News

The government of Canada has initiated talks to purchase the Ambassador Bridge, the major trucking route between Canada and the US .

Illinois State Toll Highway Administration, commonly known as the Illinois Tollway, is conducting a recruitment for a new executive-director (ED). Applications and resumes are being accepted Feb 8 through 24. The past couple of years have been tumultuous at the Tollway following the impeachment and removal from office of the state governor Rod Blagojevich. (CORRECTION)

We wrote January 26 that toll financing was never discussed for the $1,045m Presideo Parkway, one of the approaches to the Golden Gate Bridge. That's because an official at Caltrans emailed us in response to a query about why tolls hadn't been discussed: "No discussion about tolls and none anticipated." We were misled.

The Ambassador Bridge company suffered defeat today in a court case brought by Michigan DOT for breach of contract. Judge Prentis Edwards of Wayne County Circuit Court in a 15-page ruling found the Bridge company to be in violation of its contract commitments by failing to build its part of the Gateway Project (upgraded links to I-75 and I-96) as agreed in 2004.

North Texas Tollway will in future bill all non-transponder reads initially as a video toll under their ZipCash brand for camera-generated tolls sent in the mail. Violation notices will no longer be sent directly for trips through open road toll lanes where there is still cash collection alongside.

The South Bay Expressway (SBX), Macquarie's first foray into the US toll business continues to be a bear for the group. Data released to the Sydney Stock Exchange show traffic in the latest quarter (2009Q3) down 13.6% on the prior corresponding period of 2008 for average daily transactions of 22.5k, v 26.1k in the tollroad's first year.

407ETR in Toronto the world's first all-electronic tollroad reports revenues of C$560m in calender 2009 a 2.5% increase on 2008's $546.5m. At C$1=US$0.931 2009 revenue is US$521.4m. (All further $#s are C$s)

Traffic dropped 2.6% to 303.5k/day from 2008's 311.7k/day, average workday trips from 377.9k to 367.3k. But average trip distance was up slightly and vehicle-kms traveled were 2,214.8m down 1.7% on the 2,252.7m of 2008.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is getting a bum rap on one of the counts against it in the sensational lawsuit (see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4553) by Ralph Bailets, the Turnpike's former financial manager - the progressive volume discounts for truckers for E-ZPass.  Bailets' view of the trucker discounts looks to be a narrow accountant's perspective on what is a more complex, mutually

US congressman Glenn `GT’ Thompson, (Republican, Howard, 5th District PA) is asking Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett to investigate claims in former financial manager Ralph Bailets’ lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC).

Florida's Turnpike have 800 coin machine vaults that are surplus and if any toll authority can use them, they're going for free.  Jackie Ives-Giles at the Central Repair Department in Pompano Beach says they'd hate to see them go to the junkyard if someone can use them.

The New Jersey Turnpike made the news all over the world today apparently - thanks to a traffic reporter's forced landing in his light plane about 6:45 this morning in the northbound lanes of the Turnpike in the south Jersey suburbs of the Philadelphia metro area. The plane a Cessna 152 is powered by a 4-cylinder automobile-like engine.

We posed the following question Jan 23 to Dan Paradee, spokesman for the Maine Turnpike Authority on the controversy over the form that their southern toll plaza should take - (1) cash and roll-through electronic as now (2) open road tolling (ORT) through the middle and cash on the sides, the HNTB recommendation (3) all-electronic.

A major innovation by an Austin Texas start-up company BancPass formed by toll industry veterans will allow motorists to pay tolls by mobile phone. Brandnamed PToll, it serves occasional users of tollroads, people who don't find it worthwhile to establish a transponder account, giving them the convenience of using the highspeed electronic lanes - the open road tolling - without the hassle of a transponder account.

Michigan DOT (MDOT) and the federal Transport Canada are requesting for expressions of interest  (RFEOI) in some kind of toll concession or partnership with the private sector in building a new toll bridge over the Detroit River a couple of miles downriver of the Ambassador Bridge.

Dec 2007 we wrote a speculative article about a picture of an historic "Tariff of Toll Rates" sign that was identified only in the Library of Congress collection as located at the Connecticut River between Vermont and New Hampshire. It was a faded overexposed black and white photograph.

We fiddled with it Photoshop and got it barely legible.

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3305

If like us you find following government and politics and the economy and international affairs and the weather too depressing, then there's one thing happening that should give you a lift - Apple computer. Truly awe inspiring is how this company manages in the midst of a deep recession to succeed in selling stupendous quantities of great products - 250m iPhones it has now sold - and earns revenues of $60b/year.

In the artsy, historic Ybor City area of Tampa less than two miles (3km) northeast of downtown Tampa construction has begun of the I-4/Selmon Crosstown Expressway Connector. It is in essence  an elaborate interchange between the two parallel highways at a point where they are less than a mile - 1400m or 4570ft (0.86 miles) apart, measuring them from the centerline of each roadway reservation.

There's been much talk of a budget problem in the state of California, a "crisis" even. Piffle and hooey. They're obviously rolling in money. They're just launching the pretty - and pretty pricey - Presidio Parkway project. $1 billion+.

A former finance manager Ralph M Bailets has lodged a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg Pennsylvania accusing Turnpike Commission chiefs of serious wrongdoing. He says he was fired for his efforts to resist corrupt procurement practices and waste at the Turnpike Commission.

Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) is likely to follow Florida's Turnpike in offering sticker-tag transponders free. They have already been giving away limited numbers of the E-PASS Minis - as they are called - in special promotions. Staff have proposed free issue of sticker tags be regularized and the board of the authority is expected to formally endorse the proposal when they meet Jan 27.