- I-75 Relief Task Force Files Final Report, Rejects Proposal for New North-Central Florida Toll Road
- MassDOT Experiencing E-ZPass Phone Issues as AET Date Nears
- Bridgegate: Wildstein Links NY Governor Cuomo to Lane Closure Cover-Up
- FDOT Goes Back to the Drawing Board on Howard Frankland Bridge Project
- I-77 Express Opposition Group with Republican Membership Backs Democratic Challenger to Governor McCrory
- Fitch Sees Toll Road Traffic and Revenue Growth
- Three Teams Selected to Bid for $3.5 Billion Massey Tunnel Replacement Project
- WSDOT's Highway 167 Project, 30+ Years in the Making, Calls for Four-Lane Tolled Freeway
- Will State Route 30 Be Arizona's First Toll Road?
- Both Candidates for a South Florida Senate Seat Campaign Against Tolls
- VDOT Pushes Back Deadline for I-66 Toll Lanes Proposals
- MD Governor Delays Busway Project as Advocate Makes Case for I-270 Express Toll Lanes to Foot the Bill
- Texas SH 71 Express Project Is Behind Schedule. TxDOT Blames Weather, Contractor Dispute.
- NJ Budget Analysts and Consumer Advocates Hammer Gas Tax Hike
- Andrews Government Rejects Congestion Pricing Plan for Melbourne
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I-75 Relief Task Force Files Final Report, Rejects Proposal for New North-Central Florida Toll Road
WJXT News reports, “A state task force has recommended a series of changes to improve safety and relieve congestion on Interstate 75 between Tampa Bay and North Florida, but it stopped short of calling for a new toll road in the region. The I-75 Relief Task Force, appointed last year by Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jim Boxold, looked at traffic improvements in Alachua, Citrus, Hernando, Levy, Marion and Sumter counties.”
Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)MassDOT Experiencing E-ZPass Phone Issues as AET Date Nears
MassLive.com reports, “As the formal switchover to the cashless, all-electronic tolling system approaches, the E-ZPass phone lines are experiencing some issues. ‘MassDOT is currently looking into what appears to be intermittent problems with the E-ZPass phone lines today,’ Jacquelyn Goddard, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, said in an email. ‘We are evaluating what the issue is which is causing this situation and appreciate the patience of the public.’”
AET (All-Electronic Tolling) Massachusetts TurnpikeBridgegate: Wildstein Links NY Governor Cuomo to Lane Closure Cover-Up
Asbury Park Press reports, “As reporters and lawmakers clamored for answers about the unannounced lane closures at the George Washington Bridge, Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed that the Port Authority would issue a report falsely attributing the debacle to a traffic study, the trial’s star witness,” former PANYNJ official David Wildstein, “testified Tuesday [October 4].” Cuomo’s office promptly refuted Wildstein’s assertion and said New York’s only role in the fiasco was to stop the lane closures.
NJ.com reports, “Two days after Gov. Chris Christie brushed off a reporter’s question about the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal, joking he was ‘actually the guy working the cones out there,’ another top-level gubernatorial staffer was told details about the political revenge scheme,” Wildstein testified during his seventh day on the witness stand.
New JerseyFDOT Goes Back to the Drawing Board on Howard Frankland Bridge Project
Tampa Bay Business Journal reports, “A new Howard Frankland Bridge is going back to the drawing board. After deciding to pull the plug on plans to include toll lanes across the bridge connecting Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, the Florida Department of Transportation cancelled two public meetings to present the plan.” The newspaper adds that FDOT also cancelled a presentation it was scheduled to make to the Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization, the entity that controls most of the funding for the bridge replacement project, which is part of FDOT’s TBX program.
I-77 Express Opposition Group with Republican Membership Backs Democratic Challenger to Governor McCrory
The Charlotte Observer reports, “Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper headed a bipartisan slate endorsed Tuesday [October 4] by a group of Lake Norman business leaders who oppose Interstate 77 toll lanes. Among the leaders of I-77 Business Plan are officials from two notable NASCAR businesses, Michael Waltrip Racing and Rusty Wallace Inc. The group, which includes many Republicans, led efforts to try to convince the General Assembly and Republican Gov. Pat McCrory to cancel the state’s toll lanes contract with Cintra, the corporation from Spain selected to build and operate the lanes.”
Express Lanes North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT)Fitch Sees Toll Road Traffic and Revenue Growth
Fitch Ratings has issued a new report, “U.S. Transportation Trends (Fall 2016)” (subscription required), which concludes that “Growth for the remainder of 2016 will remain healthy for all three U.S. major transportation sectors (airports, ports and toll roads) albeit at a slightly lower rate than the first half of the year.” Regarding toll roads, Fitch finds that “low fuel prices have boosted growth in traffic (6.3%) and revenue (7.0%) for the 1H16. The Southeast and Southwest U.S. have and will continue to lead in traffic performance. The higher rate of growth in revenues is reflective of typical inflationary toll rate increases, which Fitch expects to average roughly 2% over time.”
Three Teams Selected to Bid for $3.5 Billion Massey Tunnel Replacement Project
Metro Vancouver reports, “The transportation ministry is advancing to the request for proposal stage with three groups that will bid to build the planned $3.5-billion new bridge and Highway 99 upgrades to replace the Massey Tunnel. The three groups of partnered companies in the running are:
- Gateway Mobility Solutions, which includes ACS Infrastructure Canada and Aecon Concessions, along with Dragados and Flatiron Constructors as design-build contractors.
- Lower Mainland Contractors, which includes Kiewit Canada, Macquarie and VINCI Concessions.
- Pacific Skyway Partners, which includes Fluor Canada, John Laing Investment and SNC-Lavalin Capital.
The winning bidder, to be chosen by next summer, is to raise $750 million to partly finance the project, as well as design, build and operate it.”
CanadaWSDOT's Highway 167 Project, 30+ Years in the Making, Calls for Four-Lane Tolled Freeway
MYNorthwest.com reports, “For more than 30 years, people have been asking: when is the state going to finish Highway 167? The answer: It’s just going to take a long time to get there, but it will happen. The Washington State Department of Transportation is going to extend Highway 167 from where it ends at Meridian in Puyallup. Hwy 167 move to the northwest, up to I-5 in Fife, and then west to State Route 509.” The report adds that, ultimately, the project will create a four-lane tolled freeway. Tolling must first be approved by the state legislature.
Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)Will State Route 30 Be Arizona's First Toll Road?
KPHO News (Phoenix) looks at ADOT’s study of a potential State Route 30, a six-lane freeway proposed to relieve I-10 traffic congestion, that could become Arizona’s first toll road. A spokesperson tells the station, “The traffic and revenue analysis . . . is what would determine whether a public-private partnership with a tolling component could provide enough revenue to advance the project.”
Arizona P3 & PrivatizationBoth Candidates for a South Florida Senate Seat Campaign Against Tolls
Miami Herald reports, “A Miami Republican state representative seeking to be promoted to the Florida Senate this fall says he’s ‘taking a stand against tolls’ — tapping into a popular consumer issue that puts him at odds with some in his own party. Frank Artiles, who’s running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Dwight Bullard in Miami-Dade’s District 40, says he wants to fight back against ‘excessive and abusive tolls’ that South Florida commuters face. . . .” The report adds that Bullard has his own plans for reducing Miami-Dade commuters’ toll bills.
FloridaVDOT Pushes Back Deadline for I-66 Toll Lanes Proposals
WTOP News reports that VDOT has pushed back the deadline for submitting final proposals to build two new toll lanes in each direction on I-66 between the Capital Beltway and Gainesville, Virginia, by one week, to October 11.
Express Lanes Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)MD Governor Delays Busway Project as Advocate Makes Case for I-270 Express Toll Lanes to Foot the Bill
The Washington Post reports, “Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has postponed funding a busway in the heavily congested Interstate 270 corridor for at least six years, significantly delaying a transit project that Montgomery County is relying on to develop the upcounty without making traffic worse. Hogan’s proposed six-year transportation budget includes no money for the Corridor Cities Transitway, which has been planned since at least 2000. . . .” The delay will save $78 million over the next six years, but Richard Parsons, vice chairman of the Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance, tells The Post “the state could get the money by having express toll lanes on [I-270] – an idea that the Hogan administration has said would be too expensive and take too long to provide relief.”
Express Lanes Maryland Washington (DC) Metro RegionTexas SH 71 Express Project Is Behind Schedule. TxDOT Blames Weather, Contractor Dispute.
Austin American-Statesman reports, “Turns out that North MoPac Boulevard isn’t the only Austin-area tollway construction project having trouble meeting its schedule. The [SH 71 Express] project, which will add one toll lane in each direction from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport entrance to east of Texas 130 . . . , will miss its contractual completion date of this Friday [October 7] by several months. Flooding rains over the past year, and a design dispute between the Texas Department of Transportation and [McCarthy Building Companies, the general contractor], are to blame, according to TxDOT.”
Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)NJ Budget Analysts and Consumer Advocates Hammer Gas Tax Hike
NJ.com reports, “With the state Legislature poised to approve a 23-cent-a-gallon increase in the gas tax [today, Wednesday, October 5] — along with a decrease in the sales tax and the elimination of the estate tax — budget analysts and consumer advocates complained bitterly on Tuesday that the average New Jerseyan would pay a lot more at the pump while getting little in the way of tax breaks.”
New JerseyAndrews Government Rejects Congestion Pricing Plan for Melbourne
The Age (Melbourne) reports, “Motorists will be spared new tolls on existing roads with the state government rejecting a key road-pricing proposal to reduce congestion. A proposal to charge a $5 levy on motorists entering Melbourne’s CBD was considered but not recommended by Infrastructure Victoria in its 30-year masterplan.” The Victorian state government has also rejected the agency’s alternative proposal to impose variable tolls on area highways.
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