i-95

On the present schedule the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission expect to be able announce an end to the gap in I-95 in 2018, project manager Jeff Davis told us in an interview this week. "We'd like to be able to do it sooner, and we will if we can, but that builds in some cushions for delay." It is the Pennsylvania Turnpike's largest, most complicated project - some $1.4 billion total cost - and it could continue through three stages to the late 2020s.

Delaware DOT operations people at the I-95 Delaware Turnpike anticipated major difficulties this Thanksgiving. The pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday is always an annual peak northbound, and the post-Thanksgiving  Sunday is an annual peak southbound. Apparently immigrants to the more prosperous low tax states to the south (VA, NC, SC) go north on holidays to visit family and friends still living in the high tax states up north (NY, NJ, CT).

New bridges needed between Kittery Maine and Portsmouth New Hampshire will probably be toll financed, officials say. The bridges are planned as replacements for the World War Memorial Bridge that carries old US1 through the middle of the twin cites, and the Sarah Milfred Long or Middle Bridge that carries a US1 Bypass just around them.

North Carolina DOT has a major I-95 planning & finance study under way that will provide much more solid estimates but our back-of-the-envelop calculations suggest the state should on opening be able to get in the range $300m to $350m/year in annual revenue from the planned tolling of I-95. As the economy grows, toll revenue on NC/I-95 would also grow.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell says his state has applied to the Federal Highway Administration for permission to collect tolls on I-95 near the North Carolina border, an announcement today quoting him: "the ability to toll Interstate 95 at the border will… help the (state) generate the revenue necessary to make much needed infrastructure and safety improvements in the I-95 corridor to better serve the traveling public and increase economic productivity." &nb

North Carolina DOT has hired PBS&J and Baker to do an I-95 Corridor Plan & Finance study. The study to be completed by the fall of 2011 will look at requirements for maintaining and improving the interstate, project future traffic, conduct public outreach and examine financing options including tolls.

Tolling is scheduled to begin in the two southbound express lanes on the far left side of FL/I-95 between the Golden Glades Interchange and downtown Miami Friday January 15 05:30. Tolls have been collected on two express lanes northbound in the afternoons since December 5 2008.

Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) officials are proposing to replace the present old, inadequate and untolled I-95 bridge at Scudder Falls near Trenton NJ with a larger, new toll bridge to cost an estimated $310m. A Commission spokesman says toll financing of the new Scudder Falls bridge is the only feasible source of funds and it is fair given tolls on bridges on I-78, I-80, and US1 and on the New Jersey Turnpike.

The tale of two I-95 toll plaza rebuilds make an interesting comparison. There are similarities and differences. Similarities are that in both states the Turnpike is the major east coast highway artery and the major link to adjoining states.

We wrote a pretty savage attack on HNTB's advice to the Maine Turnpike Authority on the rebuild of their southern toll plaza near York on I-95, and especially HNTB's belittling of the prospects for all-electronic tolling in a several page memo in Q&A format which they wrote for the local council called York Selectmen.