- "Bumper Profits" for Transurban
- Abandonment of NC Toll Road Project Impacts Local Economy
- Brent Spence Bridge Replacement and the "Delay Toll"
- As Vote Nears on Toll Hike to Fund Safety Improvements, Another Vehicle Veers off Lake Pontchartrain Causeway
- FL Newspaper: Raise Tolls to Manage Beach Traffic
- Oklahoma Turnpike Draws Ire
- The Future: Pay Your Toll and Order Breakfast as You Go. (Still, No Jetpack!)
- Virginia to Pick Partner Soon for $2 Billion I-66 Project
- ERC Projects Ahead of Schedule
- VA Columnist: "Cruel Life Lessons in Travelling up the East Coast"
- NJ Lawmaker Targets Distracted Driving
- Mid-Bay Bridge Authority to Reconsider Toll Rates in Wake of Complaints by Businesses, Residents
- Indiana Gubernatorial Candidates Differ on Tolling, Transportation Funding
- On the Gordie Howe Bridge: Where's the Progress?
- NJ Turnpike to Gain a Piece of $100 Million LIBOR Settlement with Barclays
This is a Subscribers-Only area. If you are a subscriber, please login. If not...
Become a Subscriber Today »
"Bumper Profits" for Transurban
The Sydney Morning Herald reports, “In further evidence of the stellar returns Transurban is making in [New South Wales], toll revenue from its Sydney toll roads — which include the M2, the M5 and the M7 — surged almost 14 per cent to $799 million for the year to June.” Click here to read a Transurban news release on its FY 2016 results, in which CEO Scott Charlton comments, “Our two North American assets continue to deliver strong traffic growth, giving us confidence to expand the 95 Express Lanes inside the beltway and to the south.”
Australia Company and Agency Financial Issues And Reports Washington (DC) Metro RegionAbandonment of NC Toll Road Project Impacts Local Economy
The Gaston Gazette (Gastonia) reports that a Charlotte-based real estate company plans to sell its Gaston County land holdings near the proposed route of the abandoned Garden Parkway toll road project. A local real estate broker tells the newspaper the land is still valuable, “[b]ut without a toll road, he doesn’t see Gaston County achieving its potential growth and marketability. . . . ‘If it ever happens, it’ll be about 10 years from now,’ he said. ‘Until then, at rush hour, I-85 will be a parking lot.’”
North CarolinaBrent Spence Bridge Replacement and the "Delay Toll"
The Cincinnati Enquirer publishes an op-ed by Mark Policinski, chief executive officer of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana (OKI) Regional Council of Governments, commenting on the Kentucky governor’s decision to obtain yet another study of the proposed Brent Spence Bridge project. Noting the cost of congestion delays on the current span, Policinski writes, “The delay toll on the Brent Spence Bridge is sucking hundreds of millions out the pockets of workers and businesses each year.”
Bridges Kentucky OhioAs Vote Nears on Toll Hike to Fund Safety Improvements, Another Vehicle Veers off Lake Pontchartrain Causeway
The Times-Picayune reports, “After some two years of study, Lake Pontchartrain Causeway officials plan to vote Wednesday night (Aug. 10) on a controversial plan to raise tolls and spend $103 million on safety improvements for the 24-mile bridges.”
And, “As if on cue,” the newspaper adds, “a southbound pickup flew off the bridge Monday morning (Aug. 8), demonstrating Causeway officials’ position that the railings should be improved. Causeway police and emergency personnel rescued the driver, who was taken to a hospital for observation.” WDSU-TV News also reports.
Bridges LouisianaFL Newspaper: Raise Tolls to Manage Beach Traffic
Pensacola News Journal editors say raising the toll is a viable way to manage beach traffic congestion on Santa Rosa Island, arguing that, “We’re renewing our push to increase the toll to $5 per vehicle to force motorists to carpool to the beach. . . .”
FloridaOklahoma Turnpike Draws Ire
KJRH-TV News takes a, well, curious look at Oklahoma toll roads and reports that, “Turnpike critics are calling the state’s toll roads a scam — and groups rallying for an end to the turnpike authority are gaining momentum.” The report adds, “Oklahoma Turnpike Authority Director Tim Getz says the turnpike system has played a vital role in economic development since the first one opened to traffic in 1953. ‘The toll network has just been a mechanism to meet those needs that would largely go unmet otherwise because of a lack of general resources to go in and build those types of safe modern high-speed facilities.’”
OklahomaThe Future: Pay Your Toll and Order Breakfast as You Go. (Still, No Jetpack!)
MassLive.com reports, “At some point in the future, as you cruise the Massachusetts Turnpike, you’ll speed through a toll checkpoint and the workers inside a kitchen at a service plaza up ahead will know to start making the food you pre-ordered for yourself and your family before you even started your trip.” The report adds, “Evolving technology means traffic and navigation apps like Waze could be synced up with Apple Pay, Google Maps and your E-ZPass transponder, as well as your cell phone.”
AET (All-Electronic Tolling) MassachusettsVirginia to Pick Partner Soon for $2 Billion I-66 Project
The Bond Buyer (subscription required) reports, “Virginia transportation officials plan to select a private partner by fall for the $2 billion I-66 toll lane project.”
Express Lanes P3 & Privatization Virginia Washington (DC) Metro RegionERC Projects Ahead of Schedule
The Virginian-Pilot’s Jordan Pascale reports (scroll down!) that, “The second lane of the Midtown Tunnel is tentatively scheduled to open Aug. 22, according to Elizabeth River Crossing’s latest financial disclosure forms. The rehab of the existing Midtown Tunnel is also months ahead of schedule. . . . The Martin Luther King extension that connects the Midtown and Downtown tunnels is still on track for Dec. 22 completion.”
VirginiaVA Columnist: "Cruel Life Lessons in Travelling up the East Coast"
Elsewhere in his column, The Virginian-Pilot’s Pascale talks about a recent road trip, a life lesson on states that restrict cellphone use and the cost of travel. On a trip to New York City, he writes, “It’s six hours on a good traffic day up the Eastern Shore and costs about $130 round trip. Tolls on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, Delaware Bridge and New Jersey Turnpike run about $54, $30 for gas, $29 for parking near Newark Airport, $14.50 for NJ Transit train ticket from the North Elizabeth station to NY Penn Station. Just figuring that out took two hours of research. While tolls were rough, it was about half the cost of flying from Norfolk,” until you add a $131 citation for holding your phone while driving.
NJ Lawmaker Targets Distracted Driving
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports, “A New Jersey lawmaker wants to crack down on distracted driving under a proposed bill that seeks to stop motorists from multi-tasking when they get behind the wheel.” Assemblyman John Wisniewski, (D-Middlesex), tells the newspaper, “I’ve driven down the Turnpike a number of times and seen people reading a newspaper folded on the steering wheel or working on their laptop in the passenger seat.”
New JerseyMid-Bay Bridge Authority to Reconsider Toll Rates in Wake of Complaints by Businesses, Residents
Northwest Florida Daily News reports, “The Mid-Bay Bridge Authority has begun an official review of its toll schedule. The review comes in response to multiple requests from members of the public at the authority’s last two public meetings.” [Link added.] The report adds that speakers at the crowded hearings complained that the tolls were “hurting businesses in Destin and South Walton who were in need of employees.”
Bridges Florida Toll Rate ChangesIndiana Gubernatorial Candidates Differ on Tolling, Transportation Funding
The Times of Northwest Indiana (Munster) takes a detailed look at the state’s transportation funding gap and reports, “The three candidates for Indiana governor — Republican Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb, Democratic former House Speaker John Gregg and Libertarian Rex Bell — each have different plans for tackling this road funding dilemma if elected in November to succeed Republican Gov. Mike Pence.” Tolling and leveraging the proceeds from the sale of the Indiana Toll Road are discussed.
IndianaOn the Gordie Howe Bridge: Where's the Progress?
Michigan Public Radio’s political analyst comments that after the public’s “epic battle” with Matty Moroun, owner of the aging Ambassador Bridge, the Gordie Howe Bridge project should be moving forward. “But very little is happening. The new Gordie Howe Bridge was supposed to open to traffic by 2020, but everyone now knows this is a myth. There’s still something like thirty parcels of land on the U.S. side that need to be acquired.”
Canada Gordie Howe Int'l Bridge MichiganNJ Turnpike to Gain a Piece of $100 Million LIBOR Settlement with Barclays
NJ.com reports, “New Jersey is among 43 states that will divvy up a $100 million settlement with the international bank Barclays under a settlement agreement reached [on August 8]. The British bank was accused of improperly setting key interest rates at the height of the global financial crisis in 2007. . . .” The LIBOR manipulation settlement includes a combined $3.7 million for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and Shore Memorial Medical Center in Atlantic County, according to the report.
New Jersey