Wilson Bridge - mess without tolls

There was great indigation at the Federal Highway Admin and in the media in the spring when large cost overruns were revealed at the Boston central artery project nickednamed the Big Dig. James Kerasiotes head of the Mass Turnpike got fired for a 12% cost increase. But a few weeks later the Feds announced a 25% increase in the cost of their Wilson Bridge project to $2.5b. All that aroused was demands for more US tax$s. Maryland and Virginia officials immediately said the Feds would have to produce the extra money, even though the same secretaries of transp had both said the states would look after cost overruns a year earlier when they accepted $960m from the US government.

As it now stands the committed monies are US $960m, VA $200m, MD $200m and DC $15m or $1,375m, only 55% of the estimated cost of the replacement. Noone can cite any bridge project in the US over a cost of several hundred million – let alone one over $2 billion – that has been financed with tax money as attempted in the case of the new Wilson Bridge. Recent major bridge works include the second span for Tacoma Narrows WA being done as a toll project by a Bechtel sub, new spans for the Carquinez and Bay bridges in the San Francisco area, also being funded with tolls. Near Yorktown VA the Coleman bridge was given a new 4-lane superstructure in place of the congested 2-lane one in return for the introduction of tolls. What’s good for these guys is good for the national capital. Tolls need another look.