- SANDAG Delays Projects in Wake of Ballot Measure Defeat
- It Was Smooth Sailing on Opening Day of the Ohio River Bridges AET System
- No Major Toll Avoidance Is Expected as RiverLink's First Full Week Begins
- The New Year Brings Toll Rate Increases
- PA Lawmaker Calls Turnpike's Funding of Mass Transit a "Shell Game"
- Bond Buyer: Trump Needs Tolls to Implement His P3-Centered Infrastructure Plan
- Blogger Says Tolling Raises Conflicting Feelings in Wisconsin Residents
- NJ Turnpike Postpones Garden State Project Completion Date
- DRPA Sees No Toll Increases in Its "Foreseeable Future"
- US Senator Wants States to Have "More Flexibility" in Funding Highways
- Experts Doubt Illinois Tollway's Route 53 North Project Will Survive
- Damage to Movable Barrier Will Slow Today's Golden Gate Bridge Commutes
- Police Cruiser Gets Stuck under Stolen Flatbed during NY Thruway Chase
- Southern Connector to Turn Toll Plazas Purple, Donate Portion of Revenue to American Cancer Society
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SANDAG Delays Projects in Wake of Ballot Measure Defeat
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports, “The defeat of a November ballot measure and overly bullish economic forecasts are causing delays to the construction of new trolley lines and highway improvements, forcing a regional planning organization to seek new strategies to pay for its long list of transportation projects.” The report adds, “A part of the San Diego Association of Government’s new approach is due to the failure of Measure A, [a] ballot item that, had it passed, would have levied a half-cent sales tax that was expected to raise $18 billion over 40 years to pay for transportation and infrastructure projects.”
California San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG)It Was Smooth Sailing on Opening Day of the Ohio River Bridges AET System
Courier-Journal reports, “The much-scrutinized and long-anticipated start of tolling across the Ohio River bridges began Friday [December 30], with officials reporting a smooth transition and travelers saying they only hit a few snags. Starting at 4 a.m., more than 52,000 drivers were charged to cross the Kennedy, Lincoln, and Lewis and Clark bridges, which connect parts of Louisville and Southern Indiana. . . . Traffic cameras on both sides of the river showed little congestion Friday.”
WAVE reports, “For the record, the first customer to pay to cross the now tolled Kennedy, Lincoln and Lewis and Clark Bridges was a trucker from Maryland. . . . ‘He had an EZ-Pass,’ Ohio River Bridges Project spokeswoman Mindy Peterson said. ‘He’d had it for a while, as part of his job.’” The station adds that the preponderance of motorists being tolled by license plate probably explains why RiverLink’s customer service centers were packed “with last-minute procrastinators” at the end of last week.
AET (All-Electronic Tolling) Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River BridgesNo Major Toll Avoidance Is Expected as RiverLink's First Full Week Begins
WHAS reports that during this first full week of RiverLink tolling, traffic on local bridges that remain toll-free (the Clark Memorial and Sherman Minton) could increase. The station adds that TRIMARC (Kentucky’s ITS monitor for metro Louisville) doesn’t expect drivers to take the Sherman Minton just to avoid a toll, but a “slower commute” on the Clark Memorial can be expected, “especially at the start of the workweek.”
Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River BridgesThe New Year Brings Toll Rate Increases
WRAL reports on the North Carolina Turnpike Authority’s Triangle Expressway toll rate increase that took effect on January 1. “A person traveling the entire distance of the toll road, about 17 miles, will pay $3.13, up 9 cents from the previous total. Customers paying through bill-by-mail will pay $4.81, an increase of 16 cents.”
WTKR reports on weekend toll increases that took effect for motorists using the Elizabeth River Tunnels and South Norfolk Jordan Bridge in Hampton Roads.
KVUE reports, “Motorists who take trips on the 183A and 290 Toll Roads will see slight increases in the new year. The Central Texas Mobility Authority said rates on using the toll roads will increase by 1.5 percent, starting at 12:00:01 Jan. 1, 2017. The rate increase will not apply to the MoPac Express Lane. CTRMA added the increases are part of a ‘policy that adjusts rates annually in line with inflation to avoid larger increases every five years.’”
Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) Elizabeth River Tunnels North Carolina Turnpike Authority Toll Rate ChangesPA Lawmaker Calls Turnpike's Funding of Mass Transit a "Shell Game"
The Times-Tribune reports that State Representative Mike Carroll (D-118) wants to end the state law that mandates annual $450 million turnpike payments to PennDOT for mass transit funding. Representative Carroll, a member of the House Transportation Committee, tells the newspaper, “It needs to be solved and it has to be solved because this can’t continue.” The report adds, “The turnpike, which raised rates only five times in its first 68 years, will keep raising them annually for the foreseeable future unless the state acts, turnpike Chief Executive Officer Mark Compton said at a House Democratic Policy Committee meeting in September in Moosic. He blamed the annual toll hikes on ongoing needs to pay off existing turnpike bonds, upgrade its 550 miles of highway, pay increasing pension costs and continue funding mass transit statewide.”
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC)Bond Buyer: Trump Needs Tolls to Implement His P3-Centered Infrastructure Plan
The Bond Buyer offers a mostly positive outlook in an article on expanded tolling of existing US interstate highways, leading with the premise, “Tolls on interstate highways are the only way to provide the revenue stream needed to attract the level of private investment in transportation projects envisioned in President-elect Donald Trump’s 10-year, $1 trillion infrastructure proposal, according to industry experts.” The report also looks at the political acceptability of increased tolling, and notes that Texas anti-toll crusader Terri Hall believes Trump’s private investment approach to highway development is “a slap in the face” to his supporters. She adds, it’s “a mystery to us and a big betrayal of the working class voters who supported him. There’s going to be a huge backlash if Congress goes along with this.” A slide deck linked to the article summarizes the conflicting viewpoints on tolling held by various stakeholders.
P3 & PrivatizationBlogger Says Tolling Raises Conflicting Feelings in Wisconsin Residents
“Inside Wisconsin,” the state technology council’s blog, features a post by president Tom Still, who believes Wisconsinites are both “miffed” about having to pay tolls to drive south into Illinois and “jealous that other states have ways to make visitors pay for highway maintenance.” That conflict of opinion, he writes, may surface in the debate over the WisDOT report that concludes toll collection could help the state close its highway funding deficit. In his conclusion, Still observes, “Toll roads have existed since ancient times and in America since the 1790s, a history that suggests travelers are conditioned to view them as user fees versus a tax. As the debate over how to pay for Wisconsin’s transportation needs intensifies, that perception may prove to be a distinction that matters to policymakers.”
The Journal Times samples Racine County residents’ reactions to the possibility of Wisconsin joining the list of states with toll roads.
Wisconsin Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT)NJ Turnpike Postpones Garden State Project Completion Date
Brick Shorebeat reports that the completion date of NJTA’s Garden State Parkway Interchange 91 construction project has been pushed back to July 2017 because of the highway construction moratorium imposed by Governor Chris Christie last summer. “The project, more than 10 years in the making, will include numerous new entrance and exit ramps,” according to the hyperlocal news site.
New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA)DRPA Sees No Toll Increases in Its "Foreseeable Future"
CBS News Philadelphia reports, “Officials at the Delaware River Port Authority met with reporters as 2016 ended to look ahead. There’s newfound labor peace at the authority in contracts with three major unions.” CBS quotes DRPA board official Jeffrey Nash as saying, “We have been able to hold the line on the tolls and the fares, implementing a commuter discount so frequent commuters [who use the authority’s bridges will now pay] 4 dollars a trip verses the 5. And there’s no plans to raise the tolls or the fares in the foreseeable future.”
Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) New Jersey PennsylvaniaUS Senator Wants States to Have "More Flexibility" in Funding Highways
Omaha World-Herald gauges reaction in Nebraska and Iowa to the anticipated Trump infrastructure program, and learns that US Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) “met with Trump’s nominee to the Transportation Department, Elaine Chao, for an hour last month” to discuss infrastructure funding. The newspaper adds that Fischer “plans to roll out broader infrastructure proposals in the new Congress to give states more flexibility in addressing their needs.” Tolls get scant explicit mention in the article, which states, “[H]ighway officials and other experts note that they can work well on high-volume roadways like a bridge into New York City. But the financial numbers don’t really work to use tolls to finance, say, a stretch of Interstate 80 west of Grand Island.”
Iowa NebraskaExperts Doubt Illinois Tollway's Route 53 North Project Will Survive
Daily Herald provides its “transportation predictions for the new year by a panel of experts on planes, trains, automobiles and politics,” and the betting line is that, “Despite momentum at the Illinois tollway to spend up to $50 million to study extending Route 53 north, our prognosticators are dubious about the project’s fate in 2017.”
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (IL Tollway)Damage to Movable Barrier Will Slow Today's Golden Gate Bridge Commutes
San Francisco Chronicle reports, “It’s looking like a rough first day back to work after the holidays for North Bay commuters: The Golden Gate Bridge will be down a lane [from four lanes to three] coming into San Francisco on Tuesday morning due to a broken barrier. Bridge workers realized the movable barrier — one of dozens used to separate north- and south-bound traffic — was damaged . . . when they tried to shift it to accommodate [Monday] afternoon traffic patterns, said Priya David Clemens, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District.”
Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District (GGBHTD) San Francisco Bay Area (CA)Police Cruiser Gets Stuck under Stolen Flatbed during NY Thruway Chase
NBC New York reports, “A driver stole a tow truck and led police on a bizarre chase through several states Monday [January 2], police said. While the accused driver tried to get away, a police cruiser came so close to catching him that it got stuck under the flatbed.”
Crime Beat New York State Thruway AuthoritySouthern Connector to Turn Toll Plazas Purple, Donate Portion of Revenue to American Cancer Society
WCSC Live 5 News reports, “Toll booths on Interstate 185, the Southern Connector [link added], in Greenville County [SC] will turn purple in January to promote cancer awareness and to support the American Cancer Society Relay For Life in Greenville, according to a news release from the American Cancer Society. The lights in the toll plazas will be replaced with purple lights throughout the month. On Tuesdays, toll booths and workers will also be decked out in purple and ten cents from each toll collected will be donated to the American Cancer Society.”
South Carolina