stimulus funds

Dulles Toll Road has been put in for $44.1m of stimulus (aka ARRA TIGER) grants from the federal government to fund full open road tolling by its new operator Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).

Stimulus grants for highways have set off political fights over whether they should be used for tollroads. The biggest fight is in West Virginia where the Manchin administration is at odds with powerful legislators over whether stimulus-$s can be used for the West Virginia Turnpike. The administration says "No, the feds won't allow it." 

In the Senate the majority leader Truman Chafin (Dem) and the Minority Leader Don Caruth (Rep) are sponsoring legislation to require federal stimulus funds be used on the Turnpike.

Delaware governor Jack Markell's office has announced that the state will spend federal "stimulus funds" to implement open road tolling and modernize the approaches to the notoriously congested Newark DE both-ways toll plaza on I-95 near the Maryland border.