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TDOT proposes private-managed toll lanes to alleviate congestion




TDOT Commissioner and Deputy Governor Butch Eley speaks to reporters at the State Capitol on Wednesday about ways the state can raise money to fund road projects.Vivian Jones / Main Street Nashville/dicksonpost.com

TDOT Commissioner and Deputy Governor Butch Eley speaks to reporters at the State Capitol on Wednesday about ways the state can raise money to fund road projects.Vivian Jones / Main Street Nashville/dicksonpost.com

As Tennessee faces $26 billion in unfunded road congestion projects, Gov. Bill Lee’s administration will ask the legislature to authorize partnerships with private companies to manage alternative toll or express lanes to alleviate congestion and to help raise revenue for road projects.

As the state’s population has grown, gas tax revenue is no longer keeping pace with increasing congestion and new road needs. Lee has said he will not raise the gas tax rate, and opposes taking on any debt to build new roads. Lee also opposes imposing tolls for all drivers on certain roads, transportation commissioner Butch Eley told reporters on Wednesday.

“The governor is not for building toll roads from point A to point B, but what he is willing to consider is to look at how we can add additional lanes,” Eley said.

Much more revenue is needed to keep up with increasing congestion demands. Each year, Tennessee collects about $1.2 billion in gas taxes annually to use toward road projects. About half of that, Eley says, goes toward maintenance of existing roads and bridges. That leaves just $500 million for TDOT to use toward new construction projects – of which there are now between $26 billion and $34 billion, according to studies by the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.”

“It doesn’t take long to realize that … we’ve got a little bit of a math problem to continue making the investments that we need to to kind of get ahead of the curve,” Eley said Wednesday.

So, TDOT officials are asking the legislature to allow the state to partner with private companies on long-term leases to build, maintain, and charge for use of toll lanes or express lanes – TDOT is calling them “choice lanes” – as many other states including Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Virginia have done.

Express lanes have just one exit rather than multiple exits every few miles available to drivers in the other lanes. Drivers are charged a fee for using the express lanes.

“All we’re doing here is asking for the ability to look at this as an option,” Eley said. “Right now we can’t do what other states around the country are doing as it relates to public-private partnerships.”

Eley says if the legislature authorizes TDOT to pursue toll lanes, the agency will conduct a study to identify the areas of highest congestion where “choice lanes” would be beneficial.

Eley and his team have visited at least five other states that have experienced high growth where such lanes exist to learn about how the system could work. In other states, Eley says public-private toll lanes have financed between 50% and 100% of the project.

The state would maintain ownership of all roads impacted by the public-private partnership.

Cost to drivers to use the private-run “choice lanes” is not yet known. TDOT is proposing that a state oversight board would manage the partnerships with private entities. The state board would set the rate.

Looking to the coming year, Eley says the department’s top budget priorities are alleviating traffic congestion in both urban and rural areas and speeding delivery of road improvement projects. Right now, road projects take an average of 15 years to complete, from start to finish.

“Every bit of this is to add additional capacity,” Eley said. “We can add additional lanes to be able to allow people the choice to move faster, and get to where they’re going faster.”

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