In This Issue

	Missouri Highway Deaths Decline
	Hearings Scheduled for Virginia HOT Lanes
	Private Toll Roads and Tunnel Under Pearl Harbor Possible
	Congestion Pricing Study Overwhelmingly Approved
	New NB I-5 Lane Opens to Traffic
	Pa. Congressmen Resist Tolling I-80
	GDOT Solicits Bids for Atlanta Toll Lanes
	Virginia’s ‘Civil Remedial Fees’ Challenged
	City Backs $17.8B Road, Transit Plan

Missouri Highway Deaths Decline

Missouri - The nation has seen the biggest decline in highway deaths in 15 years, according to recently released 2006 statistics, with Missouri leading the pack as the state with the sharpest decrease. In 2006, the state recorded 161 fewer highway deaths than 2005, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in figures released Monday.

The NHTSA also reported that in 2006, the nation as a whole saw the sharpest decline in highway deaths since 1992, with 868 fewer people killed on the roads. Twenty-seven states, including Missouri, had decreases in highway deaths. “To me, that is 868 families that didn’t get the terrible call that a loved one was killed in a motor vehicle accident,” NHTSA administrator Nicole Nason said Monday.

MoDOT officials say they credit the decline to a couple of highway projects, including spending $50 million to install median guard cable on busy highways, and the Smooth Roads Initiative, which spent $400 million resurfacing 2,200 miles of highway. The initiative also added rumble strips to shoulders and brighter signs to roadways. State officials say statistics have clearly shown that the median cables are making a difference, as its cross median fatalities was nearly cut in half last year – to 26 from 50 in 2005. “It catches every car that tries to go through them,” said Jeff Biggs, a MoDOT spokesman. “It undoubtedly has saved a number of lives.”

Congratulations to Missouri and the other 49 states who collectively achieved this notable outcome. Now its time to increase that improvement by a factor of 10. TW

Hearings Scheduled for Virginia HOT Lanes

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The Virginia Department of Transportation is holding a series of public meetings to discuss the proposed high occupancy toll lanes for I-95/395 from Washington to Prince William County. The plan would convert existing HOV lanes on the stretch of roadway into HOT lanes.

However, they would still be free for vehicles with three or more occupants, and those with one or two people could pay a toll. The fees would vary based on the amount of congestion. The project also calls for building another lane, for a total of three HOT lanes. VDOT eventually plans to extend the HOT lanes south from Dumfries to Massaponax.

Meetings are scheduled for Alexandria Arlington, Woodbridge, Fredricksburg and Spotsylvania.

Private Toll Roads and Tunnel Under Pearl Harbor Possible

PEARL HARBOR – A private, elevated toll road and a tunnel under Pearl Harbor could be the answer to the Oahu gridlock, according to a Hawaii state representative. Legislator Rida Cabanilla said the plan would make it possible to go from Iroquois point to town in close to 20 minutes.

“I want them to think there is an option for us, a solution to build the road right now without waiting to build the rail in 2012,” said Cabanilla, who believes rail is not the answer for everyone. “Even if every seat on the rail is taken there will still be traffic, gridlock, not everybody will be convinced to ride the rail.”

Cabanilla’s bill would allow public-private partnerships between the state and private contractors to build and manage toll roads. She believes the state should look at the elevated Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in Tampa, Florida as an example of the private sector collecting tolls from the users of the roadway, and thus saving them 95 miles (1 ½ hours) on a trip from Virginia Beach/Norfolk to New York.

Private companies have already expressed interest in building toll roads in Hawaii, which is currently prohibited by state law. The new legislation would lift those restrictions.

Congestion Pricing Study Overwhelmingly Approved

New York – State lawmakers in Albany gave Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal a boost Thursday by overwhelmingly approving a study of the plan. While the move is a major step in the right direction for the plan, it is a long way from the immediate, definite approval the mayor originally hoped for; substantial practical and political barriers remain.

The 17-member commission will study congestion pricing, and other alternative methods to ease gridlock. The commission. whose members will be appointed by state and city leaders, will make recommendations which must be approved by the City Council as well as lawmakers. March, 2008 is the deadline to pass new regulations for New York to become the first city in the nation charging motorists to drive into its central business region.

Some say the commission’s work may be even more difficult now after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled a proposal Wednesday to hike tolls and commuter rail and subway fares. The entire study hinges on the city’s receiving an anticipated $200 million or more in federal transportation grant money. If it is not chosen, the commission will be dissolved.

New NB I-5 Lane Opens to Traffic

SEATTLE – Traffic flow along Interstate 5 is improving as a new lane opened to commuters between 41st Street and Route 2 in Everett Thursday morning. Washington Department of Transportation officials expect it to help ease one of the worst traffic jams in the state.

The new lane extends nearly a mile through one of the most congested sections of I-5, and is part of a $263 million freeway-widening project that began in September 2005. DOT spokesman Ryan Bianchi said ultimately, there will be four new lanes through Everett – two HOV lanes and two general purpose lanes.

By the end of the year, Bianchi said, a similar southbound lane will open along I-5, as well as two HOV lanes. Construction crews expect to open new lanes to drivers and the new interchanges by end of summer 2008, three years earlier than originally scheduled, according to the WSDOT project website.

This project is a home run for Atkinson-CH2M Hill and WSDOT. The team has worked together in an exemplary way with great results. I had the opportunity of providing partnering facilitation services to them and saw their work first hand. Congratulations to all for their success. TW

Pa. Congressmen Resist Tolling I-80

HARRISBURG - Two Pennsylvania congressman have proposed a constitutional amendment that undermines the state’s plan to institute tolls on I-80, which was expected to produce hundreds of million of dollars for highway and mass transit funding. Republican Reps. John Peterson and Phil English’s amendment to bar the use of federal dollars to institute tolls on I-80 has angered Gov. Ed Rendell, who says it would, at the very least, delay the badly needed revenue for mass transit agencies that was part of the state’s nearly $1 billion-a-year transportation plan.

The governor, who signed the $104 billion appropriations bill last week, has vowed in light of the amendment to reinstate the plan to lease the Pennsylvania turnpike, on which he backed down as part of a compromise with Republican legislators. Although Democratic congressmen have promised the governor that the provision would be removed in a House-Senate Conference committee, Rendell says if this did happen, it would not be until the fall.

In a news conference Wednesday, the governor said he would put out the request for bids to lease the turnpike, and have the bidding completed within 30 days. “We can’t wait,” Rendell told reporters. “We have to have a fallback position.”

The state estimates it can generate an average of $946 million annually over the next decade with I-80 tolls and borrowing against future turnpike revenues to help fix crumbling highways and bridges and bring relief to impoverished mass transit systems across the state.

President Bush is also threatening to veto the $104 billion House appropriations bill because it exceeds his budget limit.

The dark clouds of a federalism fight loom on the horizon. This latest action by members of Congress and the letter from Representative Oberstar reveal much of what many already knew about how Congress feels about the states acting independent of their jurisdiction. Federalism is a fight that will make party differences among the states fall to the wayside and galvanize them in ways that will prove to be powerful and effective. TW

GDOT Solicits Bids for Atlanta Toll Lanes

Georgia - The Georgia Department of Transportation has put out a request for bids to construct high occupancy toll lanes along I-20 in the metro Atlanta area. The agency plans to add two HOT lanes in each direction on a 12-mile section of I-20, east of I-285 to Turner Hill Road on the east side of Atlanta, DOT officials reported in a press release.

A pre-bidding discussion about the expansion project has been scheduled for Aug. 2. The I-20 project will take top priority in the state over a number of proposals, such as the truck-only lane proposals for SR 400, I-285, I-75 and I-575. DOT officials plan to announce an additional step which will allow public input in the near future.

Virginia’s ‘Civil Remedial Fees’ Challenged

Virginia - Residents in Virginia are taking up arms against the new “Civil Remedial Fees,” a portion of the compromise transportation package passed by the 2007 General Assembly which imposed stiffer penalties on drivers who seriously and repeatedly break the law. The abuser fee portion of the package is estimated to generate an additional $60 million each year for statewide highway maintenance.

As of Wednesday, over 134,000 people had signed a petition for the immediate repeal, some saying if the state is going to rely on people breaking the law for transportation funding, the revenue should at least go toward public safety. Virginia lawmakers have labored for two years in order to come up with a compromise package that would pass the House, which has not allowed any sort of a statewide gas tax increase.

It has been estimated that each year officials delayed coming up with solutions for transportation issues across the commonwealth adds another billion dollars to the cost of any solution. Most lawmakers agree the 53-page transportation package is far from perfect. However, it has also been estimated that if the proposed civil remedial fees been in effect last year, only 2.5 percent of Virginia drivers would have been affected, leaving. 97.5 percent of Virginians untouched. Legislators who voted for the fees say that while the legislation may use the term “misdemeanor” without specifying or excluding particular offenses, any offense less serious than reckless driving does not trigger the fines.

City Backs $17.8B Road, Transit Plan

Washington - Bellevue city officials stepped up to give the first major city endorsement for an extensive $17.8 billion transportation measure for the fall ballot. The city council voted 5-2 for the measure, saying that while the “Roads & Transit” plan was not perfect, it was the best bet in protecting the region’s economy and ability to deal with immense growth. Before the vote, council members heard testimony from Eastside residents, local organizations and businesses regarding the pros and cons of the package.

Mass transit has been a topic of discussion among local officials for the past three decades without results. “This is the time to act,” said Councilman Phil Noble. “This is the time to do something.”

The Nov. 6 ballot issue is backed by Boeing, Puget Sound Energy and the Bellevue Downtown Association, who each had representatives speak in its favor. The measure would use sales and car-tab taxes to fund approximately $10.8 billion in transit improvements and $7 billion in road construction, in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties. Bellevue city officials said the package would fund nearly $5.6 billion in road and transit projects on the Eastside. He said he would procure a new car.