hot lanes

2013-05-29: An approximate $600m project to modernize 26 miles, 41km of the I-77 corridor north out of Charlotte NC with 2x2 HOT lanes got unanimous approval at the last meeting of the regional plan agency, MUMPO. The project is likely to be the first toll lanes project in the state, and is being procured by North Carolina DOT with a 50 year toll concession under the state's P3 law.

2013-04-26: Matthew Click southeast division director for tolls for HNTB has written the most powerful case we've seen for toll lanes.  It's short but sharp. Toll managed lanes he says are really the only feasible way that major urban areas can come to grips with the costs of congestion. Building extra free lanes will not relieve much congestion because latent demand in peak hours soon overloads them. So there's congestion in more lanes in rush hours.

2013-02-28: Third lanes are being added to 2x2 lanes of the Loop 375 Border Highway in El Paso Texas, and the toll systems are getting under way.  The project is on 8.9 miles between US54 and just west of Zaragoza Road (identified on CRRMA maps as Project 12.)  It is located right along the Rio Grand river that forms the Mexican border. It is  a major southside bypass of the southern metro area and alternate to I-10.

2012/11/26: Close to half the vehicles on the I-110 ExpressLanes in Los Angeles are toll paying after first two weeks operation, somewhat more than expected according to LA Metro project manager Stephanie Wiggins.

2012/11/05: Los Angeles Metro and Caltrans open the first of two major toll express lanes facilities this coming Saturday November 10. Their first big trial with variable tolls managing traffic will be in the Monday rush hour Nov 12.

2012-08-01: Virginia DOT and 95 Express Lanes LLC (90% Transurban, 10% Fluor) signed a 'comprehensive agreement' and went to financial close July 31 on a $925m project to widen and lengthen central reversible lanes and manage traffic with dynamic tolling. There's a groundbreaking in a few days - August 7.

Chris Soto of Woodbridge VA has a letter in the Washington Post to their commuting reporter and commentator Robert Thomson who publishes under the moniker Dr Gridlock making the following points this week: "…local, state and federal taxpayer dollars paid for and maintain the highway system.

A New York Times report on tolling HOV lanes - conversion to HOT lanes - quotes a California policy analyst positive about the move. Ellen Hanak, a senior policy fellow with the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California says there are fewer and fewer situations where carpooling works, so HOV lanes tend to be underused.

"The idea with HOT lanes was ‘OK, let’s use the capacity better and put a price on the availability of a faster lane.’ "

Transurban-Fluor's rebuild of 14 of the busiest miles of the Washington DC Capital Beltway must be one of the most difficult construction management jobs currently under way in the country. The joint venture toll concessionaire is rebuilding a 2x4 lane expressway into 2x 6 lanes, the extra two lanes each direction to be High Occupancy/or Toll (HOT) lanes with the traffic managed for free flow with dynamic pricing.

The Georgia I-85 toll express lanes (GA85XL) now in their eighth week of operation continue to attract more patronage, but tolls while growing, are still low per mile.  We've worked on seven full weeks of data. Average weekday traffic in the variably priced lanes is now 11,210 vs 4,170 in the first week.