Florida Turnpike revenues grow strongly

FLORIDA

Turnpike revenues grow strongly

Florida’s turnpike system saw strong revenue growth last year (14%) taking its revenues to $243m. That followed a near 10% growth the year before. The Turpike is projecting an average growth rate over the next six years of 6% taking its recenues to nearly $350m in 2001. That could put it in the same league as the biggest turnpikes (NY, PA, IL, NJ) whose revenues are growing at about half the rate. The increased revenues in Florida in the last year reflect an extraordinarily strong economy but the future projections are based on the opening of major additions to the turnpike system together with reconstruction, additional links and interchanges and implementation of systemwide electronic tolling.

The Turnpike has a mix of trip tolling (currently with magstripe tickets) and point tolling at barrier and ramp plazas. It is operated as a “district” of the state Department of Transportation. The Turnpike is privatizing its toll collection, and says the contractor has made major savings and improived effciiency adn customer service as compared to staff toll collectors.

The FDOT toll system is currently 602km with 95 interchanges. Another 110km of pike will open in the next 5 years the annual report says. 40km of that is the Polk Parkway, a C-shaped half-beltway looping around Lakeland and connected to I-4 at each end. Lakeland is midway between Orlando and Tampa. The first western sections of the Polk pike are under construction currently.

The other major project under way is the first stage of the Suncoast Parkway, a 67km (42mi) extension of the Veterans Expwy which comes north out of the Tampa area, parallel to the western coast. It will be a major upgrade for traffic travelling along the west coast of central Florida. The western panhandle of Florida including the capital Tallahassse are only linked presently to the 3m people of the west coast of the peninsula (Tampa/Fort Myers etc) by the poor quality 2-lane surface US-19 (unless they go 50km inland to I-75). The state legislature has also approved a 70km Northern Extension of the spinal mainline of Florida’s Turnpike from its present northern terminus at I-75 to continue it northwest as far as Lebanon at US-19. The Suncoast and the NE mainline would converge there like an arrow pointing toward Tallahassee and the west. The 200km gap between Lebanon and Tallahassee along the US-19/US-98 coastal route seems a logical extension, but it would probably face insurmountable fiancning problems so long as the free interstate alternates I-75/I-10, 50km to 70km inland, remain untolled.

The southeast coast north of Miami (Boca Raton/Palm Beach/Fort Pierce) area has poor highway connections to the Tampa metro area. FL-60 from Yeehaw Junction on the mainline of the Turnpike some 140km to the end of the Hillsboro Co Expwy at I-75 is discussed as a possible other turnpike since it would provide a high quality link between two communities of about 2m+ each, but some politicians seem to think a proposed highspeed rail will somehow substitute for this highway.

OOCEA: The other heavyweight pike in Florida the Orlando Orange Co Expressway Authority is also a boomer, having had four consecutive years of double digit revenue growth. Growth last year was 12% to $93m on 134m tolls. OOCEA has three Orlando metro area turnpikes which total 126km, with 39 interchanges and 46 toll plazas. OOCEA was the first authority to adopt the Mark IV active read-write e-toll system, since adopted by the large toll agencies in the north of the US, though it is due to change over to the Amtech system in about two years as part of the statewide Sunpass ETC program starting soon in the Miami area and working its way north. Called E-Pass the Mark IV technology system currently has 108k e-tags supporting 67k accounts and e-toll transactions represent 26% of the total tolls.

OOCEA is looking at time-variable pricing and is starting work on its fourth turnpike along the western fringe of the metro area. A third interchange is being built for the Orlando airport from the turnpikes. The busiest of the OOCEA turnpikes the East-West 408 is due to be widened to 6-lanes in 2000. The system generally has generous right-of-way and most can go to 8-lanes without property acquisitions.

Violations: OOCEA mounted quite a campaign recently to reduce toll violations which had been running close to 3%. Director of Operations Jorge Figueredo told us recently that the toll system contractor TransCore made major improvements to the operation of enforcement cameras by putting extra effort into fine tuning them to improve pictures. And the pike got good publicity with a sting operation against some regular violators. With so many turnpikes running due east-west and a low sun during peak hours they face major problems getting good pictures of license plates during the busiest periods of the day. The violation rate has been reduced to about 2% but Figueredo says it becomes more expensive than it is worth below that. He says the only realistic policy is one of “violation deterrence” through patrons knowing they face a serious chance of heavy fines if they bolt through.

The Tampa metro area has its own small Tampa Hillsboro Co Expwy Authority, which owns the Crosstown Expressway, a quite old but heavily used inner city toll facility. Under new leadership it has ambitious plans for improvements (see future report) and has conducted the first of several planned bond issues. Several toll roads in the Miami area have been sold by Florida’s Turnpike to a newly created Dade County Expressway Authority, which is expected to grow into a major urban-area system similar to OOCEA, and THCEA. DCEA has a number of notoriously unpriced toll roads but good revenue potential and need for expansion, experts say.

Both the two major Florida pikes have recently produced excellent reports on future projects and policies — see especially the Florida Turnpike’s 76p book “Florida’s Turnpike: A Special Report to the Florida Transp Commission on the Future of Florida’s Turnpike Beyond 2000.” (Contacts Kim Poulton, Florida’s Turnpike 954 975 4855x1104, Steve Pustelnyk OOCEA 407 425 8606)