new york state thruway

A Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) study finds tolling of longer combination vehicles (LCVs) on a key link between the Chicago and Boston areas won't finance the project. The study finds that tolls on LCVs (mostly for long double trailer trucks) on a newly built truckway between the Ohio Turnpike near Cleveland and the western end of the New York State Thruway would not come close to being financially viable.

Michael Fleischer executive director of the New York State Thruway Authority has told local television in Albany NY he won't defend the way E-ZPass transponders have been provided free to state employees in the past. He told WNYT Channel 13 TV he inherited an arrangement under which some 8,000 E-ZPass accounts are set up to provide free rides to state employees, including some retirees getting them for life.

New York State Thruway Authority is negotiating details of a contract for a new violations system with Traffic Technologies Inc, we hear.

But nothing yet from either of the two parties.

The project was described here:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4397

TOLLROADSnews 2010-01-13

The New York State Thruway Authority will be hiring consultants soon to study the costs and benefits of different toll collection modes including all-electronic tolling (AET), also known as cashless. The announcement was made not in any board decision, or in a press release, or in any presentation to an IBTTA conference, and there's no RFP yet. But a reader pointed out to us a pair of postings that have just popped up on the NYSTA website.

New York State Comptroller Thomas P DiNapoli says in an audit of proposed toll increases by the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA) that the authority is underestimating the federal grants it can obtain from USDOT. The toll increases, he says, should be reconsidered. DiNapoli says NYSTA should be able to "conservatively" bank on getting $125m over five years 2008-2012 from the feds, whereas the NYSTA staff are only counting on $4.9m/year. He thinks they are missing out on $100m.

How could I have done it?