Daily News Briefs, January 9, 2017

Auditors Find Fault with Kansas Turnpike's Accounting Procedures

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that KTA’s independent auditor found that personnel responsible for preparing the agency’s financial statements “are not adequately trained in generally accepted [accounting principles issued by the GASB] . . . . Additionally, there is a lack of documented policies and procedures, and controls for ensuring completion of tasks needed to prepare for financial statements.” The audit report itself (an attachment to KTA’s 2016 annual report) states, “Lack of controls and procedures could result in a material misstatement to the financial statements.” Spokeswoman Jeri Biehler tells the newspaper that KTA is already implementing a corrective action plan that includes new accounting software. She added that the authority has no reason to believe any misappropriation of assets has occurred.

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News of I-495 Express Tolls Hitting $30 Gets Widespread Coverage

An Associated Press report that some I-495 Express tolls hit the $30 mark in advance of the weekend snow storm got plenty of attention across the country. However, as WTTG Fox 5 reported, tolls actually broke the $30 barrier: “As of 6 p.m. Thursday [January 5], the Express Lanes website showed an expected 36-minute trip from the 495 Express Lanes starting nearby Tysons Corner all the way to I-95 near Garrisonville Road/Route 610 in Stafford costing over $45.”

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NCDOT's Triangle Expressway's First Five Years a Success

WRAL reports, “Five years after the [first segment of the Triangle Expressway] opened, the state has said it’s a big success. [NCDOT] spokesman Steve Abbott said tens of thousands of people use it each weekday, as traffic and revenue grow every year. ‘It’s been pretty steady growth as people get used to it,’ Abbott said. ‘(Prices) are going up, because costs go up.’” The station notes, “Over the past four years, the DOT projected the Triangle Expressway would bring in about $77 million, while the actual revenue resulted in $95 million dollars. With this data, drivers will pay 3.5 percent more this year.” (Link added.)

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SRTA's I-75 Express Lanes in Clayton and Henry Counties to Open Later this Month

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution provides a quick look at how, exactly, the State Road and Tollway Authority will reverse the traffic on the 12 miles of I-75 reversible express lanes in Clayton and Henry counties that are set to open later this month.

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Ohio River Bridges Traffic Averages 81,000 Vehicles a Day

Associated Press reports, “Officials say traffic crossing three tolled bridges connecting Kentucky and Indiana in the Louisville area averaged more than 81,000 vehicles during three recent days. RiverLink officials say just over 50 percent of those vehicles had transponders that were mounted and read by bridge cameras. Tolling started Dec. 30 on the new Lewis and Clark Bridge, the new Interstate 65 Abraham Lincoln Bridge and the improved I-65 Kennedy Bridge.”

Courier-Journal reports that the demand for transponders (especially RiverLink’s free tags) has almost depleted the available stock, and new supplies are expected to arrive soon.

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Uber to Give Away Travel Time Data

USA Today reports, “Uber is going to make urban traffic and mobility data gleaned from its millions of drivers and riders using the Uber app freely available to all.” The report adds, “Uber says it will first invite planning agencies and researchers to access the information and then make [an anonymized-data website, Uber Movement] free to the public. The first cities will be Washington D.C., Manila in the [Philippines] and Sydney, Australia.”

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Colorado DOT Forms Partnership to Train Employees in Crunching Highway Transportation Data

The Denver Post reports that CDOT snagged another tech partner at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. The agency is “teaming up with the data scientists at Denver-based Galvanize [link added], a tech educator and startup space for entrepreneurs. In a unique partnership . . . , CDOT employees are expected to gain data-science skills while Galvanize professors and students pour through state transportation data to figure out better ways to attack Colorado traffic congestion — at no cost to taxpayers.” At last week’s show in Las Vegas, CDOT also formed a partnership with Panasonic to turn a segment of I-70 into a smart highway.

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HOT Lanes Loom as Major Stories in the Metro DC Area This Year

The Washington Post’s Dr. Gridlock writes, “The biggest story on the D.C. region’s highways this new year will be the opening of the high-occupancy tolling system on I-66 inside the Capital Beltway. But this also is the year when the state of Virginia and its private partners plan to start building the HOT lanes outside the Beltway. . . . This outside project ultimately will be a much bigger deal than the inside one, despite the many attention-getting controversies over the inner HOT lanes.” The doctor talks with Patrick Rhode of Cintra US. “While I-66 would be [Cintra’s] first operation in the Washington region, Rhode said Cintra is confident. ‘We’re very selective as a company to where we invest,’ he said. ‘We believe that this is very similar to projects we’ve had success on in the past.’”

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The Hill: Trump Plan Could Deliver for Toll Roads.

The Hill reports, “Toll roads may surge under a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal being floated by Donald Trump. The president elect’s idea for rebuilding the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges relies on private companies instead of the federal government to back transportation projects. Experts say that means investors will be attracted to projects that can recoup their investment costs using some sort of revenue stream, such as through tolls or user fees.”

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PA Turnpike Toll Hike Takes Effect. Transfers to Mass Transit Cited as Driving Force.

WGAL reports, “A 6 percent increase is now in effect for cash and E-ZPass motorists along the 550-mile [Pennsylvania Turnpike]. The turnpike commission says the money will help fund projects to rebuild and widen the turnpike as well as support Pennsylvania’s public transportation needs. The commission says it generated $1 billion in annual toll revenue from more than 198 million vehicles a year during the 2016 fiscal year.”

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CDOT Cuts Estimated Completion Time for I-25 Widening in Half, but Will Need to Come Up with More Money

KKTV reports that CDOT has announced that it plans “to complete the widening of I-25 [from Colorado Springs to C-470 in metro Denver] within five years, pending funding availability. Original plans stated it would happen in 10 years. . . . [T]hey hope to begin construction in just two-and-a-half years, by summer 2019. However, they need more funding first. In order to meet the new completion goals, they still need to find $300 to $400 million for the project.”

Reporter-Herald says, “The announcement about the expansion of south Interstate 25 comes at the heels of Northern Colorado elected officials celebrating plans for the expansion of North I-25. After a local effort to commit enough funding for the Colorado Department of Transportation 2035 plan, construction on the $237 million [project] is set to begin in 2018. The project would add a third toll lane for 14 miles.”

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WV Turnpike Officials Huddle with Governor-Elect Justice's Team on the Continuation of Tolls

The Register-Herald reports that members of the West Virginia Parkways Authority have met with Governor-elect Jim Justice’s transition team to discuss the continuation of turnpike tolling beyond the current 2019 statutory cut-off date. Greg Barr, parkway authority general manager, said transition officials “are aware that action needs to be taken if they desire to retain tolls and relieve the burden from the state road fund.”

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Indiana House Republicans Want Tolls to Keep Annual Highway Maintenance Budgets in the Black

The Times of Northwest Indiana reports that State Representative Ed Soliday (R-Valparaiso), chairman of the House Roads and Transportation Committee, met with the newspaper’s editorial board to plug HB Bill 1002, his caucus’ long-term infrastructure funding plan. In addition to raising gas taxes and fees, the bill would require INDOT to seek federal approval to toll existing interstate highways. “Tolling at least some interstates in Indiana would make drivers from other states participate in funding, and prepare for increasing fuel efficiency, Soliday said. He mentioned I-65 and I-70 as most likely for tolling. And it would allow for adding lanes to those roads. . . . In spreadsheets looking at maintenance costs for the next 20 years ‘without tolling there’s a whole lot of red,’” Soliday told the editors.

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NJ Paper Hits PANYNJ for 50-50 State Split of Capital Plan Dollars

Asbury Park Press’  editorial board criticizes the port authority’s proposed ten-year capital plan for equally dividing spending between New York and New Jersey, noting that “decisions continue to be made with more of an emphasis on a tit-for-tat balancing of expenditures than a comprehensive approach to the overall regional infrastructure and how best to serve residents on both sides of the river.”  The editors add, “Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, chairman of the [New Jersey] Assembly Transportation Committee and candidate for governor, had said [regarding the Bridgegate scandal] that any investigation of the politically motivated lane closures on the George Washington Bridge should include a broader probe of the entire agency. He was right; and this capital plan only reinforces the continuing problems.”

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MassDOT Earns Editorial Praise for Reducing Metro West Commute Times

The Milford Daily News editorial board, having met recently with MassDOT secretary Stephanie Pollack, provides an update on the department’s conversion of the turnpike to AET. The news is basically good: Metro West commute times are getting shorter; the transition was completed on time without major vehicle accidents or delays; and transponder use is now up to 85 percent.

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DelDOT's 2017 Year-End Holidays Toll Collection Same as Previous Year's

The News Journal reports, “A two-year surge in holiday travel on Delaware roads leveled off during the Christmas and New Year’s weekends, just as fuel prices began to creep up from recent lows. More [than] 1.5 million drivers passed through Delaware toll plazas during the three-day weekends beginning Dec. 23 and Dec. 30, netting the state $4.5 million [the same amount collected during the 2015-16 holiday period]. That is in contrast with previous holiday weekends recently when income from tolls jumped year-over-year, including Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July.”

Click here to read a DelDOT news release that breaks down the holiday traffic and revenue totals.

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