News

Now exposed as a principal obstructionist in the Gateway Project, Michigan Department of Transportation is at last moving to build the  S32 missing ramp that the local press had previously hung on the bridge company. MDOT says in a statement that it will begin work on the ramp "within several weeks" and it should be completed before Memorial Day holiday weekend.

The state is "expediting a contract for the work," the statement says.

TransCore has won a big statewide systems integration and maintenance contract with the Texas Turnpike division of TxDOT. TransCore was selected over Raytheon and Telvent. The work was previously done largely by different companies, TransCore already being the largest - about 135 out of 155 lanes (CORRECTION).

The board of directors of Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) operator of the I-95 Kennedy Highway Toll Road has approved signing of a 35 year concession on its two service plazas. The selected concessionaire Areas USA is a local subsidiary of a large established international company Grupo Areas SA head-officed in Barcelona Spain with major food concessions in 70 airports and 160 other toll and travel service plazas mostly in Europe and Latin America.

The Jailin Judge of Wayne County Michigan says that a request by the Ambassador Bridge company to see reports used to jail two of its top people January 12 is "designed to annoy, harass, and intimidate" the author of the report Charles Scales, who the judge titles Monitor with a capital 'M.' Piling on, the county judge, Prentis Edwards says the company's request is "overly broad, confusing and unduly burdensome" and in a one-page order issued today he "quashes" th

We've had a couple of reports of 'raids' today at a number of interchanges on the Pennsylvania Turnpike - that are being interpreted as a large-scale crackdown on some kind of wrongdoing. Agents under the control of Turnpike Inspector General Tony Maniscola are reportedly in charge of the 'raids' that involve surprise arrivals of teams of investigators at 'interchange' toll offices, and the seizing of electronic and other records.

It is one of the most fundamental tenets of English common law and of American justice that the accused have the right to know the evidence against them, and to dispute it - but not in the court being conducted by Judge Prentis Edwards in Wayne County District Court in Detroit. Two Ambassador Bridge men Manuel 'Matty' Moroun and Dan Stamper were sent to jail January 12 on the basis of a secret report.

A US GAO review of some 41 road pricing projects sponsored by some 19 tollers around the US finds they have produced some useful benefits in reducing congestion but suggests various 'equity concerns' may hamper them increasingly in the future. The report is most useful as a listing of the projects and their various characteristics.

Georgia State toll authority (SRTA) is offering free applications (apps) for iPhones and Android mobile phones that allow motorists to register their occupancy/toll eligibility. Users of Express Lanes who normally pay tolls because there are insufficient people in the vehicle use the app to signal they have the eligibility for toll-free rides on occasions they do have the three bodies required.

Paul Violette's lawyer says the longtime head of the Maine Turnpike is prepared to plead guilty to charges by the state attorney-general of thievery amounting to some $10,000 so long as the state doesn't ask for more than five years in jail - an eight year sentence with five years to be served. The charges carry a maximum of ten years served in jail.

His lawyer says he wants to "get this behind him."

The City of Chesapeake is launching another toll-financed highway upgrade - construction of a 4-lane high level bridge in place of a 2-lane low level lift-span for the US17/Dominion Boulevard at the Southern Branch of the estuarial Elizabeth River in Chesapeake VA. This is on the southwest fringe of the greater Norfolk/Hampton Roads metro area.