VMT Fee Should Replace Gas Tax, ULI Report Suggests

Congress should consider initiating a vehicle miles traveled fee to replace the gasoline tax currently funding federal highway and transit programs, an infrastructure report issued by the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young recommends. The report also calls for boosting transportation investment through other sources.

This report is the fourth in an annual series. (Inside Lane note: Read and download the report here.) It focuses on the pressing need for long-term and integrated investments in transportation and other infrastructure.

“Investing in infrastructure — done well and strategically — can help ensure increasing prosperity and the rising standards of living that Americans have come to expect,” the report contends. “Many countries around the world — China, India, and those in Europe — understand the infrastructure investment imperative and are working to build the transportation, water, and energy systems that will grow their economies for future generations.”

There have been a few hopeful steps towards an adequately funded transportation system nationwide, the report notes. It highlights several transportation and finance programs in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act such as those for high-speed rail, discretionary multimodal grants, and Build America Bonds.

The document includes examples of a few transportation-oriented public/private partnerships currently underway in the United States, and notes how these can offer “guideposts” for similar efforts elsewhere. These examples include the Florida Department of Transportation’s agreements for constructing a $2 billion tolled expressway expansion along Interstate 595 and a $1 billion tunnel for the Port of Miami, and the collaboration between the Texas Department of Transportation and a private operator for building High Occupancy/Toll lanes as part of a $4 billion widening and upgrade for Interstate 635.

One means of further encouraging those partnerships, the report suggests, is a national infrastructure bank based on Europe’s model for financing and attracting private capital. “A federal infrastructure bank could help establish procurement protocols and standards, facilitating the bidding process,” the report states.

The 102-page report, “Infrastructure 2010: An Investment Imperative,” is available at the Urban Land Institute website.

But after the first of the state’s two public hearings on the study, the very idea of evaluating an eventual VMT tax is proving to be polarizing and politically risky.

Go to DC Streetsblog to see the entire item.

The spending goes mainly to road, bridge work that bolsters trucking infrastructure. The latest figure, posted on the Recovery.gov site, is up from $10.264 billion as of March 26. DOT has made nearly $38 billion available to states for infrastructure projects under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and issues payments once it confirms work has been done.

Go to the Journal of Commerce to read the entire story.

CO 96 wood timber bridge over draw in Kiowa County, 3.3 miles east of Crowley County line.

By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

A total of $25.3 million in state highway projects funded by the FASTER program is in CDOT’s pipeline, including replacement of four wooden bridges along a state highway where volunteer firefighters died in 2008 crossing where a fifth wooden bridge had been destroyed in a wildfire.

The 10 separate projects include $8.2 million in bridge replacements and $17.1 million in road safety work.

The list includes those under contract, those with bids already taken and those currently out for bids.

FASTER, which stands for Funding Advancement for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery, was passed by the legislature last year. It represents the first new local funding to come in to state transportation projects in 19 years, since the gas tax was last increased. Some of FASTER’s revenue is allocated to cities and counties for local roads.

FASTER established two separate fees, earmarked to road safety projects and to replacement of the 124 poor-rated bridges on the state highway network.

The annual road safety fee is a sliding scale based on vehicle weight. Ranging from $16 for light vehicles to $39 for vehicles over eight tons, the owner of the average passenger car between one and two and a half tons would pay $23.

The bridge fee is also a sliding scale based on weight, and is being phased in over three years. Currently at $9 for the average passenger car, it will be $18 in two more years.

As a result, the owner of an average passenger car would pay $41 in 2011-12 between the two fees.

Among the bridges being replaced this year are four wooden structures on CO 96 in Crowley and Kiowa counties in southeast Colorado. It was on this corridor that a fifth wooden bridge west of Ordway burned in the grassfires of April 2008, and a fire truck from the Olney Springs volunteers rushing to help protect Ordway plunged over the abutment and into the Numa Drain Canal. Two firefighters died in the crash. The structures had been built in the 1930s and 1940s.

Here is the list of FASTER projects currently in the process of contracting:

FASTER Safety Projects

Under contract:
• I-70 between the Eisenhower Tunnel and Bakerville: Upgrades median barrier and resurfaces I-70. Asphalt Specialties, $2,955,811.15
• I-25 between approximately CO 392 and Harmony Road: Rubblizes and repairs failing concrete on I-25. Coulson Excavating, $9,384,771.55

Bids received:
• I-70 between Eisenhower Tunnel and Silverthorne: Installs electronic signage to manage truck speeds and the westbound runaway truck ramp. Sturgeon Electric, $577,954
• I-70 at Georgetown Hill: Installs electronic signage to warn motorists of slow moving or stopped traffic. Sturgeon Electric, $122,513
• US 285 between Bailey and Richmond Hill: Paves US 285 in asphalt, installs guardrail, improves lane transitions at the end of the existing climbing lanes and widens shoulders. LaFarge North American, dba LaFarge West Inc., $2,662,412.20

Currently under ad for bids:
• CO 93 at CO 170, Eldorado Springs: Upgrades the traffic signal at the intersection. Engineer’s estimate, $330,000
• CO 392 at Weld County Road 31: Installs a new traffic signal at the intersection. Engineer’s estimate, $300,000
• I-76 near Hudson: Installs median cable guardrail to help prevent crossover accidents.- Engineer’s estimate, $750,000

FASTER Bridge Projects
• CO 69 over Turkey Creek: Bridge replacement. Engineer’s estimate, $3 million
• CO 96 over Draw and Black Draw: Replaces four bridges. Engineer’s estimate, $5.2 million

RTD Board decides against 2010 FasTracks tax vote

Progress continues with 47 miles of new rail under construction or under contract by end of year

Denver, April 13, 2010 – The Regional Transportation District (RTD) Board of Directors decided at a Special Board Meeting tonight, April 13, not to pursue a 2010 sales tax election for the FasTracks transit expansion program. For months, the agency has been evaluating cost, schedule and polling data, and considering public feedback on whether to seek an increase in the RTD sales tax of an additional four-tenths of a percent (four pennies on a $10 purchase) to complete the FasTracks program by 2017.

“What it really comes down to is the state of the economy,” said Lee Kemp, RTD Board Chair. “While we’re seeing some recovery, this is still a tough time for a lot of folks, and we just don’t feel it’s prudent to go to the ballot while so many people are still facing personal challenges.”

RTD has a $2.4 billion budget gap to complete the FasTracks program, and has determined that a sales tax increase is needed to complete the program sooner rather than later. The RTD Board will continue to consider a sales tax increase every year until FasTracks is fully funded. If RTD does not secure additional revenues, current estimates indicate that the entire FasTracks system will not be completed until 2042.

While RTD will not seek a tax election in 2010, the agency is committed to implementing the whole FasTracks program, and will have 47 miles of new rail lines under construction or under contract by the end of this year.

FasTracks is RTD’s voter-approved transit program to expand rail and bus service throughout the RTD service area. FasTracks will build 122 miles of commuter rail and light rail, 18 miles of bus rapid transit service, add 21,000 new parking spaces, redevelop Denver Union Station and redirect bus service to better connect the eight-county District. The FasTracks investment initiative is projected to create more than 10,000 construction-related jobs during the height of construction, and will pump billions of dollars into the regional economy over the next 20 years.

Go to the Denver Post to see the entire article.

Colorado Senate Scheduled to Vote on Highway Robbery

By a vote of 38 to 27, the Colorado House of Representatives voted on April 2 to approve HB 10-1387, which seeks to annually divert approximately $20 million ̶ $200 million over the coming decade ̶ away from the Highway User Tax Fund (HUTF), which pays for bridge and highway repairs, to the Department of Revenue for administering/issuing driver’s licenses and associated examinations, renewals, permits, and State identification cards.

The Colorado Senate is scheduled to debate the bill on Second Reading tomorrow, Thursday, April 8, on the Senate floor.

“When legislators and Governor Ritter approved last year’s vehicle registration fee increase (SB 09-108 or the so-called “FASTER” bill), they did so recognizing that the State of Colorado owns $500 million in annual unfunded deferred maintenance backlog. That vehicle registration fee increase is a vital step toward repairing the State’s 128 structurally-deficient bridges and hundreds of miles of deteriorating highways,” said Colorado Contractors Association Executive Director Tony Milo.

“How do the Governor and those who voted for FASTER honestly tell their constituents that the number of structurally-deficient bridges and poor highways required a vehicle registration fees increase last year, but then turnaround this year and divert tens of millions away from those same structurally-deficient bridges and high-priority highway projects,” Milo continued. “Do legislators really believe the public and media will endorse diverting $20 million per year ̶ $200 million over the next decade ̶ away from road and bridge projects after they just approved FASTER? It’s fiscally reckless and wholly unnecessary,” said Milo.

“We respectfully, but in the strongest possible terms, urge every Senator and Governor Ritter to reject HB10-1387,” Milo concluded. “Approving that bill in any form will exacerbate Colorado’s challenges in addressing the state’s structurally-deficient bridge and highway maintenance.”

Metro transit officials had warned that the agency would have to dramatically scale back bus and Call-A-Ride service. MetroLink trains would likely have run less often, too, putting jobs and classrooms out of reach to thousands who depend on public transportation.

Instead, Baer said, the agency’s work begins today on restoring bus routes, possibly as soon as June. Bus drivers will have to be hired and certified. Metro will take its restoration plan to its governing board later this month and will then hold public hearings.

Go to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to read the entire article.

The project will widen U.S. 36 between Denver and Boulder, rebuild the Wadsworth interchange, add carpool and toll lanes and bus stops and build a bike trail near the highway. The massive price tag means it will have to be built in phases.

Federal officials will be in the Denver area this week to review plans for the highway corridor and discuss ways of “leveraging” the $10 million federal stimulus grant the project received in February, Broomfield transportation manager Debra Baskett said.

The meeting is a follow-up on CDOT`s request for $300 million from the federal government`s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grant program.

Go to the Broomfield Enterprise to read the entire story.

House members voted Friday to reject the Senate’s attempt to limit the fines paid by owners of trailers of any size who turn in their vehicle-registration fees late. The Senate is now in the position of acceding to the House’s more limited fee-break proposal or killing the bill altogether, likely finishing the session without any substantial changes to one of the biggest bills of 2009.

Go to the Denver Business Journal to read the entire story.