toll express lanes

The San Francisco Bay area have their first toll express lane (TEL) operational. It began collecting tolls from 5am this morning (Sep 20) local time. A spokesman Dave Hyams told us this afternoon "about a thousand" people made use of the toll lanes, and that the project sponsors are "very pleased with" the startup. There are one or two "anecdotal reports" of misbehavior by motorists, he said, but "nothing out of the ordinary" and no real incidents.

Regional government in the San Francisco Bay area and the associated public toll authority are now committed to an extensive network of tolled lanes - some 1300km or 800 miles of tolled lanes to be developed out of an existing and planned high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane network at a capital cost of about $4.8b.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting legislators as saying they want to gauge the interest of the private sector in doing toll express lanes (TELs) for I-95 and the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76). The idea has been overshadowed by the fierce debate over leasing of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but the state Senate has already passed enabling legislation and the House Transportation Committee is holding hearings on it with apparent enthusiasm from legislators of both parties.

Secretary Transportation Mary Peters today drew attention to a Federal Register notice that gives details of an Express Lanes Demonstration (ELD) program under which up to 15 toll lanes projects will be eligible for federal government approval on interstates and other federal aid highways.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is proposing a Tampa style reversible express lanes for the Pittsburgh area's busiest highway, I-376 or Parkway East as it is known locally. Figg Engineering of Tallahassee FL who designed the Turnpike's successful new Susquehanna River Bridge in Harrisburg using their specialty design - post-tensioned segmental box girder - have done a conceptual study of a 15-mile (24km) roadway for the major radial highway east out of Pittsburgh.