traffic congestion and MTA’s issuance of bonds that are backed by the program’s toll revenue stream. A Columbia Law School professor commented that Trump may not have the authority to end congestion pricing without congressional authorization and any federal attempt to scuttle the program will likely be challenged in court.
POLITICO reported that some New York City business leaders who support congestion pricing are also trying to convince Trump to desist “by using classic Republican arguments about taxes, cutting red tape and states rights.” A recent manifestation of that effort is a Daily News op-ed column, “Why congestion pricing makes sense,” contributed by D.J. Gribbin, a former USDOT general counsel who helped develop the first Trump administration’s unsuccessful infrastructure initiative.
USDOT Rescinded State EV Charging Program Approvals, Froze NEVI Program Funding
Bloomberg (via Transport Topics) reported, USDOT has suspended the distribution of National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula (NEVI) Program funds to the states, “following through on one of President Donald Trump’s first directives to roll back U.S. subsidies for plug-in vehicles.” The action was revealed on February 7 when FHWA posted a memo to state DOT directors. FHWA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The memo’s author, longtime FHWA staffer Emily Biondi, stated that Trump administration officials have decided to review the program’s underlying policies and the guidance issued under the Biden administration. They plan to issue revised guidance that aligns with Trump administration policies in the spring. Until new guidance is forthcoming, Biondi added, FHWA “is also immediately suspending the approval of all State Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment plans for all fiscal years. Therefore, effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI Formula Program until the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance is issued and new State plans are submitted and approved.”
The Hill reported, “The suspension marks the latest Trump administration move to freeze funds already approved by Congress, which Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly pointed out is forbidden under the 1974 Impoundment Control Act.”
Florida County Official Proposes Reinstating Tolls To Fund Bridge’s Replacement
WEAR reported that tolls might be coming back to the 65-year-old Navarre Beach Bridge, 30 miles east of Pensacola, Florida, to support maintenance and ultimate replacement. The causeway is busy in summer with fair-weather visitors heading to popular beaches along the Intracoastal Waterway. Tolls were removed in the early 2000s when the state turned the structure over to the county. Now, Santa Rosa County Commissioner Ray Eddington has proposed that reintroducing a modest toll could support construction of a replacement span with four traffic lanes and an emergency center lane.
Pensacola News Journal also covered this story. Last May, the newspaper reported that county commissioners rejected an offer from Delivering Bridges LLC — a United Bridge Partners affiliate — to fund the demolition of the existing Navarre Beach Causeway Bridge, build a new span, and then – under either an ownership or lease agreement – manage its maintenance and function as a tolled enterprise.
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MTC Spotlighted Effort Required To Keep Bay Area Bridges In Good Repair
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) executives recently gave local officials and reporters some insight into the extensive, complex, and costly maintenance work required to keep the Bay Area’s seven state-owned toll bridges operating securely and indefinitely. As San Francisco Chronicle documented, an MTC educational excursion conducted by ferry boat focused on the 88-year-old San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge west span, which is undergoing or in need of both routine upkeep, such as repainting, and “occasional reconstructive surgery.” The tour was part of an ongoing MTC effort to inform lawmakers and the public about the need for the series of annual toll rate increases that begin next year. It also gave MTC staff an opportunity to explain how construction cost inflation and a decline in traffic that started with the COVID-19 pandemic have had a cumulative effect on BATA finances over the last half-decade.
State Lawmakers Act To Curb License Plate Flipping
“Land Line” Magazine reported on recent state legislation to prohibit and punish the use of license plate flipping devices. Two states, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, have recently enacted laws that prohibit the manufacture, sale, possession, or use of the devices. Similar statutes are under consideration in New Jersey, Illinois, and Delaware.
A Florida bill, HB 253, is wider in scope. In addition to prohibiting distribution, sale, and possession of a device, it would make it a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 to commit a crime, such toll evasion, while using a license plate flipper.
Duffy Outlined Administration Expectations For Next Surface Transportation Bill
Transport Topics reported, USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy “outlined various policy and funding proposals meant to steer Congress’ consideration of upcoming surface transportation legislation” during his address at the Washington Briefing recently hosted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).
Duffy said Trump administration policy priorities include:
- reform of environmental permitting regulations to speed up project development,
- giving states “a lot more autonomy, a lot more authority” to determine their infrastructure needs and priorities,
- promotion of emerging technologies that improve safety and efficiency, and
- creation of a cost-savings framework.
Congressional Republicans appear to be in step with Trump. They foresee the possibility of introducing federal highway legislation later this year that streamlines regulatory reviews and supports technology innovation. In her remarks at the AASHTO conference, Senate transportation committee chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) stated, “I am confident that under [Secretary Duffy’s] leadership, we can improve America’s infrastructure by focusing our investments on core projects like roads and bridges, streamlining project delivery, and getting the department back to the fundamental missions of federal transportation programs — moving people and goods safely and efficiently.”
Indian Government Increases Toll Plaza Surveillance And Toll Systems Monitoring
“Business Today” reported, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is taking steps to intensify its surveillance and monitoring of toll system operations across the country. The actions are a response to “reports of large scale fraud” involving mostly cash collection, which is a small percentage of overall transactions.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told lawmakers the implemented measures include:
- regular government audits,
- appointing “systems integrators” to oversee toll plaza operations,
- annual government certification of toll systems software,
- fining or debarring errant toll road operators, and
- expanding barrier-free, all-electronic toll facilities.
In addition, NHAI is considering installing “AI-powered audit cameras” at some toll plazas to obtain independent verification of toll transactions and payments.
A Prescription For Treating US “Infrastructure Paralysis”
The US is experiencing an infrastructure paralysis caused by the inability of government at every level to “get things done in a time-effective and efficient manner,” according to an opinion column in Governing. A cure, it suggests, can be found in a new report written by author and reform advocate Philip K. Howard and issued by the free-market oriented Manhattan Institute.
Instead of trying to streamline the existing “labyrinthian” structure of laws and regulations, Howard proposes creating a new legal framework “to allow officials to exercise human judgment to weigh costs and benefits — a danger we [now] seek to avoid by legally mandating a supposedly neutral process that micromanages every aspect of every decision.” The change he envisions would, he believes, free officials to be decision-makers rather than caretakers of elaborate permitting processes. They would be accountable politically for the plans they devise and execute. Judicial review of their actions would be limited to determining whether they have exceeded the boundaries of their authority.
The Governing opinion piece is written by lawyer John Ketcham, a Manhattan Institute fellow and contributing editor of “City Journal.”