FHWA toll road activity report - a CRITIQUE

The FHWA's "Current Toll Road Activity in the US" report we previously wrote on concedes that errors and omissions are possible. see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3950 This critique is devoted to a few we found. The most serious omission in our view is lack of discussion or listing of detollings - removals of tolls.

Along with new toll projects there have been cases in which tolls have been removed from a road or bridge during the period covered by the report. These represent a subtraction from the stock of toll facilities and an increased burden on tax financing for maintenance, rebuilds and expansions.

There is still a widespread notion out there among the American public that tolls should be taken off when a toll facility is "paid for."  Officials are frequently attacked for reneging on promises to end tolls, even when there is no evidence any such promises were ever made, and even though it is questionable whether one generation of officials has the moral right to try to commit a future generation of officials to remove tolls and to substitute taxes.

But the "paid-for" notion is frequently thought to require detolling.

We'd argue a road is never paid for, and that a road goes on costing for as long as it has vehicles running on it, and weather attacking it.

Regardless, some toll facilities are indeed promised by their sponsors to be temporary -  tolls are sometimes promised as intended only to pay off the original capital. Orange County California's 1990s San Joaquin Hills and Foothill/Eastern tollroads are a recent example.

It would be useful to classify toll facilities by whether the sponsors describe them as "pay off" roads and temporary, or see them as permanent to provide a continuing revenue stream for maintenance, rebuilds and expansions.

Detollings have occurred following serious fatal crashes at toll plazas, the Connecticut Turnpike being the major example in 1985.

Detolling is often simple political oppportunism, an appeal to a regional constituency paying tolls to shift the cost to others. That is constantly in play in Massachusetts, but "We'll rid you of tolls" has also been a theme in political campaigning in New Jersey, Texas and elsewhere.

Our list of detolls

Facilities that were de-tolled during the period 1992 to 2008 include:

- Pennyrile Parkway Kentucky tolls removed 1992, William H Natcher Parkway, Audobon Parkway and Cumberland parkway have been detolled since then (need to research further)

- Richmond Petersburg Turnpike in Virginia detolled in 1992

- the western portion of the Massachusetts Turnpike Exit 1 to Exit 6 in Springfield was detolled for cars in 1996 by Gov Weld, and one major toll plaza at MA16 West Newton was eliminated on the Boston Extension

- Virginia Beach Expressway VA was completely detolled in 1996

- Mt Hope Bridge, Portsmouth to Bristol, Rhode Island detolled in 1998

- Vincent Thomas Bridge CA47 in the Port of Los Angeles was detolled in 2000

- Coronado Bridge in San Diego detolled in 2002

- Centennial Bridge, Rock Island IL detolled 2005

- the New York State Thruway (I-190) in Buffalo was detolled Oct 30 2006 at Black Rock and Buffalo toll plazas

Any survey of toll activity should acknowledge, discuss and list such detollings that have occurred, and it should allow for the possibility of detollings in the future.

Omissions of new tollroads

The most serious omission in the list of new toll roads (page 7) is of three of the four new tollroads in the Austin TX area that opened in 2007 and 2008 costing about $2 billion. Sometimes been called the Central Texas Turnpike project these are:

- SH130 segments 1-4

- Loop 1

- SH45

see http://www.centraltexasturnpike.org/

Also missing is PR66 a new tollroad in Carolina, Puerto Rico east of San Juan - opened around 2006 (check) see tolls http://www.dtop.gov.pr/act/tarifapeajes.htm

Oklahoma's Creek Turnpike opened in stages between 1992 and 2002 and should have been included in the list of new tollroads opened 1992 to 2008 - see http://pikepass.com/about/history.htm

Three other major tollroads opened in Oklahoma around the same time, but arguably they were extensions rather than greenfields, although the distinction seems a semantic quibble.

Questionable items we spotted in the list on p7:

- items 5,6: Foothill and Eastern tollroads are really the one project with the odd name Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor

- item 19 Mon Fayette Expressway - only segments are complete, the most difficult and expensive portion PA51 to I-376 remains to be built

- item 24 "CR 183-A Turnpike" in Austin TX. CR? 183 which it supersedes is a US route but the tollroad is simply known as 183A, no hyphen

- item 28 Grand Parkway segment I-2 outside Houston arguably should not be included in toll facilities opened 1992-2008 since no toll collection has started as of now (Jan 2009), though Texas DOT does plan to collect tolls on this segment probably as soon as this year

We'll be happy to forward any further mistakes readers spot to the authors to improve the database.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-01-20 ADD 2009-01-21 23:00 ADD 2009-01-28