- Connecticut House Bolts Before Taking Up Tolling Bill, but Negotiations Continue
- CTRMA and TxDOT Agree, No Toll for Proposed Flyover
- Board Overseeing Hudson River Train Tunnel Project Votes to Pursue a P3
- Dallas Morning News: Trump Infrastructure Plan Confronts a "Texas-Sized Roadblock," Growing Opposition to Tolling
- Oregon Lawmakers Tee Up 10-year, $8.2 Billion Funding Bill That Includes I-5 Tolling
- With Gas Tax Increase Dead, Should Louisiana Turn to Tolling, at Least for One Bridge Project?
- Southwestern PA Lawmakers Support a Delay of the PA Turnpike's $2.2 Billion Mon-Fayette Project
- Opponents of Proposed TCA Toll Routes through San Clemente Launch a PAC
- Maine Turnpike to Conduct a Needs and Impact Study of Proposed Spur
- MTA Successfully Confronts "Traffic Mess" Related to AET Construction on Bridges
- Rhode Island Trucking Association Continues Its Battle against Tolling
- VA Governor McAuliffe on Express Lane Tolls: "Northern Virginia Roads Are Not Yet Maxed Out."
- VDOT Looks to Improve Access to Marine Base from I-95 Express Lanes
- Another Wisconsin Newspaper Makes the Case for Tolling
- Norway Leads in Move to Electric Vehicles
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Connecticut House Bolts Before Taking Up Tolling Bill, but Negotiations Continue
Hartford Courant reports that the Connecticut House of Representatives took an early afternoon adjournment yesterday without debating the bill to allow tolling existing interstates as expected. House Majority Leader Matt Ritter (D-Hartford) said of tolls, “We were not prepared to run the bill today. We will keep working on it. Keep tossing around some ideas. But right now, the negotiations are still necessary.”
The Connecticut Mirror looks at “FHWA’s compilation of voluntary responses collected every two years,” and reports that, “Interstate toll roads typically cost drivers about 6 cents per mile, about the same cost as a mile’s worth of gasoline in a late-model passenger car. Non-interstate tolls cost a little more than double that: 13 cents per mile. With tolls being eyed in the state legislature, we took a look at some data on how much tolls cost drivers nationwide.”
AET (All-Electronic Tolling) ConnecticutCTRMA and TxDOT Agree, No Toll for Proposed Flyover
Austin American-Statesman reports, “A proposed flyover bridge connecting U.S. 290 to Texas 130, previously set to have a toll, will now be free, based on a vote this Wednesday [May 31] by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.” The report adds that TxDOT, which opposed the toll, will contribute $41 million to the flyover under a new agreement that requires further state approval.
Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) Texas Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)Board Overseeing Hudson River Train Tunnel Project Votes to Pursue a P3
Reuters reports, “The board overseeing the construction of a new train tunnel under New York’s Hudson River agreed on Thursday [June 1] to solicit information from private-sector construction and finance firms about how to complete the multibillion-dollar project. The tunnel, part of national rail company Amtrak’s $24 billion Gateway Program, could potentially use a public-private partnership (P3) model to build and finance portions of the project, John Porcari, interim director of the Gateway Program Development Corporation, told board trustees.” [Link inserted.]
P3 & Privatization PANYNJDallas Morning News: Trump Infrastructure Plan Confronts a "Texas-Sized Roadblock," Growing Opposition to Tolling
The Dallas Morning News reports, “A Texas-sized roadblock looms ahead of President Donald Trump’s grand plans to overhaul the nation’s aging infrastructure. In pursuing a $1 trillion investment in new roads and beyond, the White House wants to lean on the private sector for the vast majority of the funding. That approach would almost certainly rely on the kind of tolled projects that have become anathema in many parts of Texas. And the tension, while not new, just keeps increasing.”
Texas Trump Administration Infrastructure PlanOregon Lawmakers Tee Up 10-year, $8.2 Billion Funding Bill That Includes I-5 Tolling
Associated Press reports, “A proposed 10-year, $8.2 billion transportation infrastructure bill for Oregon has been unveiled.” The measure, House Bill 2017 (Amendment 3), “would impose higher gas taxes, increased vehicle title and registration fees, tolls on portions of Interstate 5, and a payroll tax to fund public transit.”
Oregon Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)With Gas Tax Increase Dead, Should Louisiana Turn to Tolling, at Least for One Bridge Project?
Greater Baton Rouge Business Report looks at the recent defeat of legislation calling for a gas tax increase, which was supported by a statewide business coalition, and concludes that tolls are a potential alternative, at least for a proposed new bridge across the Mississippi River south of the city.
LouisianaSouthwestern PA Lawmakers Support a Delay of the PA Turnpike's $2.2 Billion Mon-Fayette Project
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports, “A bipartisan group of southwestern Pennsylvania House lawmakers said they support a recent decision [by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission] to delay the $2.2 billion Mon-Fayette Expressway extension project from Jefferson Hills to Monroeville. “The ‘Mon’ in Mon-Fayette does not stand for Monroeville,” the group of 10 Republicans and two Democrats wrote in a letter to transportation officials at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, Turnpike Commission and PennDOT.”
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC)Opponents of Proposed TCA Toll Routes through San Clemente Launch a PAC
San Clemente Times reports that the Coalition to Save San Clemente (CSSC) has established a political action committee that says it has “raised more than $20,000 at its first auction and fundraising event. . . . The money will be used for efforts to stop [the Transportation Corridor Agency] toll road proposals from coming to fruition, especially the ones that appear to be drawn straight through San Clemente.”
San Clemente Times also posts an op-ed by Mayor (and F/ETCA board member) Kathy Ward, who contends that toll roads would “eviscerate San Clemente’s quality of life.”
California Transportation Corridor Agencies (CA)Maine Turnpike to Conduct a Needs and Impact Study of Proposed Spur
The Forecaster reports, “After the Legislature recently overrode Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a proposed spur linking Gorham to the Maine Turnpike, the project now must survive a needs and impact study [by MTA]. . . . Rep. Andrew McLean, D-Gorham, sponsored the legislation, [LD 905, HP 633 ], to alleviate bumper-to-bumper commuter traffic along the Route 22 and Route 114 corridor. . . .”
Maine Maine Turnpike AuthorityMTA Successfully Confronts "Traffic Mess" Related to AET Construction on Bridges
Queens Chronicle reports, “After Assemblymen Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) and Michael Simanowitz (D-Flushing) called on the MTA to address the traffic mess caused by [AET-related] construction at northeast Queens’ two bridges to the Bronx, they seem to have gotten some results.”
AET (All-Electronic Tolling) Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)Rhode Island Trucking Association Continues Its Battle against Tolling
GoLocalProv.com reports that the battle of words between the Rhode Island Trucking Association and RIDOT continues. The association is now refuting the department’s “defense and justification for placement of a truck-only toll at the Oxford Street Bridge in Providence.”
Rhode Island Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT)VA Governor McAuliffe on Express Lane Tolls: "Northern Virginia Roads Are Not Yet Maxed Out."
WTOP reports that Governor Terry McAuliffe, during a recent call-in show, told listeners concerned about climbing express lane toll rates that “Northern Virginia roads are not yet maxed out on tolling,” and added that he would take action if the situation reached that point. “‘You make the decision whether you want to pay the toll or not,” McAuliffe told the program audience.
Express Lanes Virginia Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Washington (DC) Metro RegionVDOT Looks to Improve Access to Marine Base from I-95 Express Lanes
PotomacLocal.com reports, “Plans for an improved interchange on Interstate 95 at Quantico are under review. Engineers are looking at ways to increase access to Quantico Marine Corps Base. Options in the plan include access to and from the I-95 E-ZPass Express Lanes via a flyover. . . or a slip ramp. . . .”
I-95 Express (Metro Washington, DC) Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Washington (DC) Metro RegionAnother Wisconsin Newspaper Makes the Case for Tolling
The Journal-Times editorial board is getting some attention for writing that Wisconsin’s governor and legislature need to “come to some agreement on a state transportation budget for the next two years” and “take a longer-term view of Wisconsin’s highway construction needs and how best they should be met — and that should include taking the first steps toward implementing toll roads on our Interstate highway system.”
WisconsinNorway Leads in Move to Electric Vehicles
Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports that Norway is the country where motorists are making the most rapid switch to electric vehicles. “Fueled by cheap power and government subsidies, Norway is racing to ditch the ‘fossil car,’” Bloomberg says.
Electric and Hybrid Vehicles Norway