In This Issue

	Work to Begin on Pittsburgh Subway $435M Expansion
	Study Looks at FEC Line for Rail System
	NC Go! Says State Should Reconsider Transportation Funding
	Tolls may Fund Unrelated LBJ Project
	Crowded Carpool Lanes May get New Rules
	Legislators Battle Group Challenging Gas Tax Initiative
	Hannemann Resolute on $3 Billion Transit Cost
	Light Rail Exceeds Original Budget
	Candidates United on More Transit Funding
	Lawsuit Filed to Stop S.C. Bridge Construction
	Toll Booths Resurface as Feasible Road Planning Tool

Work to Begin on Pittsburgh Subway $435M Expansion

PITTSBURGH – This fall, work will begin on a five-year, $435 million project to create two light rail tunnels under the Allegheny River to connect downtown Pittsburgh to the city’s North Shore after the Federal Transit Administration agreed to pay 80 percent, or $348 million, for the expansion.

Workers will begin surveying the site and locating buried utility lines within a few weeks, said Henry Nutbrown, Port Authority assistant general manager. North Shore Constructors, a joint venture between Obayashi Corp. of San Francisco and Trumbull Corp. of West Mifflin, was hired by the authority for $156.5 million to complete the first phase.

While critics of the project say it is a waste of money because the expansion runs just 1.2 miles from downtown to an area near the Pirates and Steelers’ stadiums, supporters hope the North Shore Connector spurs development and future rail connections to the Pittsburgh International Airport.

The Authority was pleased to hear the FTA viewed the project as “one of the top priority transit projects around the country.” Planning for the Connector began in 1999, and the cost for the project has risen by $42 million in just over a year.

The expansion is scheduled to begin operations by summer 2011.

Study Looks at FEC Line for Rail System

Florida – Passenger trains have not traveled on the 100-year-old Florida East Coast Railway since the late 1960s, but a long-term study is being conducted to see if the rail could support passenger rail service. Preliminary results suggest more than 120,000 passengers a day – about 10 times the number that use Tri-Rail – would use the FEC commuter trains by the year 2030.

The FEC line runs through 28 cities in South Florida, which many residents say is a positive thing. The CSX railroad line, which carries freight traffic, Amtrak trains, and Tri-Rail is outside of downtowns, and typically uses shuttle buses to connect to city centers. Officials from the railroad say they don’t want to start anything that will interfere with their lucrative freight operations.

The FEC rail report is considering an 85-mile long, two-mile wide corridor in the center of the FEC tracks between Jupiter and Miami, including the CSX line that runs parallel to I-95. Tri-Rail is working on future plans to expand service to Jupiter as well.

Those working on the study are looking at several options, including an elevated rapid rail, like Miami-Dade County’s Metrorail, bus rapid transit, and a light-rail system with self-propelled cars similar to what Tri-Rail will be using.

NC Go! Says State Should Reconsider Transportation Funding

North Carolina – The chairman of NC Go!, an organization representing local chambers of commerce, regional transit systems, consulting engineers, and construction industry associations which supports more funding for transportation for the state, said the state DOT’s release of a draft transportation improvement plan was “disturbing.”

Chairman William Carstarphen said the information in the plan was not surprising, and some crucial transportation projects will need to be scaled back or indefinitely postponed. With North Carolina facing a $30 billion shortfall in transportation funding over the next 25 years, many more problems and worsening congestion is set to develop if the state cannot secure adequate investments.

“The cost of maintaining our transportation system is growing much faster than our means for collecting needed funds. Federal funding is remaining flat, yet the material costs of concrete, asphalt and steel have risen nearly 50 percent over the past three years,” Carstarphen said. “The time has come to rethink how we look at transportation funding, and ask if our current model works and if it is able to change with the times.”

Some solutions the chairman said have been discussed by the organization include: tolling, allowing municipalities the freedom to use local options funding, including transportation funding as part of any sort of infrastructure bond, and having vehicle user fees at rates similar to surrounding states.

Tolls may Fund Unrelated LBJ Project

Texas - Regional leaders in North Texas are considering using revenue from future, unrelated toll projects to fund the longstanding expansion of a major part of the LBJ Freeway. The project is estimated to cost up to $1.5 billion, but so far state and local governments only have about $420 million secured.

Regional officials are considering a proposal that would dedicate $200 million in future toll road revenue from State Highway 161 and State Highway 121. The two highways, still in the planning and construction phases, are expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars from private companies for the right to build the roads.

If the toll revenue is used for LBJ, it would be the first time North Texas shared money from one toll project with another, unrelated Texas Department of Transportation project. The measure is expected to be approved this week by the Regional Transportation Council, which sets priorities for Texas transportation projects.

“This is the last increment that the Regional Transportation Council can give to the LBJ project,” said Michael Morris, director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the regional planning agency. “If LBJ can’t be done for this amount, they will have to go back to the drawing board.”

Using funds generated from one project to fund another is really nothing new in the transportation world. It has become more visible lately with the leasing of the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road where excess revenues will go to other needed capital projects. I would submit that in every state there are revenues collected in urban areas through the gas tax or sales tax which find their way to rural projects. We are paying for the system in most cases and not the particular road we are driving on. TW

Crowded Carpool Lanes May get New Rules

California – Caltrans may be forced by the feds to kick hybrids out of the clogged carpool lanes or require non-hybrid drivers add another passenger to use the lanes in the Bay Area. The area’s lanes have been increasingly jammed during rush hour after over 50,000 hybrids were given access to the lanes, according to a Caltrans report.

The study reported that carpool lanes on Highways 101, 4, 85, and 237, and Interstates 80 and 880 have changed from somewhat free-flowing routes in spring 2005 to stop-and-go congestion this past spring. The report also recommends no further carpool lane stickers be given to hybrids once the 75,000 cap imposed by the state is reached – which could be within a few weeks, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Federal law allows states to admit select hybrids into carpool lanes with just one occupant, but the states are required to monitor the lanes continuously and discontinue the access for solo hybrid drivers if the lanes get too congested.

Yet the governor is considering a bill to allow 10,000 additional hybrids to be issued the yellow stickers to give them carpool access. And the bill would extend their access another three years, to expire in 2011 instead of 2008.

Federal highway officials have met with Caltrans to discuss the issue, and are planning further meetings which will be focused on the study. Gene Fong, chief of the Federal Highway Administration’s California division said his agency wants carpool lanes to be an advantage to those granted access, but they are unlikely to order Caltrans to ban hybrids.

Lets see…you allow hybrids into HOV lanes and congestion occurs. Then you increase the number of hybrids allowed in and make the HOV’s add another person to qualify to use the lanes. Punish the car poolers so that solo hybrid drivers can use the HOV lanes…TW

Legislators Battle Group Challenging Gas Tax Initiative

Alaska - Two Anchorage lawmakers filed a formal complaint last Friday against a group running television ads against their proposal to tax natural gas reserves up to $1 billion annually. The Alaska Gasline Now inititative is sponsored by democratic representatives Eric Croft and Harry Crawford, both from Anchorage, and encourages oil producers to get natural gas reserves to market and build a natural gas pipeline.

A group named Alaska’s Future has promised a media blitz to influence voters, and has already run ads with the message “Kill the Gas Reserves Tax.” The ads argue that the Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs says “imposing a tax of this magnitude would be a financial obstacle to developing Alaskan gas reserves.” The ad threatens that if Croft and Crawford don’t help kill their own tax initiative, “Alaska’s gasline is history.”

The two lawmakers say the reserve tax is an incentive to build a pipeline, because producers would get a tax credit once the gas pipeline were built, that could possibly make up for all they had paid in reserve taxes. Croft and Crawford’s complaint to the Alaska Public Offices Commission says Alaska’s Future is trying to sway the election and should be forced to disclose its source of funding. They believe the group is a shell organization, a front for Big Oil.

APOC Director, Brooke Miles, said if an ad explicitly recommends a vote for or against a candidate or ballot measure, it must disclose either where its money comes from or how it is spent. She has notified Alaska’s Future it would have to report how much it was paying to air the commercials.

Alaska’s Future president, Shane Langland, says the group is simply about 400 members representing a variety of Alaska businesses, such as timber and fisheries and small manufacturing. He said that although some oil companies are members, they don’t control the group. Langland said the group, which will not reveal its members or funding contributions, wants to spread its message on complicated issues that affect jobs, such as oil taxes, a state fiscal plan and a gas pipeline route.

Hannemann Resolute on $3 Billion Transit Cost

HONOLULU – Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann is adamant about a rail-transit system to cost about $3 billion. This means the route will likely have to be shorter than the original Kapolei-to-University of Hawaii route, he said. Consultants have told City Council members the cost of that line would be $4 billion.

“I am insisting at this point that we build a basic no-frills system, and I want the cost to come in around $3 billion because there are those who are opposed to this project that are trying to make an issue of the cost of this rail system,” Hannemann said.

The mayor wants the line to start as close as possible to Kapolei, because that is where the ridership and the potential growth lies. He agreed with several other rail supporters who said if Honolulu had rail-transit, commuters may have been able to avoid the gridlock last week when an H-1 overpass was damaged.

The administration is set to give the City Council a recommendation from four transit alternatives, - rail, enhanced bus system, managed toll lanes, or building nothing – and make a decision by the year’s end. The primary opponents of the transit are supporters of the high-occupancy-toll lanes.

Light Rail Exceeds Original Budget

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte officials are concerned after finding out delays and dilemmas have caused their city’s 10-mile light rail project cost to skyrocket from $200 million to $427 million. So far six miles of track are finished, and leaders are unsure what the final cost of the project will be when it is completed in Nov. 2007.

“Not safety issues, but issues that are costing us money and time and delay, which is money,” said Ronald Tober, Charlotte Area Transit System director. He took some of the blame, saying, “We probably made some mistakes, the CATS staff has, on how we managed this project, and I take responsibility for that.” Mayor Pat McCrory said no one specifically is being blamed because of the very public mismanagement of funds. “Everyone is being reviewed,” he said.

City leaders said they are considering litigation against Parsons Transportation Group, who they paid $40 million to put together the light rail project. That money is in addition to the estimated $427 million cost of the system. CATS officials said taxpayers will not be asked to make up for the budget problems. The extra money will come out of the transit tax approved by voters in 1998.

Candidates United on More Transit Funding

Maryland - Four Howard County candidates for county executive called for more convenient and frequent stops for Howard Transit’s buses, and better connections to mass transit in Baltimore and Washington, at a forum held last week by Transportation Advocates.

Republican candidate Christopher J. Merdon said he wants the one-hour wait time between buses decreased to 30 minutes. He also noted the age of Howard’s buses, most of which are near the end of their seven-year lifespan.The “frequency [of stops] is the number one priority,” said Ken Ulman, one of two Democrats running for the county seat. He repeatedly pronounced his support of the withdrawal of some state and federal transit funding, saying the county has done its best to save as much service as possible.

Independent C. Stephen Wallis wants to expand Howard’s heavily subsidized bus system, although he said he realizes that cutting the wait time between buses could cost the county up to $5 million a year, plus the cost of new buses.

Corridor Transportation would have to buy 15 more buses, at $180,000 a piece, and get the double the county’s current operating subsidy to more than $8 million a year decrease the wait time to 30 minutes, said Ray Ambrose, administrator for the 27-bus system.

County officials want the Green Metro line from Washington to some day extend to Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport or Laurel, which may make a spur to Columbia more viable.

Lawsuit Filed to Stop S.C. Bridge Construction

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A federal lawsuit was filed by environmental groups in South Carolina Tuesday to halt the construction of what they believe is senseless construction of a $150 million road and bridge project over Lake Marion. Plans for the project include a 7-mile road, a 3-mile bridge, a regional water system and an inland port.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, a long-time advocate of the project, said it would bring economic development to the low-income, rural area and reunite black communities the lake’s creation split decades ago. “The people I represent tell me this is what they need. This is what they want,” he said. “This project has been important to them for decades.”

However, environmentalists and Republican leaders say the bridge is an unnecessary project that would destroy wetlands and disturb wildlife habitats for no apparent economic gain. The lawsuit claims the state Department of Transportation wrote a flawed environmental impact report that ignored data saying the project would lose money and concerns about the surrounding natural regions. The Federal Highway Administration, which oversaw the study and authorized construction, is also named in the suit.

SCDOT applied for a permit last December to fill, excavate, or clear 15 acres of wetlands for the project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received over 700 letters, 90 percent of which were opposing construction, during the public comment period in February and March. The transportation department is reviewing public comments.

Toll Booths Resurface as Feasible Road Planning Tool

Virginia – Former Virginia Governor Gerald Baliles and past transportation secretary Whittington Clement say tolls are the key a transportation plan they say will cost locals minimally, but have large benefits in terms of funding road projects.

“[Baliles proposed] a statewide network of interstate tolls,” Clement wrote in a letter he distributed to the media, referring to a 2005 written proposal from Baliles. “He suggests 38 toll locations on our extensive interstate system at an average of 85 cents per toll. Of course the number of locations and the toll charges could vary, but the proposal would generate billions of dollars a year of new money – year after year.”

Clement noted in his letter Virginia’s $3 billion transportation maintenance backlog, and said tolls could be a satisfactory compromise for state lawmakers opposed to new tax hikes.