Joe Brimmeier says in Vienna at IBTTA that FHWA has approved I-80 tolling

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission chief executive Joe Brimmeier said in a speech at the IBTTA annual conference in Vienna Austria that the Federal Highway Administration has approved I-80 for tolling. He said I-80 "has the third spot".

No "we're told" or "we hear" or "we're sure," no ifs and buts, it's done.

We're not in Vienna. We got this from attendees at the conference who heard him speak. He spoke without any formal presentation - no powerpoint - and without notes. We initially reported the speech was "impromptu" based on the impression of our sources in Vienna.

A Turnpike spokesman Bill Capone tells us that's not so. He says the boss was prepared, that he had notes, and that his normal practice is to speak extemporaneously but to have a written outline.

Capone says Brimmeier's prepared theme was the public outreach and political challenges of tolling I-80, not the issue of whether the feds will grant tolling authority.

Any claim that tolling I-80 is a done deal is premature. FHWA doesn't give permission for tolling interstates. Permission is given by the US Secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters, to whom the FHWA reports.

There are senior officials in FHWA and close to Peters who think that tolling I-80 is eligible for approval and that it should be approved. No doubt some of them are telling PTC officials they think an application can be approved.

But we're told by officials it is by no means a done deal as Brimmeier suggests.

The formal application hasn't even been filed. Brimmeier acknowledged this in his remarks in Vienna, and said it will be filed next week.

The application to toll I-80 will be made under the Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program in Section 1216(b) TEA21. The law requires the secretary to make five determinations:
- that existing revenues are insufficient
- that the interstate has sufficient use to justify tolling
- that the plan for tolling takes into account the interests of local, regional and interstate travelers
- that the reconstruction and rehabilitation plan is reasonable
- that preference has been given to an experienced public toller

None of those five requirements seem to pose a problem for authorization of tolling.

The biggest problem lies in crafting an agreement between the US and the state on use of I-80 revenues that is consistent with Pennsylvania's Act 44 under which the Turnpike Commission gets state authority to toll I-80. The state law requires I-80 to generate huge surplus funds for use on PennDOT highways and bridges across the state.

However federal law Section 1216(b) TEA21 says the agreement between the state and the US must provide that revenues from the tolled interstate are only used for:
- debt service on the project
- reasonable return on investment by private investors
- costs of improvements, operations, maintenance of the interstate

Federal law doesn't appear to allow an interstate tolled under Section 1216(b) TEA21 to be used for generating revenues for other roads and bridges. Yet exactly that is required by the state's Act 44. The two are flatly at odds.

Lawyers on both sides are trying to find a way around this, but it is a tough obstacle and it is not yet - to our knowledge - surmounted.

One theory is that Brimmeier is saying I-80 is approved simply to dampen interest among private concessionaires who may respond to Gov Rendell's concession procurement process for the Turnpike itself.

There is a heavy representation of concessionaire companies from Europe and Australia in Vienna.

The thinking is that the more the Turnpike Commission generates a sense of inevitability about Act 44 and its primary element of tolling I-80, the less interest there will be in responding to the state's concession RFP on the Turnpike.

Brimmeier is playing a high stakes game.

see previous article http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3158

First two spots - I-81 in Virginia and I-70 Missouri

The first interstate highway project to get federal approval for tolling under Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program in Section 1216(b) was I-81 in March 2003. (The feds say "conditional approval" because full approval occurs when tolling starts.) Virginia got conditional approval for tolls on I-81 the length of the state (some 300 miles) as part of plans to fund separate truck toll lanes. Two groups competed with concession plans.

However opposition to mandated truck use of the truck toll lanes caused trucking interests to lobby hard to defeat the project. Along with local opposition the truckers won.

The would-be concessionaires are now negotiating a much cheaper set of upgrades as a tax financed design-build project.

An FHWA spokesman says I-81 still formally has the first "spot" under the program because Virginia has not withdrawn its request or notified the feds that it won't proceed. There is no specified deadline for implementation of tolling so it isn 't clear what's needed to open up an unused spot.

The second interstate tolling spot under Section 1216(b) was I-70 in Missouri granted in July 2005. That highway is being studied for reconstruction to mostly 4+4 lanes across the breadth of the state from the present 2+2 lanes. Missouri along with Kansas, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois is now studying special truck toll lanes on I-70 over a large slab of the country. Other states would have to apply separately for tolling authority and they would need separate slots.

New Construction

Another program added in the last SAFETEA-LU legislation called the Interstate Construction Toll Pilot Program allows new interstate highways to be built with tolls but also requires approval by the US Secretary of Transportation. I-73 in South Carolina was given the Secretary's approval August 16 under that program. South Carolina plans to build about 130km (80 miles) of I-73 as a tollroad from the Myrtle Beach area across I-95 to the North Carolina border near Rockingham. Under this program North Caolina could be given approval for tolling its portion of I-73 within the same slot.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-10-10 14:30 ADDS/MODS 17:40