toll lanes

TxDOT has announced that a Cintra/Meridiam/Dallas police/fireman's pension system team are the preferred investors in a 52 year toll concession to finance, build, operate and toll "The New LBJ" or I-635 Managed Lanes Project, an expansion to 14 travel lanes from 8 of the major east-west expressway across the northern part of Dallas.Operating under the pro

Texas DOT is signing a toll concession with an international group led by Cintra to do about $1.6 billion worth of work rebuild some 20km (13 miles) of old freeway into frontage, free and toll lanes and get planning work and rights to negotiate up to several billion dollars more of the North Tarrant Express project. TxDOT got bids from the Cintra-led Group called NTE Mobility Partners (NTEMP) and from Spain based OHL.

Florida DOT has chosen a group led by ACS Infrastructure Development (ACSID) for an availability contract to redevelop I-595 in the Fort Lauderdale area with new toll lanes, bus lanes and improved interchanges in a deal that will cost $1,796 million. ACSID will provide the equity under which the group also including another Spain based toll and construction company Dragados and a Florida builder will design, build, finance, operate and maintain the facility for 35 years.

California's legislators left it right up until the deadline but when they finally voted it was with clear majorities to go with tolling on the busiest carpool lanes in the LA area. They get around $210m of federal funds originally reserved for New York City central area pricing. To be tolled under the plan are carpool lanes in the center of the I-10 and the I-110.

New York's loss in rejecting congestion pricing is Los Angeles potential gain. $213.6m of federal transit funds previously set aside New York City is now committed to supporting an ambitious variable tolls project on HOV lanes on some of the busiest freeways in the Los Angeles (LA) area.

Virginia DOT, Transurban and Fluor have signed the contracts and gone to financial close for the construction of four toll lanes plus direct connector ramps on 23km (14 miles) of the Capital Beltway (I-495) in northern Virginia between the Springfield interchange and just short of the Maryland line at the Potomac River.

Dallas area officials intervened quickly this week to neutralize the potential danger to their huge toll financing plans from the anti-toll bills of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (Repub Tx). They wrote to her (see NCTCOG-KBH) with all the customary flattery, thanking her for her "continued outstanding leadership" etc.

Georgia DOT is seeking private sector proposals for adding toll or "managed lanes" along I-20 for 15km (9 miles) in the southeast part of the greater Atlanta area. Sketch level forecasts done for GDOT by C&M Associates suggests toll revenues of around $2m to $3m in the first year and $23m in 2030.

A  baby bi-county toll agency in southwest Florida may end up with just one parent due to marital discord over tolling. The Southwest Florida Expressway Authority (SWFEA) formed by Lee and Collier counties has been immobilized for the best part of a year by disagreements over toll lanes. Collier county officials are refusing to provide an agreed $600k loan to the SWFEA unless they get a commitment not to toll lanes 5 and 6 on the I-75 expressway.

A prominent local state politician Galen Clagett (Dem, Frederick) said at a lunch here recently that continued inaction on I-270 is "quite unacceptable." Congestion is "killing us," he said. We need extra lanes now, he said, not in fifteen years as promised by the state highway administration. Since the state doesn't have the money to do anything beyond studying the problem year after year, we need to go to the private sector, Clagett said.

The three roads to be studied in more detail for implementation of dynamic pricing are: