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Trucks and Tolling, Part 2

In last month’s column, I reviewed the trucking industry’s four primary concerns about tolling and concluded that three of the four have merit. These could be addressed in future toll projects via legislative changes that would prevent the diversion of toll revenues to non-highway purposes, begin tolling only after a new or rebuilt highway or […]

Trucks and Tolling, Part 1

The trucking industry is the strongest opponent of expanded tolling. It funds an organization called the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates, which lobbies aggressively against just about any new toll proposal. Yet the trucking industry depends on a modern highway system that keeps pace with economic growth and trends such as the ongoing increase in online […]

Emerging Threats to US Toll Revenues

In recent columns I’ve discussed a growing trend of “equity” concerns (such as free or reduced-rate trips for lower-income express toll lane users) and a separate trend of politicians disguising the real costs of using highways. The bad news is both trends are getting worse, with serious consequences for future highway revenue-adequacy.

Let’s Stop Disguising the Real Cost of Highways and Bridges

Most of the U.S. infrastructure community cheered when the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) was enacted. After all, this country has a lot of deferred maintenance across many infrastructure sectors, and in transportation there’s a long list of obsolete bridges, obsolete bottleneck interchanges, and overloaded freeways in fast-growing states. What’s not to like?

Rethinking Transportation Equity

No one who’s been paying attention to transportation policy over the past decade could miss the increasing focus on “equity.” The U.S. DOT is building on President Biden’s Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government” with an effort to include equity considerations in all its programs. Sessions […]

The Benefits and Costs of Interstate Highwway Reconstruction

Highway construction is getting short shrift from the Biden Administration. While the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA) increased formula highway funding, the Federal Highway Administration has tried to discourage state DOTs from using their increased funding to add capacity, even where this would mean replacing a four-lane bottleneck bridge on a six-lane highway with […]

The Return of Revenue-Risk Transportation P3s

Ten years ago many people in the U.S. P3 infrastructure world believed that the relatively new availability-payment model was the wave of the future. It proved successful on two Florida P3 megaprojects—the Port of Miami Tunnel and the reconstruction and widening of I-595 in Fort Lauderdale. It was seen as more attractive to bidders since […]

Infrastructure Needs Major Environmental Reform

I was guardedly optimistic when Sen. Joe Manchin (D, WV) introduced what was portrayed as a measure to streamline environmental review of major infrastructure projects. Manchin had previously voted with all 50 Senate Republicans to overturn a Biden administration action that scrapped modest 2020 Trump administration enviroSnmental streamlining, but that measure died in the House. […]

Threats to Express Toll Lanes

One of the greatest transportation policy success stories is express toll lanes. Since the world’s first variably priced express lane project opened on SR 91 in Orange County, California in December 1995, similar projects have spread to nearly all the largest U.S. urban areas apart from the Northeast. FHWA data shows more than 60 ETL […]

Dealing with Opposition to New Tolls

Modernization of America’s major highways and bridges is facing a serious problem. In a nutshell, highway users don’t want to pay what it costs to rebuild or replace these aging pieces of critical infrastructure. And this poses a significant threat to the ability to use long-term DBFOM P3s for these megaprojects. Two recent examples are […]