Virginia

Typical tolls on the Dulles Toll Road in northern Virginia rose from $1.25 to $1.75 or 40%  this morning (Friday Jan 1). This is the first of three annual toll increases aimed to raise tolls 80% by 2012 that were formally adopted by the toll operator - Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) - last year.

TransCore have the contract to modernize the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) toll systems for their seven toll bridges.

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).

There are solid arguments that financing of a new rail line in the median of Dulles Toll Road with toll revenues is bad public policy. The area of northern Virginia beyond Tysons Corner is predominantly automobile-country with dispersed workplaces, and suburban houses. And it's prosperous enough for every adult to own their car.

Virginia DOT says the I-95/395 HOT Lanes concession project will not go to financial close this month as planned because of difficult capital market conditions and the need for more analysis and negotiation of project details. The postponement is officially announced in a 2-page letter from VDOT chief engineer Malcolm Kerley to officials in northern Virginia.

The speaker of the Virginia House, William J Howell says "I love the concept of tolls" as a way of funding needed road improvements and managing congestion, calling the gasoline tax a "dinosaur." A Republican Howell made the comments in a meeting with editors and reporters of the Washington Times.

Virginia's transportation commissioner Pierce Homer told us in a telephone interview he's very hopeful that the HOT lanes project on I-395 and I-95 from the Pentagon south toward Fredericksburg will prove viable, but he says it's not a sure thing.

Legislation (SB1550) is smoothly moving through the Virginia general assembly providing authority to the City of Chesapeake's plan for emergency replacement by privatization of the Jordan toll bridge which was declared unsafe and closed last November 8.

Lloyd Robinson director of transportation at the Fredericksburg VA metro plan organization (FAMPO) says he's hopeful they can put together the permits and financing for a 6km (3.5 mile) long spur tollroad off I-95 just south of the Rappahannock River. The proposed pike is designed to:
- provide direct connections to a major resort and retailing complex called Celebrate Virginia being developed by the Silver Companies, and

Chesapeake City Council voted Tuesday evening (Jan 27) to accept a private venture proposal to build a approx-$100m high level toll bridge over the Elizabeth River between South Norfolk and Portsmouth in the Norfolk/Hampton Roads metro area.

A bridge-builder and private investors are promising to do what City officials in Chesapeake Virginia thought was impossible - replace a decrepit 80 year old draw bridge with a modern high level structure at no cost to taxpayers. And they say they can get the new bridge open within 18 months.

A Judge in Richmond VA has rejected claims that Virginia DOT doesn't have the power to transfer control of the Dulles Toll Road to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).

The proposed transfer of the Dulles Toll Road (DTR) from the control of Virginia DOT to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is in doubt following a court victory by opponents. The state supreme court in Richmond today in a 19 page opinion overturned a lower court ruling that the transfer was protected from challenge by a doctrine of sovereign immunity.

Virginia DOT is seeking proposals from investors to make about a billion dollars of improvements to the Downtown and Midtown Tunnels and the MLK Extension in return for a longterm toll concession. The project consists of building:

- a new 2-lane tunnel under the tidal Elizabeth River parallel to the existing Midtown Tunnel

- perform improvements to the existing Midtown Tunnel (2 lanes single tube)

The Dulles Greenway is getting advantageous new arrangements for regulation of its concession that are a rebuff to oppoents. Activists have been trying to freeze toll rates and give regulators arbitrary powers. Under a new bill HB1140 the operators of the privately built tollroad in northern Virginia get to increase their tolls up to amounts already approved by regulators through 2012. The Greenway runs 23km (14 miles between Dulles and Leesburg VA.

Paul Weyrich gets space in the Washington Post this morning (Mar 2 B08) with erroneous objections to road based transit in the Dulles Toll Road/Greenway corridor.

Weyrich's claims are quoted in full followed by answers (A)

In the wake of the Federal Transit Administration's 'No' to Virginia's request for federal funding for construction of the $5b Dulles Rail project, state officials are rethinking their plan to have the area's Airports Authority take over the Dulles Toll Road. This could open the way for resumption of the private sector concessioning that was interrupted by the MWAA intervention in 2006.

The Feds have turned down the request from Virginia politicians for financial support for the controversial $5 billion Dulles Rail project proposed for the median of the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Greenway. US Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters told the Virginia governor Timothy Kaine and other northern Virginia politicians today in a meeting on Capitol Hill today.

Virginia DOT has announced an end to the botched procurement of a toll concession to fund improvements to I-81. Since October 2006 it has been clear that the project was going nowhere. Today VDOT used a letter from Kellogg Brown and Root, a lead company in the STAR Solutions consortium, as justification for issuing the official death notice.

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.