Daily News Briefs, January 20, 2017

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VDOT's Layne Says Trump Team is Focused on Toll Projects

WTOP reports, “The Trump transition team has asked Virginia for a list of potential transportation projects, including specific questions about projects that could include tolls, the state’s transportation secretary says. ‘He’s asked us for a list . . . for big projects that had other revenue sources,’ Virginia Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne said this week at a meeting of state transportation officials.

P3 & Privatization Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)

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Virginia's Hard Lessons from P3 Experience Could Pay Dividends in Trump Administration

Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, “Virginia’s work in transforming how it handles public-private transportation projects, a product of learning the hard way how not to do them, could position the state to benefit from President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to unleash $1 trillion in private spending on infrastructure, the state’s transportation secretary told a House of Delegates committee Wednesday [January 18].”

Daily Press reports that public-private road projects “may be on the cusp of heyday,” but asks, “Could 1,000 U.S. 460’s bloom under Trump?”

P3 & Privatization Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)

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FDOT Shoots Down Elevated Toll Lanes for TBX

WMNF reports, “The Florida Department of Transportation is shooting down the idea of moving proposed toll lanes from ground level to an elevated expressway in Tampa; Ed McKinney, an FDOT planning and environmental administrator, told Tampa City Council members at the Community Redevelopment Agency meeting Thursday morning [January 19] that the problems cited by opponents of the Tampa Bay Express (TBX) project would actually be made worse with elevated toll lanes.”

Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Tampa Bay Express

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Colorado DOT Receives Final Environmental OK for "Massive" I-70 Widening Project

The Denver Post reports that after 14 years of controversy, the Colorado Department of Transportation has received a federal Record of Decision that gives it the authority to move forward with its $1.2 billion Central 70 widening project. “On the horizon as soon as early next year, is the start of four or five years of construction along 10 miles of I-70,” construction that will include new managed toll lanes.

Colorado Department of Transportation Denver CO Metro Region

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GDOT Is Betting on Express Lanes as It Prepares to Open the $226 Million I-75 South Metro

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution advances next week’s opening of the I-75 South Metro Express Lanes project, reporting, “Express lanes — the state calls them ‘express lanes,’ regular people call them ‘toll lanes’ — are GDOT’s answer to the mess you confront on the roads every day. Commuters from Cobb, Cherokee and Bartow counties have watched the 30-mile Northwest Corridor project unspool down I-75 — more reversible toll lanes at a cost of $834 million that will open next year. After that: toll lanes on the top-end Perimeter and up Ga. 400 through Fulton and Forsyth counties.”

Express Lanes Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT)

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Abertis CEO Is Cool on P3s in the States, Cites PA Turnpike, Chicago and ITR Experiences

CNBC posts a Q&A interview with Abertis CEO Francisco Reynés Massanet, who is somewhat jaundiced about the excitement swirling around the Trump infrastructure plan. Massanet tells CNBC, “We tried to come into the States 10 years ago with a big infrastructure, which was the Indiana Toll Road, and after having won the bid, for whatever reason, the governor decided not to go ahead. Then we tried again in some attempts in Chicago, in Pennsylvania, but what happened is that finally it’s difficult, because the American market is a very difficult market, although it really requires PPPs as a way to boost the lack of infrastructures.”

P3 & Privatization

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Local Businesses Devise Strategies to Deal with the Impact of Ohio River Bridges Tolls

WDRB reports that one auto dealership has launched a “tolls are on us” campaign as businesses affected by Ohio River Bridges construction – and the fact that some motorists are avoiding the new tolls – begin searching for advertising strategies to woo customers. (The report notes that the auto dealer’s customers don’t even have to buy a car to get reimbursement.)

AET (All-Electronic Tolling) Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges

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FL Lawmaker Files Bill to Expand the Reach of CFX, but Nobody (Including CFX) Knows Why

Florida Politics reports, “State Rep. Tom Goodson filed a bill [on Thursday, January 19] to expand the Central Florida Expressway Authority into Brevard County, yet it seems no one on the expressway authority knows why. Goodson filed House Bill 299, which would expand the authority’s realm from its current Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties base, eastward into the Space Coast county.” [Link added.] The report adds that CFX spokesman Brian Hutchings said he is unaware of any plans to extend the authority’s network, nor could he find any authority official who knows why Goodson introduced the bill.

Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX)

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RiverLink to Issue First Round of Invoices Today

News and Tribune reports that motorists who have crossed the new Ohio River Bridges without a prepaid RiverLink account “will soon have to pay the price. The first invoices for tolled bridge crossings between Louisville and Southern Indiana will be sent [today, January 20], with additional mailings to follow in the coming days. . . .”

Louisville Business First has a primer on RiverLink’s billing and collection processes.

AET (All-Electronic Tolling) Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges

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Tolling Gains Traction in Hawaii: Governor Says He Is Open to a Study.

Honolulu Civil Beat reports that Hawaii Governor David Ige says he’s open to House Speaker Joe Souki’s idea of studying the possibility of toll roads.

Hawaii

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Work Begins on WSDOT's I-405 Northbound Peak-Use Shoulder Lane Project

The Herald reports, “Crews hired by the Washington State Department of Transportation have started work on the I-405 northbound peak-use shoulder lane project.” The report adds, “The $7 million project will be paid for with toll revenue from the I-405 express toll lanes.”

Express Lanes Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)

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Local Officials Take on INDOT and Figg for Lack of Progress on Toll Bridge Project

Post-Tribune (via Chicago Tribune) reports, “Seven years of frustration over the closed Cline Avenue bridge in East Chicago bubbled to the surface at a regional meeting.” The report adds, “In July 2013, after the defective bridge was demolished, INDOT and [the City of East Chicago] signed an agreement transferring the bridge land to a company, Cline Avenue Bridge LLC. Florida-based Figg Bridge Builders is to build a new toll bridge.”

The Times of Northwest Indiana also reports.

Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT)

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Is Illinois Budget Stalemate Threatening Stevenson Expressway (I-55) Toll Lanes Project?

Crain’s Chicago Business columnist Greg Hinz contends, “Springfield’s budget stalemate may be claiming a major new victim: a generally well-received plan to expand capacity on the congested Stevenson Expressway (I-55) by adding two new toll lanes in its median strip.”

Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)

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Tolling a Possibility for New Arkansas Regional Airport Access Road

Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that tolling may be part of the funding mix for a proposed Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport access road.

Arkansas

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THEA Changes Collection Companies. Confused Customers Get Bills for Four-Year-Old Toll Charges.

WFLA reports, “Driving on the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway is a lot smoother than paying the tolls these days. The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) has changed its collection company.  Drivers are getting hit with toll bills dating back four years.”

Florida Scofflaws Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA)

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DelDOT Awards a US 301 Tollway Construction Project

The News Journal reports, “Transportation officials this month awarded a $10.7 million contract to Newark-based A-Del Construction to rebuild the intersection at Summit Bridge and Armstrong Corner roads, near Middletown. It is the latest in a string of multimillion-dollar contracts for the U.S. 301 tollway announced by the Delaware Department of Transportation during the past 15 months.”

Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT)

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