Daily News Briefs, April 3, 2017

VA Governor McAuliffe Rips Up ERC Toll Bill to Signal "New Day" for Motorists

The Virginian-Pilot  reports, “Gov. Terry McAuliffe ripped up an Elizabeth River Crossings toll bill and threw it in the air at his [March 31] news conference. He announced it was a new day for those burdened with five-figure toll bills. Public pressure from the governor directed at the multinational companies that own Elizabeth River Crossings has ushered in a wave of billing changes. Some drivers who owe ERC thousands can now clear their debts for a fraction of the cost. While the changes won’t reduce or eliminate the tolls, they do go a long way to help people, McAuliffe said.”

The Virginian-Pilot also tells indebted motorists how to take advantage of ERC’s new penalty fee policies.

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RCTC's $1.4 Billion 91 Express Lanes Are Showing "Strong Numbers" in Early Going

The Press-Enterprise reports, “Plenty of commuters have been driving the new 91 Express Lanes in Corona in the two weeks since their debut, officials said. . . . ‘We are really pleased with how it’s working so far,’ said Anne Mayer, the [Riverside County Transportation Commission] executive director. ‘We’re seeing really strong numbers in the express lanes, consistently strong.’ The toll lanes, which opened March 20, are averaging about 30,000 vehicles a day, including on weekends, she said.”

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NCDOT Engages Mercator Advisors to Review I-77 Toll Lane Contract

WJZY reports, “The N.C. Department of Transportation announced on [March 31] that it will hire Mercator Advisors LLC to conduct a review of the I-77 toll lane contract. This comes after Secretary Jim Trogdon announced earlier this month that the department would engage a firm to conduct an in-depth, outside review.” [Link inserted.]

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PA Governor Wolf Nominates Former State Senator to Turnpike Board

Altoona Mirror reports, “Gov. Tom Wolf has nominated former Democratic state Sen. John Wozniak to sit on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the governor’s office announced Thursday. Wozniak, who served in the Senate from 1997 until this year, would be one of five commissioners tasked with overseeing the turnpike.” Wozniak replaces Sean Logan, who resigned as chairman of the commission and has been appointed to the state’s Gaming Control Board. Wozniak must be confirmed by the state senate.

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NY Thruway Poised to Convert Plaza to AET

Times Herald-Record reports, “After five years of on-again, off-again planning, the New York State Thruway Authority is now full-speed ahead on switching to all-electronic tolling at the Harriman toll plaza. The switch will coincide with the state Department of Transportation’s $150 million reconfiguration of Route 17′s Exit 131 . . . ‘We’re in the process of designing our portion of the project and expect to solicit bids later this year,’ said Jennifer Givner, a Thruway Authority spokeswoman.”

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MDX Rebate Program Attracts Record Number of Motorists

Miami Herald reports, “A record number of commuters has signed up for rebates as frequent drivers on the toll roads operated by the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, according to the agency. This year, more than 84,000 drivers registered for the rebates under the Frequent Driver Rewards Program. The registration period, which began in January, ended Friday [March 31].” [Link inserted.]

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Colorado House Passes Transportation Funding Measure

The Colorado Independent reports, “The House [on March 31] gave its final blessing to a transportation bill that will ask voters in November to okay a hike in the state’s sales tax. The measure passed on a 41 to 24 vote, with four Republicans joining the House’s 37 Democrats in support.”

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Amendment to CDOT Transportation Bill Won't Stop Funding of Managed Lane Projects

Streetsblog Denver reports that a “largely symbolic obstacle” to spending for managed lane projects amended into the Colorado House transportation funding bill “leaves plenty of room for toll lanes down the, er, road. As it should.” For example, the amendment permits CDOT to use tax dollars for managed lanes when their purpose is to “increase travel time reliability and mitigate congestion.” Still, according to the Streetsblog post, the amendment shows that “Colorado has to get over [its] instinctual and counterproductive aversion to asking people to pay for the roads they use.”

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Connecticut Columnist Takes a Run at Tolling Myths Spread by "Dishonest Pols"

Connecticut Post runs a Jim Cameron column of a type we don’t see often enough. Cameron dispels “myths about highway tolling being spread by dishonest pols.”

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As TxDOT Turns 100, Tolls Play a Huge Role in Projects

Austin American-Statesman reports, “TxDOT is turning 100 Tuesday [April4], the anniversary of the day Gov. James ‘Pa’ Ferguson signed a bill creating what was then called the Texas Highway Department.” In a lengthy look-back, the newspaper adds, “This century of engineering and construction has included a fair measure of controversy over who got the lucrative road-building contracts and how they were awarded, where highways were built or not built, and, in the past 15 years or so, whether to charge tolls on some of those roads.”

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Indiana Governor Backs Tolling's Inclusion in Any Funding Plan Headed to His Desk

WIBC covers a news conference at which Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb “says the cost of building and maintaining roads should fall on those who drive on them, and says provisions in both the House and Senate bills calling for the state to apply for federal tolling approval probably have to be part of a final [highway funding] plan.” Holcomb added that “in six or seven years, the state will have to take ‘a hard look’ at imposing tolls to raise money for new construction. But he says he doesn’t want tolls on urban bypasses — he’s thinking more of truckers going state line to state line.”

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NCDOT Bond Refinancing Could Reduce State Spending for Expressway Project and Permit "Toll Flexibility"

Triangle Business Journal reports that last week’s refinancing of some Triangle Expressway bond debt by NCDOT could lead to “a reduction in the state’s contribution for the Complete 540 project and future toll rate flexibility. Additionally, there’s a possibility that the state could pay off the project debt more quickly than anticipated, which would take tolls off the road earlier than planned.” [Link inserted.]

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IDOT's P3 Plan for Building I-55 Managed Lanes Runs into Politics

Crain’s Chicago Business columnist Greg Hinz explains why the chances of IDOT moving forward this year with a plan to add managed lanes to I-55 in Chicago are slim at best. (Spoiler alert: getting in the project’s way are the forthcoming gubernatorial election and the enmity between Governor Rauner and Illinois House leaders.)

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GDOT's Northwest Corridor Reversible Toll Lanes Project Is On Track to Open in Summer 2018

The Marietta Daily Journal reports that a GDOT spokesperson last week told a community improvement district meeting that the Northwest Corridor reversible toll lanes project on I-75 is about 75 percent complete and on schedule to open in summer 2018.

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Man Who Threatened IL Tollway Chairman Schillerstrom Sentenced to Six-Year Prison Term

Naperville Sun (via Chicago Tribune) reports that the 58-year-old man convicted of felony telephone harassment for threatening the life of Illinois Tollway Authority board chairman Robert Schillerstrom has been sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.

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Judge Rules that Bridgegate's Unindicted Co-Conspirators Will Remain Anonymous

NJ.com reports, “With the infamous Bridgegate corruption case now at an end, a federal judge has ruled that the public still has no right to know the names of the unindicted co-conspirators — including one known as ‘John Doe’ in legal filings — who may have conspired in the high-stakes scheme of political retribution.”

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