- San Francisco Sues Hertz for "Ripping Off" Drivers Who Cross the Golden Gate Bridge
- Federal Judge Vacates ATA Win in Lawsuit over NY Thruway Use of Tolls for Canals
- Cibolo (TX) City Council Approves Private Toll Road
- Oregon Lawmaker Files Bill to Allow Cities and Counties to Form Districts for P3 Projects
- LT Governor Says Mass Turnpike's AET System is Reducing Commute Times
- TX Lawmakers File Bill to Block Conversion of Free Lanes to Tolled Lanes
- Ohio DOT Director Wray Plugs Use of Turnpike Tolls to Pay for Statewide Construction Program
- WV Bill Advances Governor's Plan to Use Turnpike Tolls for Other State Highway Projects
- IN Senate Leader: Funding Bill Approved by House Faces Tough Odds in His Chamber
- SC Lawmakers Advance Bill Calling for Gas Tax, Fee Increases
- Former NC Transportation Board Member Backs VMT and Tolling
- Will IL Tollway and Canadian Railroad Resolve Dispute over ROW for O'Hare Airport Western Access Project?
- Floating Crane at WSDOT's 520 Bridge Project Breaks Loose Again
- Bertha Veers Off Course (A Little)
- WV Public Radio Marks the Anniversary of a Historic Turnpike's Formation
- Asia's Emerging Economies Confront Massive Investment Needs for Transportation and to Battle Poverty, Climate Change
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San Francisco Sues Hertz for "Ripping Off" Drivers Who Cross the Golden Gate Bridge
San Francisco Chronicle reports, “For many visitors to San Francisco, a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge is a must. But if they’re driving a Hertz rental car, they’re being ripped off, the city attorney’s office says. In a suit filed Wednesday [March 1], City Attorney Dennis Herrera charged that the rental car giant and a business partner have been fraudulently deceiving tens of thousands of customers into paying what amounts to millions of dollars in extra [toll-related] fees over the past four years ‘for the simple act of crossing San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge.’”
For access to records of the case, People vs. The Hertz Corporation, et al., CGC 17 557336 (Superior Court, San Francisco County), click here and search on the case number.
California Issues of Law San Francisco Bay Area (CA)Federal Judge Vacates ATA Win in Lawsuit over NY Thruway Use of Tolls for Canals
Law360 (subscription required) reports that Colleen McMahon, chief judge of the US District Court in Manhattan, “on Tuesday [February 28] vacated a 2016 ruling that the state unconstitutionally diverted toll revenues collected from commercial trucks to maintain canals upstate, saying it turns out Congress decades ago authorized the very practice that triggered the litigation, which she called a ‘waste of time.’”
Issues of Law New York State Thruway AuthorityCibolo (TX) City Council Approves Private Toll Road
KSAT reports, “The Cibolo City Council approved plans Tuesday night [February 28] for a private toll road project.” The seven-mile toll road will cost an expected $157 million and will “include express lanes on FM 1103” according to the report, which adds, “The Texas Department of Transportation will front $31 million for the project. Other funds will come from . . . the company in charge of the project.”
Click here for background information about the project and the Texas Turnpike Corporation’s proposals to the city. Click here for information about the February 28 council meeting.
P3 & Privatization Texas Texas Turnpike Corp.Oregon Lawmaker Files Bill to Allow Cities and Counties to Form Districts for P3 Projects
The Oregonian reports that freshman State Rep. Rich Vial (R-Scholls) has introduced a bill (HB 3231) to allow cities and counties to form special districts for P3s to build and operate limited-access highways financed with “tolls, bonds or local taxes instead of state or federal money.” Vial’s immediate objective, the newspaper adds, is construction of “a new highway west of Interstate 5 through Washington County and up over the Columbia River.”
Oregon P3 & PrivatizationLT Governor Says Mass Turnpike's AET System is Reducing Commute Times
MassLive.com covers an event in Worcester at which Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito remarks that “for some Central Massachusetts residents who drive on the [state turnpike] for work, commutes have been cut down 30 minutes because of the switch to electronic tolling.” She adds that the improved drive time and other city transportation assets “are really helping this economy grow in an area of the state where you can get an incredible quality of life.”
AET (All-Electronic Tolling) Massachusetts TurnpikeTX Lawmakers File Bill to Block Conversion of Free Lanes to Tolled Lanes
NBC News Dallas-Fort Worth reports that two state legislators representing Collin County — Senator Van Taylor (R-Plano) and Representative Scott Sanford (R-McKinney) — have introduced bills (SB 891 and HB 1311) to prohibit the conversion of any free lanes into tolled, managed or express lanes. The station notes, “According to Taylor’s office, Collin County is the most heavily tolled county in [Texas].”
Express Lanes TexasOhio DOT Director Wray Plugs Use of Turnpike Tolls to Pay for Statewide Construction Program
Cleveland.com posts an op-ed column by ODOT Director Jerry Wray, who writes, “By leveraging the untapped value of our Ohio Turnpike to issue bonds, Ohio is injecting up to $1.5 billion into our roads – without raising the gas tax. As a result, over the past six years, our state has seen three of the biggest highway construction seasons on record and we have initiated nearly 6,000 transportation projects worth $12.5 billion.”
Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure CommissionWV Bill Advances Governor's Plan to Use Turnpike Tolls for Other State Highway Projects
Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that SB 482 was introduced at the request of Governor Jim Justice to “authorize the state Parkways Authority to issue new road bonds, to be financed by continuing tolls on the Turnpike and any future state toll roads.” The bill reflects the changes to the governor’s original budget proposal reported on earlier this week.
West Virginia West Virginia Parkways Authority (West Virginia Turnpike)IN Senate Leader: Funding Bill Approved by House Faces Tough Odds in His Chamber
The Times of Northwest Indiana reports that Indiana Senate president David Long (R-Fort Wayne) thinks the infrastructure budget bill recently passed by the House may “face a bumpier road in the Senate.” Long tells reporters that “the Republican-controlled Senate is not yet on board with the [House Bill 1002] plan . . . that would raise fuel taxes by 10 cents per gallon, open the door to tolling interstate highways and immediately shift all state gasoline sales tax revenue to roads.”
IndianaSC Lawmakers Advance Bill Calling for Gas Tax, Fee Increases
The Post and Courier reports, “Lawmakers in the [South Carolina] House of Representatives overwhelmingly backed legislation that would raise the tax by 10 cents per gallon over the next five years. It currently is almost 17 cents per gallon – one of the nation’s lowest.” The bill also raises the vehicle sales tax and increases fees for electric or hybrid cars. (There is no mention of tolling.)
South CarolinaFormer NC Transportation Board Member Backs VMT and Tolling
Salisbury Post profiles Jake Alexander III, whose term on the North Carolina Board of Transportation recently expired. “Tolls and a VMT fee are not popular with the public, he says; it may be years before they are politically acceptable. But simply raising existing taxes and fees is unlikely to yield the kind of money North Carolina needs for transportation, he says.”
North Carolina RUC & VMT ProgramsWill IL Tollway and Canadian Railroad Resolve Dispute over ROW for O'Hare Airport Western Access Project?
Crain’s Chicago Business columnist Joe Cahill writes there is some hope for a settlement of the dispute between the Illinois Tollway and the Canadian Pacific Railway over rights of way the tollway needs for its proposed O’Hare Airport western access project. The reasons: unified support for the tollway being given by Illinois state and federal officials, and “the recent departure of Canadian Pacific CEO Hunter Harrison.”
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (IL Tollway)Floating Crane at WSDOT's 520 Bridge Project Breaks Loose Again
Seattle Times reports, “For the second time, a runaway floating crane has broken loose from the Highway 520 project and drifted toward waterfront homes.” WSDOT tells the newspaper that the equipment was retrieved before any houses were damaged.
Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)Bertha Veers Off Course (A Little)
The Seattle Times reports, “Recent surveys found that the Highway 99 tunnel is a few inches off course, and Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP) has stopped digging until early next week to perform more measurements.”
Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)WV Public Radio Marks the Anniversary of a Historic Turnpike's Formation
West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports, “On March 1, 1837, the Virginia General Assembly formed the Giles, Fayette & Kanawha Turnpike Company to build a 15-foot-wide road from Pearisburg, Virginia, to Gauley Bridge in Fayette County.” Completed a decade later, the highway was a “valuable trade route and became strategically important during the Civil War.”
West VirginiaAsia's Emerging Economies Confront Massive Investment Needs for Transportation and to Battle Poverty, Climate Change
Bloomberg Markets reports, “Emerging economies across [Asia] will need to invest as much as $26 trillion on building everything from transport networks to clean water through 2030 to maintain growth, eradicate poverty and offset climate change” according to a February 27 report issued by the Asian Development Bank, which notes that $8.4 trillion of the total will be needed for transportation projects.
Infrastructure Investment Trends