concessions

Penn Pike chief Joe Brimmeier is saying the Turnpike Commission is planning to issue Requests for Proposals shortly for toll concessions to build elevated toll express lanes on:

- (1) the Parkway East (I-376) east of Pittsburgh

- (2) the Schuykill Expressway (I-76) northwest of Philadelphia (pronounced 'skookull' with appropriate Dutch/Philly gutterals. REVISED)

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.

Spokesman for the Georgia Department of Transportation, Crystal Paulk-Buchanan tells us her boss the new commissioner of transportation Gena Abraham is certainly reviewing toll projects in the state, along with non-toll projects. But she says a report quoting the Commissioner as saying "she might scrap the whole list of (toll) projects and start over" is flat wrong.

Releases to the Australian Stock Exchanges coincidentally both on Jan 10 by Macquarie and Transurban show generally strong traffic numbers for 2007, but a few laggards mainly in the US. 407ETR the all electronic tollroad in Toronto Canada continues a star performer for Macquarie (which owns 30%). In its eleventh year it showed a 6.1% growth in vehicle kms to 2.25b 2007/2006.

Ric Williamson chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission said in one of the last interviews before his death Sunday morning that he thought the state Legislature will reinstate private toll concessions at the end of their 18 month review. The interview was with Len Gilroy, a Reason Foundation researcher based in Texas, and is just published today on the Reason website.

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is planning another push to get legislation passed to facilitate public private partnerships (PPPs). Previous efforts to get law more hospitable to private sector ownership of infrastructure including toll concessions have run into opposition from civil service unions and their supporters in the Democratic Party which has majorities in both houses of the legislature.

Texas DOT Turnpike division chief Phil Russell says that the Trans Texas Corridor 69 (TTC69) will offer opportunities for both public authority style tolling and private lease concessions. He says the decision announced last week to look first at upgrading existing routes is "no different" from the approach taken on TTC35. The difference of the second TTC, he says, is only in the nature of development along the route.

CNN anchor Lou Dobbs and reporter Lisa Sylvester were at it again last night (Oct 8) beating up on toll concessions, this time the Virginia DOT's negotiations with Transurban and Fluor for building toll lanes on the Capital Beltway.

A transcript follows with comments interposed (PSam for Peter Samuel):

Florida DOT have provided us with some more detail on their assessment of the value of three possible toll facilities to be put out for bid by investors. We've got "Possible leases of existing toll facilities" a five page screed dated 2007-09-05. It says the Sunshine Skyway Toll Bridge in Tampa, Alligator Alley Naples to Ft Lauderdale, and Beachline East expressway are "most likely candidates for consideration."

Florida Gov Charlie Crist is seriously considering longterm toll concessions, the Orlando Sentinel reports, on three Florida DOT properties bringing in between $1.12b and $2.92b. The three being considered are:

- Beachline Expressway FL527 which runs as a "bee line" between Orlando and the Atlantic coast (it was formerly called the Bee Line Expressway)