In This Issue

	Lawmakers Pass Last-Minute Congestion Plan
	Colorado’s Highways need $60B
	Georgia DOT Takes Over Parkway
	Wash. Opens Longest Suspension Bridge in 40 Years
	Commuter Rail Line Picking Up Speed
	Firms Eager to Study Illiana Toll Road
	Missouri Tries Passing Lane Experiment

Lawmakers Pass Last-Minute Congestion Plan

NEW YORK – New York City is still in the running for $500 million in federal funding after lawmakers approved a basic outline for a plan to fight congestion, although they will not allow Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion fee to be charged without their approval. On Thursday, lawmakers gave the city authority to purchase buses for the new express lanes and cameras to photograph license plates in order to keep an eye on traffic in certain areas of Manhattan if the U.S. DOT selects their plan.

The agreement was announced by the mayor and Gov. Elliot Spitzer, after the Monday deadline passed for the $2 billion in federal aid sought by nine cities including New York. The governor did not say whether officials had been given an extension of the deadline, but said they had assured federal authorities that New York was “on the cusp” of an agreement. “We believe the federal Department of Transportation will be satisfied,” Spitzer said.

Bloomberg’s plan, which could raise an estimated $30 billion for mass transit, will now be reviewed by a new commission, made up of members of the state Senate and Assembly, the City Council and governor’s staff. Spitzer said the commission “will come up with the best ideas. It could be the mayor’s plan, it could vary in some way.” He declined to say whether the $8 fee was “inevitable.”

Under the mayor’s plan, drivers would be charged a fee to travel into the busiest parts of Manhattan during rush hour on weekdays: $8 per car; $21 per truck. The Democrat-controlled Assembly had previously agreed only to do a study on the congestion charge, fearing low-income residents would not be able to afford the fees. Bloomberg heavily criticized the legislature earlier in the week, saying they had failed “the people breathing the air, the people trying to do business in this city, the 95 percent of people who use mass transit to commute into the city and who are going to have to pay more.”

The mayor’s perseverance paid off; New York is embarking on what will prove to be a very interesting course. Will they get it right the first time? Odds are they won’t. It will probably evolve as time goes on and as everyone gets smarter about what works and what doesn’t. However, for now, they get extra points for leadership, being bold and frankly, just doing something. TW

Colorado’s Highways need $60B

Colorado - The price tag to cover Colorado’s transportation needs over the next 25 years is estimated to be nearly $60 billion, and the governor has appointed a blue-ribbon panel which will recommend possible solutions to meet the state’s highway needs. Because the gas tax has not been increased in 17 years, general fund money has had to be used.

“We’ve been patching the problems for years and years,” said state Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, at a panel meeting Thursday at the Pueblo Convention Center. “We need a comprehensive plan to really solve the problem.”

Carla Perez, of Governor Bill Ritter’s office, mediated the discussion. She said the 32-member panel has been charged with recommending a stable revenue stream for transportation, as well as assessing issues such as the state’s role in future mass transit, and whether local governments should be given some control of the state roadway system.

Georgia DOT Takes Over Parkway

Georgia - The Georgia Department of Transportation has taken over the South Fulton Parkway, a long-awaited move which is hoped will preserve the throughway’s limited access as it becomes a major traffic artery in the rapidly growing west metro Atlanta area. The order stated that the state highway system had been amended to redesignate the parkway as a state road.

“These revisions were necessary to facilitate state route travel, as well as improving the movement of commercial and inter-regional traffic through this area,” said Jane Smith, State Transportation Data Administrator. AASHTO has also given approval for the U.S. Route revisions associated with the redesignation of the parkway, Smith said.

South Fulton Parkway begins at I-285 and stretches to the Chattahoochee River at Douglas County by the Carroll County line. The throughway is the only major east-west traffic corridor in the west metro Atlanta area, other than I-20.

Wash. Opens Longest Suspension Bridge in 40 Years

TACOMA, Washington – The longest suspension bridge to be built in the U.S. in over 40 years opened in Tacoma, Washington on Sunday. The mile-long Tacoma Narrows bridge opening was celebrated by thousands with a 5K run and walk across the bridge after which State Treasurer Mike Murphy and House Speaker Frank Chopp paid the first tolls.

The new bridge runs parallel and to the south of the 1950 span, connecting Tacoma with the Kitsap peninsula. The 1950 bridge was built to handle 60,000 vehicles daily, but carries an average of more than 90,000 each day, according to the Department of Transportation.

The first Tacoma Narrows bridge opened July 1, 1940, as the third-longest suspension bridge in the world. However, just four months later, it collapsed in a windstorm, and is now infamous as “the most dramatic failure in bridge engineering history,” according the WSDOT website.

The 5,400 foot span took workers over 3.5 million hours to build over the last five years. Tacoma Narrows is the longest suspension bridge to be built in the nation since the opening of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York in 1964.

Congratulations to the team that made this achievement possible. It is a beautiful structure and will long serve the people who travel through that corridor. The long and arduous road leading to this opening (including a variety of project delivery and financing methods) will soon be forgotten by all but the few that traveled that particular road. TW

Commuter Rail Line Picking Up Speed

Florida - All major parties appear poised to sign off on Central Florida’s long-anticipated $615 million commuter rail project by the end of this month. The 61-mile rail line is expected to receive final local approval following weeks of uncertainties and delays.

As the area’s first major freeway alternative, the commuter rail line will run through the center of gridlocked Volusia, Seminole, Osceola and Orange counties. Officials almost withdrew their financial support in the last few weeks when the legislature threatened to take a chunk out of county revenues with state property tax changes. The final tax package did not contain the high cuts however, and the four counties and the city of Orlando have agreed to fund 25 percent - $154 million – to jump start the project.

The rail system’s first phase between Orlando and DeBary is expected to be up and running by 2010. The second phase, planned to stretch south from Orlando to Poinciana and add a short north section from DeLand to DeBary, will open in 2013.

The state will match the five local governments’ $154 million commitment, and the remaining $300 million is expected to come from the federal government next spring. The state will fund the operations of the line for the first seven years. The cost of operations is estimated to be less than $8 million a year by the time the local governments take the reins in 2017.

Firms Eager to Study Illiana Toll Road

Indiana - The Indiana Department of Transportation has had a strong response to their request for a feasibility study of the Illiana Expressway. INDOT reported that at least six firms submitted proposals to study traffic and projected revenue for the proposed toll road by the deadline Thursday.

The study will determine if it is possible for the Expressway to be built and run as a “public private partnership facility” with no funding from the government, according to the request for proposals. A preliminary corridor for the expressway will also be identified for the route from I-57 in Illinois to I-65 in Indiana.

Gov. Mitch Daniels had originally hoped that as a private toll road, an accelerated timeline could be pursued and construction could be under way by late 2009/early 2010. However the General Assembly disagreed, and refused to pass the authorizing legislation.

In March, INDOT Commissioner Karl Browning presented a more realistic construction schedule for the project for public officials, saying the groundbreaking could happen between 2014 and 2017.

Missouri Tries Passing Lane Experiment

CAMDENTON, Missouri – The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission is expected to approve this week what will be a model project for a new kind of passing lane in the U.S. Using a European concept of alternating passing lanes, normal two-lane and four-lane roads will alternate passing lanes every mile or so between the north and south lanes.

The $50 million pilot project will be tried on a 16-mile section of Highway 5 between Lebanon and Camdenton, a winding, and sometimes narrow two-lane road between I-44 and the Lake of the Ozarks.

Missouri’s chief highway engineer, Kevin Keith, learned of the idea on a European road tour arranged by AASHTO several years ago for various transportation officials. The lanes, dubbed “2+1” roads by AASHTO, were concluded as effective in rural areas at addressing both traffic congestion and safety problems in a report from the trip. “You get the same traffic volume and safety benefits of a four-lane highway. That’s the theory,” said Keith.