White House Plan ‘Shines a Bright, New Light’ on Tolling, Stewart Op Ed States
Within 72 hours of the release of the White House’s new national infrastructure plan, IBTTA President Tim Stewart was out with an op ed in The Hill, pointing to the “bright, new light” it shines on tolling as an option for local revenue generation and congestion relief.
“By offering greater flexibility for states to toll interstate highways to help cover reconstruction costs, the White House plan addresses a long-standing obstacle to reversing a decades-long crisis in transportation infrastructure funding,” writes Stewart, Executive Director of the E-470 Public Highway Authority in Denver.
The op ed, published in one of the most influential Washington Beltway publications, stresses the decades of underfunding that have left America with a highway system that needs “more maintenance and reconstruction than any jurisdiction can afford, at a higher cost than decision-makers have been willing to pay.” The result, Stewart writes, is that “the White House plan must strike a careful balance between the urgency of the infrastructure deficit, limited public appetite or political support for higher taxes, and the simple reality that no level of government has the financial resources to solve the problem on its own.”
That doesn’t mean tolling is the right answer for every highway project, Stewart says. But with 129 tolling entities already operating 327 roads, bridges, and tunnels in 35 states, “it’s an essential tool in the funding toolbox, a proven solution that speeds up projects and delivers a steady, reliable funding stream to supplement scarce public dollars.”
The op ed hammers home the point with one chilling mental image: “Just stop for a second and think where all those drivers would be without the 327 toll facilities,” such as the Golden Gate and Chesapeake Bay Bridges or the Kansas, Oklahoma, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida Turnpikes to name a few.
Stewart points to the economic benefits the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area has seen in E-470’s 27 years of operation: $35.8 billion in additional real estate valuation along the corridor, 132,000 jobs, 407,000 new local residents, and the 14.8 million additional hours those residents would spend in traffic each year if not for their local toll road.
“At the right time and in the right place, toll roads are already creating opportunities for American citizens and businesses that would not otherwise be available to them,” Stewart concludes. “With the White House infrastructure plan bringing a long-standing funding crisis into focus, tolling stands ready to help build the solution, and we commend the President for perceiving the opportunity.”
Click here to read the full op ed by Tim Stewart, President of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association and Executive Director of the E-470 Public Highway Authority.