- Kansas DOT Decides Against Tolled Replacement for Centennial Bridge
- Bridgegate: Wildstein Testifies about Scandal Spiraling Out of Control. Photos Show "Happy" Christie Meeting with "Cronies."
- CDOT Touts I-70 Mountain Express Lane Performance
- VA Lawmaker Says I-73 Project Isn't Dead, but Local Funding Options Must Be on the Table
- PA Turnpike Chairman Makes Case for Stronger Toll Enforcement Legislation
- Local Officials Push to Reduce or Eliminate Tolls at VDOT's Coleman Bridge for Local Commuters
- PA Bus Company Intends to Challenge DRJTBC's New Scudder Falls Bridge Toll Rates
- Ohio River Bridges Project Update: More Than 8,000 RiverLink Accounts Opened So Far
- Governor Raimondo's RhodeWorks Sign Campaign Raises Eyebrows
- Gas Tax, Tolls Pushed as Funding Solution in Louisiana
- More Detail on AZDOT's Toll Road Study
- FL Toll Collector Charged with Theft after Falsely Claiming She Was Robbed
- Fitch Affirms Rating of Dulles Greenway Revenue Bonds
- TCA Debt Rating Is Affirmed. Fitch Finds Rating Outlook Improved.
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Kansas DOT Decides Against Tolled Replacement for Centennial Bridge
Leavenworth Times rreports, “The Kansas Department of Transportation is not pursuing tolling to fund a replacement of the Centennial Bridge across the Missouri River, according to a news release from KDOT. The department has completed its advanced preliminary engineering study for the replacement of the bridge. The study included a tolling and revenue component.”
KansasBridgegate: Wildstein Testifies about Scandal Spiraling Out of Control. Photos Show "Happy" Christie Meeting with "Cronies."
NJ.com reports, “As the Bridgegate scandal rapidly spiraled out of control, David Wildstein testified [Wednesday, September 28] he began telling people in the governor’s inner circle,” including the press spokesman and the chief counsel, “the truth,” that the lane closures were intended to punish a mayor who refused to endorse Christie’s reelection campaign.
The Philadelphia Inquirer also reports on Wildstein’s fourth day of testimony in the Bridgegate trial.
Daily News (New York City) publishes photos of Christie, Baroni and Wildstein “gabbing at the World Trade Center, smiling and laughing,” on the occasion when Wildstein testified he and Baroni informed the governor that the George Washington Bridge lane closures were causing traffic problems for Ft. Lee’s mayor.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ)CDOT Touts I-70 Mountain Express Lane Performance
CBS News Denver reports, “The Interstate 70 Mountain Express Lane has been called a success during the summer months by the Colorado Department of Transportation.”
Westword (Denver) explains why the peak period shoulder lane’s performance has state transportation officials and travelers “thrilled.”
Colorado Department of TransportationVA Lawmaker Says I-73 Project Isn't Dead, but Local Funding Options Must Be on the Table
Martinsville Bulletin reports, “Sen. Bill Stanley doesn’t believe Interstate 73 is dead, even though there’s currently no money for the project. In order to make it happen, however, he told Henry County supervisors . . . they need to consider some local options.” The report adds, “In addition to a sales tax increase, Stanley suggested that the county could use alternatives like implementing toll roads or consider going in debt to fund a bond to help cover the cost.”
Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)PA Turnpike Chairman Makes Case for Stronger Toll Enforcement Legislation
Pennlive.com publishes an op-ed by Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission chair Sean Logan on Senate Bill 1086, which would expand toll enforcement provisions. Logan writes that “the vast majority of customers follow the rules of the road; but the number of violations and the lost revenue continues to climb. Last fiscal year alone, we wrote off $5.4 million in unpaid tolls and fees that we could not collect despite repeated efforts to compel customers to pay. That’s money that could help fund a bridge project or a new slip ramp to provide better access to our system — while relieving congestion in a community.” (The bill was approved by the state senate yesterday, September 28, 48-0 and now goes to the house of representatives.)
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) ScofflawsLocal Officials Push to Reduce or Eliminate Tolls at VDOT's Coleman Bridge for Local Commuters
Gloucester Mathews Gazette-Journal reports, “One member of the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors is behind an initiative to push for the elimination or restructuring of the tolls on the Coleman Bridge, making the trip home across the bridge less costly to local commuters.” [Link added.]
Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)PA Bus Company Intends to Challenge DRJTBC's New Scudder Falls Bridge Toll Rates
Bucks County Courier-Times reports, “A Lower Makefield bus company plans to challenge the new Scudder Falls Bridge toll schedule. Its complaint, it seems, hinges on one word: ‘passenger.’” The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission recently approved toll rates for the new I-95 bridge, set to open in 2019, “[b]ut LX Transportation is accusing the commission of imprecise language in the vehicle classifications. The company’s managers thought their buses qualified as ‘passenger vehicles,’ but learned recently that their fleet is classified as ‘heavy trucks,’ a category with a much higher toll rate,” according to the report.
AET (All-Electronic Tolling) Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC)Ohio River Bridges Project Update: More Than 8,000 RiverLink Accounts Opened So Far
WDRB News has a progress update on the Ohio River Bridges project and reports that one lane of the John F. Kennedy Bridge is reopening to traffic this week. Mindy Peterson, ORB spokeswoman, tells the station that “more than 8,000 personal and business RiverLink accounts have been opened since July.” Still, the report adds, “Some drivers have already changed their routines to avoid the tolls. . . .”
Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River BridgesGovernor Raimondo's RhodeWorks Sign Campaign Raises Eyebrows
Providence Journal reports, “Big blue signs . . . have sprung up by Rhode Island construction projects, bearing Governor Raimondo’s name and the swooping logo for ‘RhodeWorks’ — the state’s branded highway-repair program.” The report adds, “Advertising highway construction may not seem like good politics to drivers caught in work-related traffic. But fixing the ‘worst bridges in the country’ was one of Raimondo’s top policy goals — the selling point for her fiercely fought truck toll proposal — and she wants to show she’s making headway.”
Rhode IslandGas Tax, Tolls Pushed as Funding Solution in Louisiana
The Daily Advertiser (Lafayette) reports, “Higher gasoline taxes and tolls on interstates are two ways the state can generate more money to build and maintain roadways, Acadiana area leaders told the Governor’s Task Force on Transportation Infrastructure Investment at a meeting Wednesday [September 28] in Lafayette.” The report quotes two trucking executives who support tolling, including Doug Place, CAO of Dupre Logistics, who said, “His company ‘gladly’ pays tolls on roads in Texas to arrive faster.”
LouisianaMore Detail on AZDOT's Toll Road Study
Phoenix Business Journal (subscription required) reports, “There are good reasons the first Arizona toll road might end up in the West Valley. ADOT and MAG want to check it out as an option to provide a limited access highway to take a load off traffic-choked I-10.” The newspaper is following yesterday’s news that AZDOT will start a study of a possible toll road.
FL Toll Collector Charged with Theft after Falsely Claiming She Was Robbed
Orlando Sentinel reports, “A toll-plaza worker who Osceola County investigators say falsely claimed she was robbed was arrested Tuesday [September 27] and accused of stealing $9,450 in toll receipts.”
Crime BeatFitch Affirms Rating of Dulles Greenway Revenue Bonds
Fitch Ratings “has affirmed the ‘BB+’ rating for Toll Road Investors Partnership II (TRIP II, the partnership) Dulles Greenway project’s approximately $1 billion in outstanding revenue bonds series 1999 and 2005. The Rating Outlook is Stable.”
Dulles Greenway Investment Ratings Toll Road Investors Partnership II (TRIP II)TCA Debt Rating Is Affirmed. Fitch Finds Rating Outlook Improved.
Fitch Ratings has affirmed the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency’s senior and junior debt at ‘BBB-‘ and ‘BB+’, respectively. “The Rating Outlook is revised to Positive from Stable. The Positive Outlook reflects continued improvement of SJHTCA’s financial performance following a restructuring in late 2014,” according to Fitch’s news release.
Investment Ratings Transportation Corridor Agencies (CA)