Recently in Transportation Category

Source: Associated Press (MD), January 8, 2008

The Maryland Transportation Authority says it is seeing the benefits it expected when it privatized its Bay Bridge drive-over service.

Until last summer, the agency's vehicle recovery technicians drove nervous motorists across the bridge at no charge.

The service was privatized last spring to allow the workers to focus on their primary job, responding to disabled vehicles and other emergencies.

........ Kent Island Coach of Stevensville says it has handled more than 1,700 drive-overs since last May. The fee is $25 for motorists and $30 to transport bicycles.

Source: By Joseph Ryan, Daily Herald (IL), January 6, 2008

.......... The violation enforcement system is key to Gov. Rod Blagojevich's new Open Road Tolling initiative, which eliminated barrier toll plazas for highway-speed I-PASS lanes that rely on cameras and heavy fines to keep drivers paying.

The tollway botched a critical element of the system when it failed to send out violation notices for the 13 months between July 2006 and August 2007.

Tollway officials blame the delay on a mix-up after switching companies that run the violation enforcement system.

.......Officials with the new company, Texas-based Electronic Transaction Consultants, said they didn't expect the switchover to cause such a long delay, but it couldn't be avoided.

....... In 2002, the state's auditor general blasted tollway officials for failing to routinely send out violations over the previous two years. Tollway officials said at the time the job of sifting through scofflaw license plate pictures and matching them in a license database was too complex for in-house staff.

They hired TransCore to do it for $38 million over three years.

Related article from the Daily Herald: Critics call for reform of toll collection system

Source: By STEVE SCHULTZE, Journal Sentinel (WI), Posted: Dec. 24, 2007

Privatizing the operation of Mitchell International Airport could bring as much as $1 billion to the county, a tantalizing prospect that's captured the attention of Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker.

..... "You can always generate savings on labor costs if you cut wages and benefits," said Richard Abelson, executive director of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union. "That doesn't necessarily translate into a better airport."

Source: Landline Magazine, December 18, 2007

In hopes of tapping into public-private partnerships to build highways in Nevada, a special panel created by the governor has decided to call on state lawmakers to make it happen.

The study committee, created by Gov. Jim Gibbons, recommended asking the Nevada Legislature to authorize pursuing deals with private groups to build highways.

Source: The Associated Press (FL), 11/26/2007

Faced with a $2.5 billion budget shortfall over the next two years, Florida officials are considering selling 50-year leases on Alligator Alley and other state toll roads and bridges in exchange for large sums of cash from private investors.

In a preliminary study, the Florida's Department of Transportation estimated a 50-year lease on Tampa's Sunshine Skyway Bridge could be worth $1.3 billion if investors were allowed to set tolls at ''market rates.'' Alligator Alley could bring in $1.3 billion as well, according to the estimates.

Source: James Ridgeway, Mother Jones, November 1, 2007

How a company called Traffic.com landed an exclusive government contract worth millions to gather data on the nation's highways--and then sold the information back to us.

Source: By Barbara Kiviat, Time, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007

....... For states and cities looking to upgrade or replace aging infrastructure, partnering with private players is the biggest idea to come along since the interstate highway system started ribboning the country with asphalt in the 1950s. The appeal: governments can stop worrying about roads, bridges and tunnels, and companies get lucrative leases that allow them to collect money from drivers for generations. The craze is being driven by investors who crave the steady cash flow of decades' worth of tolls. There are 71 projects worth $104 billion being considered for private development by state and local governments, according to the publication Public Works Financing. The proposals are feeding a new pack of investment funds from the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the Carlyle Group--as well as controversy over how roads should be paid for.

....... At the core of the debate is a fundamental issue: Is building roads one of those things, like trade policy, that only the Federal Government should steer, or is there a better way?

Source: By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA), Wednesday, October 17, 2007

State officials have accomplished the first two steps toward converting Interstate 80 into a toll road, starting with signing a 50-year lease agreement between the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

Source: Maryland General Assembly, Department of Legislative Services (.pdf), Office of Policy Analysis

Beginning with the construction of the highway interstate network, highways and transit have typically been funded by federal and state aid derived from the motor fuel tax. However, given the national reluctance to increase the motor fuel tax coupled with more fuel efficient automobiles, motor fuel tax revenue growth has not kept pace with construction costs. In addition, there has been an increasing demand for transportation system preservation and new projects to meet the increasing demands of congestion. To address the needs of residents and the relative static growth in the motor fuel tax, a new national trend appears to be developing in financing transportation projects.

Specifically, a growing national interest is developing in partnering with the private sector to access cash and equity that might not otherwise be available for transportation projects. The relationship between the public and private sector is commonly known as a public-private partnership (P3). The partnership can take several forms, including the State leasing an existing revenue generating State asset to a private entity for operation in exchange for a lump sum payment. Alternatively, the private sector can construct a transportation infrastructure project, generally a toll road, for the right to collect future revenues.

....... In considering P3s and the role of private finance in transportation infrastructure, there are a number of issues for the State to consider, including the role of the legislature, the legal framework for such an agreement, and how the State should engage the private sector.

Source: By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA), Friday, October 12, 2007

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission officials are to formally sign a landmark lease no later than Monday to convert Interstate 80 into a toll road.

The 50-year agreement is designed to create what they call a unique "public-public partnership" to generate a total of $116 billion.