Tennessee toys with tolls but two on the way

There's a disagreement between the Tennessee state governor Phil Bredesen and the state transport commissioner Jerry Nicely over how to fund their TN840 loop around the south of the Nashville area. Construction began in 1991. Three quarters of the 126km (78 mile) road has, sixteen years later, been funded - in the dribs and drabs that tax based funding provides. The question is how to fund the missing link in the southwest in a reasonably timely manner, like five or six years.

The state DOT has spent heavily in energy and time getting local agreement on an acceptable route for the final stretch. Midway along it crosses sacred ground - Natchez Trace and it traverses lots of pretty scenery. But they have a route and want to build.

Transport commissioner Nicely wants to borrow the $145m needed for the final 30km (19 miles).

He is quoted by AP: "We've got an 80-mile loop around one of our busiest, most congested cities," he said. "It's been in planning for 20 years, and it's got a 19-mile hole in it. I don't know of another where you started one side and sort of met in the middle, and had all these delays,"  

Nicely wants the governor to authorize $145m in borrowing to get the TN840 gap built out efficiently.

But the Governor is concerned about the slippery slope: "My concern is that once you get on that slope, it's going to be a slippery slope and there's going to be a legislative delegation for every road project in the state of Tennessee to come in and approve bonds for it."

It's the old snake oil borrowing against the thin air of infrastructure banks and grant anticipation bonds, shifting the burden of finding the funds into the future.

When the Governor was asked about tolling to support the borrowing he responded: "That's interesting, I've never thought of that. We'll see."

Trouble with TN840 is that it's not clear it is the kind of road that's likely to generate much traffic or toll revenue. Its is a partial circumferential road 40km (25 miles) out from the center.  A road that far out might pick up paying traffic in Los Angeles, or Chicago, or even the Atlanta metro area. But Nashville is 1.3m people and development 40km out is very thin. And it's not a shortcut to anywhere much. It's mostly a longcut! 

But perhaps tolls might provide a little money for upkeep.

Real toll projects

Tennessee does have a number of promising toll projects on real roads with real traffic. These include:

- a new I-40 toll bridge over the Mississippi in the northern part of Memphis

- Hadley Bend Connector a commuter radial immediately northeast of central Nashville

- a bridge over the Tennessee River in Hamilton County

- a bridge and road  linking Soddy Daisy to Harrison near Chattanooga

- a tollroad southeast of Knoxwille

Under legislation TDOT has a deadline of January 2008 to propose two pilot toll projects to the general assembly.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-12-03