Monday, January 2, 2017

01/02/2017 No Federal Funding of Road Tollways for Interstates, Bridges, Etc.

You're driving along an Interstate, perhaps I-95, minding your own business when suddenly, up ahead, there's a toll booth! 

And another one after that. And still more toll booths. Does the Federal Government know about this, you wonder?

Is the State trying to balance its budget by "taxing" out-of-State motorists?

Didn't you already pay for this road with your gas tax?

And so, you go home and write a letter to the President asking how in the world these States can be charging you for use of an Interstate highway that you already paid for.
In the 1939 report to Congress, Toll Roads and Free Roads, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) rejected the toll option for financing Interstate construction because most Interstate corridors would not generate enough toll revenue to retire the bonds that would be issued to finance them. In part, the report attributed this conclusion to "the traffic-repelling tendency of the proposed toll-road system." Although some corridors had enough traffic to support bond financing, the report predicted that motorists would stay on the parallel toll-free roads to a large extent.
After extensive debate, Congress decided in 1956 to authorize the BPR to incorporate toll facilities in the Interstate System to ensure connectivity without added expense. Section 113(a) of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 stated:
Upon a finding by the Secretary of Commerce that such action will promote the development of an integrated Interstate System, the Secretary is authorized to approve as part of the Interstate System any toll road, bridge, or tunnel, now or hereafter constructed, which meets the standards adopted for the improvement of projects located on the Interstate System, whenever such toll road, bridge, or tunnel is located on a route heretofore or hereafter designated as a part of the Interstate System: 

Provided, That no Federal-aid highway funds shall be expended for the construction, reconstruction, or improvement of any such toll road except to the extent hereafter permitted by law: 

Provided further, That no Federal-aid highway funds shall be expended for the construction, reconstruction, or improvement of any such toll bridge or tunnel except to the extent now or hereafter permitted by law.
On August 21, 1957, the BPR announced that it had added 2,100 miles of toll roads in 15 States to the Interstate System. The inclusions had been recommended by the State highway departments and approved by the BPR. The additions included 1,837 miles in operation. A BPR press release explained:
Inclusion of the 2,102 miles of toll roads in the Interstate System will not affect their status as toll roads. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 permits this, although no Federal-aid funds may be used for their improvement.

There is a glaring error in Interstate Highway, etc. funding. It needs to be added that if a state wants a toll road it must be constructed totally, from its beginning, without federal funds compromised. In simpler words, it means existing roads constructed with federal funds cannot be converted to toll roads.

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