Split over toll lanes on I-75 in SW Florida
Posted Tue, 2007-07-24 20:20
AÂ baby bi-county toll agency in southwest Florida may end up with just one parent due to marital discord over tolling. The Southwest Florida Expressway Authority (SWFEA) formed by Lee and Collier counties has been immobilized for the best part of a year by disagreements over toll lanes. Collier county officials are refusing to provide an agreed $600k loan to the SWFEA unless they get a commitment not to toll lanes 5 and 6 on the I-75 expressway.
Those lanes are being built by Florida DOT at a cost of some $470m to Florida and US taxpayers over a distance of some 50km (30miles) between Ft Myers in Lee
County and Naples in Collier county to the south. The addition of two lanes by widening inward is an interim step to relieve existing congestion on the 2x2 lane expressway. Growth in the area is so rapid projections of traffic suggest 10 lanes will be needed in 10 or 15 years.
The SWFEA was formed to fund and operate toll lanes since FLorida DOT says there is no tax money beyond the proposed immediate widening to 6 lanes. The plan has been to establish the principle of toll managed lanes and establish a cash flow with tolls on lanes 5 and 6. Lee County to the north supports this plan.
Collier county commissioners however are deadset against tolling the tax financed lanes. They want to sabotage the tolling plan and will support the authority if it agrees to not to toll.
The toll authority chairman Bill Barton says the southern county commissioners have put the authority in an untenable situation - what he calls a Catch 22.
"If we can't do the project, they'll lend us money."
To break the impasse the SWFEA may confine its activity to Lee County, toll the two center lanes there and built extra ones based on the revenues.
I-75 then would be six congested free lanes in Collier county and only in Lee County be the 2/3/3/2 format of two free lanes each direction on the outside and six toll lanes in the center. Or it might be 3/2/2/3 with just the four toll lanes in the center.
The project has 14 miles (23km) in Lee County and the regional airport is about midway in this stretch.
TOLLROADSnews 2007-07-24
AÂ baby bi-county toll agency in southwest Florida may end up with just one parent due to marital discord over tolling. The Southwest Florida Expressway Authority (SWFEA) formed by Lee and Collier counties has been immobilized for the best part of a year by disagreements over toll lanes. Collier county officials are refusing to provide an agreed $600k loan to the SWFEA unless they get a commitment not to toll lanes 5 and 6 on the I-75 expressway.Those lanes are being built by Florida DOT at a cost of some $470m to Florida and US taxpayers over a distance of some 50km (30miles) between Ft Myers in Lee
County and Naples in Collier county to the south. The addition of two lanes by widening inward is an interim step to relieve existing congestion on the 2x2 lane expressway. Growth in the area is so rapid projections of traffic suggest 10 lanes will be needed in 10 or 15 years. The SWFEA was formed to fund and operate toll lanes since FLorida DOT says there is no tax money beyond the proposed immediate widening to 6 lanes. The plan has been to establish the principle of toll managed lanes and establish a cash flow with tolls on lanes 5 and 6. Lee County to the north supports this plan.
Collier county commissioners however are deadset against tolling the tax financed lanes. They want to sabotage the tolling plan and will support the authority if it agrees to not to toll.
The toll authority chairman Bill Barton says the southern county commissioners have put the authority in an untenable situation - what he calls a Catch 22.
"If we can't do the project, they'll lend us money."
To break the impasse the SWFEA may confine its activity to Lee County, toll the two center lanes there and built extra ones based on the revenues.
I-75 then would be six congested free lanes in Collier county and only in Lee County be the 2/3/3/2 format of two free lanes each direction on the outside and six toll lanes in the center. Or it might be 3/2/2/3 with just the four toll lanes in the center.The project has 14 miles (23km) in Lee County and the regional airport is about midway in this stretch.
TOLLROADSnews 2007-07-24