Surface Transportation News: Indiana takes the lead on Interstate tolling

In this issue:

• Indiana leads on Interstate tolling
• Virginia plans missing link in Beltway managed lanes
• Dashboard screens vs. buttons: change is on the way
• Tesla enters the robotaxi market
• Trucking organization proposes repeal of tax on new trucks
• New Washington State P3 law has bipartisan support
• News Notes
• Quotable Quotes

Indiana Takes the Lead on Interstate Tolling

Last month, Indiana announced that it would be the first state to rebuild its aging Interstate highways using toll financing. It will not be the last to take this step.

Legislation authorizing the state department of transportation (DOT) to use toll financing to rebuild all six of the state’s non-tolled long-distance Interstates passed via a large, bipartisan majority and was signed into law in mid-June by Gov. Mike Braun.

How did this big change become so popular? The decline of fuel tax revenues was a significant factor. Because Indiana is only 149 miles wide, many out-of-state truckers and motorists can drive through the state without purchasing fuel. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) and state chambers of commerce are also concerned by the gradual decline in fuel tax revenues due to ever-higher new-car fuel economy, the growth of hybrids and electric vehicles, and reduced annual vehicle miles of travel (VMT).

Congress has ignored repeated studies by the Transportation Research Board and other researchers on the need to reconstruct Interstates that are well past their 50-year design life. Since Congress is clearly not prepared to act, it will be up to states to take charge of rebuilding these vital corridors which, despite their name, are owned and operated by state governments.

Indiana DOT started building a case for toll-financed Interstate reconstruction a decade ago. First was a tolling feasibility study by HDR in 2017, and then a major Statewide Interstate Tolling Strategic Plan developed by HNTB in 2018. The 2018 governor took a “not on my watch” position, but seven years later, the stars aligned for Indiana’s landmark legislation.

As the first mover on this endeavor, it’s important for INDOT to get this right. Here are some recommendations for addressing several key issues.

The first is getting federal permission to implement tolls on Interstates. The HNTB study reported that INDOT had been assured (in 2018) by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that it could use the “bridge exception” to implement tolls. A current provision in federal law permits tolling of currently non-tolled bridges on Interstates. Whether that provision will pass muster for tolling every overcrossing on a long-distance Interstate remains to be seen. If that works, no problem.

But Indiana could begin its program by rebuilding two Interstates using two more straightforward federal tolling provisions. The first is the Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program (ISRRPP), which allows three states to each rebuild one Interstate with toll financing. This could be used for one long-distance Interstate. The other project would use a slot in the Value Pricing program under which a state may toll all lanes of an Interstate to address congestion; this could be used for an urban Interstate (such as I-465 beltway around Indianapolis). And for the 2026 federal surface transportation reauthorization, Indiana’s congressional delegation could then support liberalizing ISRRPP so it would allow every state to toll all its Interstates (a measure Reason Foundation has suggested for that reauthorization bill).

A second concern is fairness to Interstate users, both motorists and truckers. Auto and trucking groups have long decried “double taxation” on tolled highways—i.e., having to pay both tolls and fuel taxes on the same highway. As part of the transition from state fuel taxes to state-authorized tolling, Indiana could offer refunds of state fuel taxes for state residents’ and truckers’ trips on rebuilt tolled Interstates.

INDOT’s likely first reaction would be “We need every dollar of that declining fuel tax revenue.” But this ignores the fact that it costs a lot more to build and maintain a lane-mile of Interstate than a lane-mile of an ordinary highway. That’s why Interstate toll rates (where they exist) are generally twice as much per mile as fuel taxes. So INDOT would do better by offloading Interstate reconstruction and maintenance, so that nearly all its fuel tax revenue (apart from some fuel tax rebates) could be devoted to its non-tolled roadways. 

A third recommendation for INDOT and other toll supporters is to focus on the reconstruction, not the tolls. Reconstruction is the goal; toll finance is the means. Indiana’s Interstates rank in the bottom third of states in terms of pavement condition. Their heavy truck traffic wears them out faster than if there were less truck traffic, but state and federal projections show truck traffic increasing twice as fast as personal vehicle traffic in the coming decades. In addition to reconstruction, some of Indiana’s long-distance Interstates are potential candidates for adding dedicated truck lanes.

Last but hardly least, Indiana should seriously consider procuring these major reconstruction projects as long-term design-build-finance-operate-maintain (DBFOM) public-private partnerships (P3s), financed via the projected toll revenues. As “brownfield” concessions, these projects might even attract up-front concession fees from equity investors. Using toll revenue bonds would provide an important reality check on traffic projections and the financing plan, limiting or eliminating any potential for taxpayer bailouts of a project gone wrong. Bondholders also insist on serious maintenance accounts and reserve funds, to enable such projects to survive economic downturns.

Fortunately, Indiana law already grants P3 authority to both INDOT and the Indiana Finance Authority. The state also has experience dealing with a large brownfield concession via the long-term P3 lease of the Indiana Toll Road.

These factors suggest that Indiana is in a good position to succeed in its role as the first state to rebuild and modernize its aging Interstates via toll financing. With eight states having done Interstate tolling feasibility studies in recent years, I would not be surprised to see a few of them—perhaps Michigan and Wisconsin—looking seriously into following Indiana’s footsteps.
[Note: An earlier version of this article appeared in the June 2025 issue of Public Works Financing.]

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Virginia Plans Missing Link in Beltway Express Lanes
By Baruch Feigenbaum

Northern Virginia has one of the most comprehensive priced managed lane networks in the country. By November, the region will have 86.7 centerline miles of managed lanes, including the longest continuous linear section in the country, I-95/I-395 from north of Fredericksburg to Washington, D.C. Only one major freeway, SR 28, doesn’t have managed lanes. And that’s because the traffic congestion doesn’t justify adding them yet. And the region has 28.2 centerline miles of toll road lanes connecting Falls Church and Leesburg.

After the 495 Next project opens in November, there will be one 7.8 centerline-mile hole in the network, the segment of I-95/I-495 between Springfield and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Currently, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is conducting the Southside Express Lanes Study to determine the feasibility of managed lanes in this corridor.

Soon after the initial traffic studies, VDOT came to the conclusion that managed lanes are feasible and that they would be more effective if extended into Maryland. Much of the travel in the corridor is between Northern Virginia and the National Harbor Area (home to a large conference hotel and convention center) or I-295, which runs into the District of Columbia. VDOT reached out to the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) to gauge their interest in expanding the lanes 2.8 miles across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and into Prince George’s County, Maryland.

MDOT has been supportive of the study. However, for any project to move forward, Maryland Governor Wes Moore wants to see “local support” from Prince George’s County lawmakers serving in the General Assembly. Thus far, a number of regionwide transportation groups have reached out to local lawmakers to gauge support and found limited interest.

VDOT has hosted Southside Express Lanes open houses, in which the public can comment on the project. Concerns from Virginia residents have focused on how these lanes affect traffic flow at their terminus or how this project will increase noise where they live. Some Virginia residents dream of a world where heavy rail is built across the Wilson Bridge, a project the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has studied and declared infeasible for the foreseeable future. But most see value in the managed lane concept, even if they have concerns about the execution.

Maryland residents in the corridor have a very different take. Many suggested that the project was being forced upon them by Virginia. They don’t seem interested in tolling in any form. They suggested Maryland can create a different solution (although no one has mentioned a viable alternative yet).

Managed lanes are not just a Virginia thing. The first managed lanes on SR 91 were actually created in 1995 in California (based on a paper by Reason’s co-founder Bob Poole). The concept has spread to states across the political spectrum, including red states (like Florida, Texas, and Utah), purple states (like Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia), and blue states (like Colorado, Minnesota, and Washington). In fact, Maryland has its own managed lanes on I-95 north of Baltimore. The state just finished extending the initial 7.0-centerline miles an additional 7.5-centerline miles. But given that all politics is local, a successful managed lanes project in Baltimore doesn’t move the needle in suburban Washington, D.C.

A Virginia-only project would be less than ideal from a design perspective. The lanes would have to be tapered before the bridge, with one ending at U.S. 1 and another merging into traffic. The current alignment features two to three general-purpose lanes for local traffic (with access to all exits) and two to three general-purpose lanes for express traffic (with access to limited exits). This alignment would need to be changed. I’ve never liked this type of split lane setup because it reduces the number of vehicles (and people) per lane a highway can accommodate, so I consider fixing this split a bonus for the project, but traffic would have to split again going onto the Woodrow Wilson bridge.

Currently, Transurban operates the I-495 Express Lanes, and having the company operate the extension would provide the most seamless travel experience. However, with the lanes ending before the bridge, it might not be financially feasible for Transurban or any private entity to operate the lanes. In initial simulations, travelers were less likely to use the lanes if they ended before the bridge than if they ended after. The alternative would be for the state to operate the lanes as it does with the I-66 congestion-priced lanes inside the Beltway, as well as some other toll facilities across the state.

This isn’t the first managed lanes proposal in the Maryland suburbs of D.C. that has run into political problems. Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan proposed managed lanes on I-270 and I-495, which would have been the country’s largest P3 managed lane project. However, strong opposition from residents of central Montgomery County and the current governor’s desire to create his own project led to the demise of that project.

The two states have less than one month to move forward on the project. By late August, each state has to decide which projects to submit for inclusion in the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ (the regional metropolitan planning organization) next transportation improvement plan. I’m hopeful that Maryland officials will agree that managed lanes are the best approach. But time is running out. Regardless of what Maryland officials decide, Virginia needs to be ready to move forward with the project to finish the missing link in the Northern Virginia network.

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Dashboard Screens vs. Buttons: Change Is Under Way

In previous issues of this newsletter, I have expressed concerns over the safety implications of automakers shifting many (or even all) control functions to multi-level data screens. Yes, they look cool, and the nerds who create them are proud of their comprehensiveness. But if you have to go through several steps to find the windshield wiper control while driving at 65 mph, taking your eyes off the road could easily lead to an accident (politically correct today as a “crash”). Fortunately, as a lengthy piece in Wired (May 5) makes clear, European automakers are starting to come to grips with these safety implications.

A prime mover in this change is the European New Car Assessment Program (EuroNCAP), which does crash-testing analogous to what our own National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) does. Starting in January of this year, the organization’s new vehicle safety ratings will give the highest score only to those with physical controls (knobs, buttons, etc.) for important features (such as wipers, turn signals, hazard lights, etc.)

European vehicle producers are slowly getting the message. Volkswagen’s design chief Andreas Mindt promised change in upcoming vehicles, admitting that its “digitized” 2019 Golf Mk8 was not “intuitive to operate” as claimed. He told Wired, “We will never, ever make this mistake anymore . . . It’s not a phone, it’s a car.” A few other auto companies are starting to reintroduce physical controls, but this is not yet widespread. A classic example is that several YouTube tutorials are available to explain, step by step, how to open a Tesla’s glove compartment.

The article quotes human factors expert Steven Kyffin: “It is really important that steering, acceleration, braking, gear shifting, lights, wipers—all that stuff which enables you to actually drive a car—should be tactile. . . . Now [with screens] you must look, think, and aim to adjust the temperature or volume. That’s a huge cognitive load, and completely at odds with how we evolved to interact with driving machines while keeping our attention on the road.”

According to a five-year study carried out by Swedish magazine Vi Bilagare in 2022, reaction time on a non-screen Volvo V70 for tasks such as changing interior temperature, tuning the radio, or turning down instrument lighting took about 10 seconds. The same tasks in an MG Marvel with touchscreens took 45 seconds to search through nested menus. A study by British road safety TRL found that reaction times using screens were worse than when a driver was at the drunk-driving limit or high on marijuana.

While I’m pleased to see that EuroNCAP is working on this problem, where are NHTSA, SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), and even Consumer Reports on this subject?  

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Tesla Enters the Robotaxi Market
By Marc Scribner

In June, Tesla launched its “Robotaxi” ride-hail service in Austin, Texas, using a fleet of the company’s Model Y SUVs. For the last decade, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made near-term promises of driving autonomy. While Tesla has produced impressive advanced driver assistance systems, the promise of sustained driving automation that can be operated without active human supervision remains an elusive goal for the company.

Tesla aims to catch up with robotaxi industry leader Waymo, which is expanding its autonomous ride-hail service in cities around the country. Tesla’s position is that it can do so in large part by leveraging Tesla’s lower vehicle unit costs. However, core automated driving system performance is likely to determine the outcome of this race, an area where Tesla appears to be at a distinct disadvantage.

Tesla Robotaxi service is presently invitation-only, offered between the hours of 6 am and midnight, and confined to a small geographic area in South Austin estimated to be approximately 30 square miles. Tesla Robotaxi currently has an onboard attendant in the passenger seat, who can trigger an emergency stop if the vehicle encounters a problem.

The inclusion of a human safety operator seated in the vehicle led longtime automated driving consultant Brad Templeton to argue in Forbes that the Tesla Robotaxi, at launch, was not a “real robotaxi system.” Despite the underwhelming unveiling of Tesla Robotaxi, the company does have two potential advantages over robotaxi competitors: lower vehicle unit costs and an enormous amount of data collected from its advanced driver assistance systems in consumer-owned Tesla vehicles.

Tesla’s Musk has claimed that Waymo vehicles cost four to five times more to produce than the Tesla Model Y Robotaxi. Assuming that this is accurate, much of this can be accounted for by economies of scale, a gap that is likely to close over time as Waymo ramps up production. But part of it is due to hardware differences between Tesla and Waymo—namely, the sensor configurations.

Musk, for years, has been publicly opposed to sensors other than cameras. The company’s camera-based autopilot system is known as Tesla Vision. Tesla vehicles have never been equipped with lidar, which Musk has called “lame” and “a crutch,” and the company has phased out radar and ultrasonic sensors in recent years. Tesla Model Ys are currently equipped with eight cameras, which are fed to onboard computer vision processing to create real-time representations of the operating environment.

In contrast, Waymo One robotaxi vehicles currently make use of more than three dozen radar, lidar, and camera sensors, data from which are “fused” to “see” its surroundings. While Waymo’s hardware costs certainly exceed Tesla’s, will spending less on fewer sensors ultimately benefit Tesla?

The reason why Waymo—and virtually every other autonomous vehicle developer—has opted for the “fused” sensor stack approach instead of reliance on a single sensor technology is that different types of sensors have relative strengths and weaknesses depending on the task and environmental conditions. The table below, adapted from a paper by Peide Wang presented at the 2021 International Conference on Mechanical Automation and Electronic Information Engineering, compares the sensory performance of radar, lidar, and cameras across different dimensions (as well as with human vision for a baseline comparison).

Performance aspect	Human	Radar	Lidar	Camera
Object detection	Good	Good	Good	Fair
Object classification	Good	Poor	Fair	Good
Distance estimation	Fair	Good	Good	Fair
Edge detection	Good	Poor	Good	Good
Lane tracking	Good	Poor	Poor	Good
Visibility range	Good	Good	Fair	Fair
Poor weather	Fair	Good	Fair	Poor
Low light conditions	Poor	Good	Good	Fair

As one can see, different sensors are better depending on the task and conditions. For instance, while cameras are great at classifying objects, radar and lidar are better at detecting them. Cameras are great at detecting lane markings but perform poorly in bad weather. The biggest practical advantage of lidar over cameras is in depth perception, which is critical for automated driving systems to accurately perceive a vehicle’s surroundings and avoid obstacles in complex roadway environments. A more detailed comparison of radar, lidar, and camera sensory perception and operational performance can be found in Table III of this 2023 paper from Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories.

While adopting a camera-only sensor configuration might be cheaper, it may well reduce the performance of the automated driving system. Indeed, Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor Raj Rajkumar told Business Insider that he suspects forgoing lidar and radar sensors will limit Tesla’s ability to address “phantom braking” incidents in which the vehicle’s driving automation system suddenly slams on the brakes for no apparent reason. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating Tesla over phantom braking since 2022 after receiving hundreds of complaints from Tesla owners.

The large volume of data collected by Tesla cameras may not be sufficient to solve the phantom braking problem, at least in the near term. “To process camera data, one has to use AI and machine learning,” according to Rajkumar. “But hallucinations are an integral part of how AI operates, and once you hallucinate, phantom braking ends up happening, so a camera-only solution will not be sufficient for a very long time.”

Tesla Robotaxi is starting at a point well behind Waymo. In Austin, Waymo launched fully driverless commercial operations earlier this year in an area larger than Tesla’s invitation-only, supervised service, and Waymo One robotaxis can be hailed on the Uber app. In addition to Austin, Waymo operates commercial service in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. The company is planning robotaxi expansions in Miami later this year and Washington, D.C., in 2026, and has or is planning to test its vehicles in Boston, Buffalo, Las Vegas, Houston, Orlando, Philadelphia, Nashville, New York, San Antonio, and San Diego. In May, Waymo said it plans to more than double its current fleet of roughly 1,500 robotaxis by the end of next year, with plans to continue scaling production and operations.

Tesla may today have an advantage in manufacturing as America’s most successful electric automaker, but Tesla’s ability to compete with Waymo and other more advanced autonomous vehicle developers will depend on its ability to deliver on core automated driving system performance. Before any chance at commercial success, Tesla must first be able to operate robotaxis at a high level of safety without onboard attendants. As the implosions of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group and General Motors’ Cruise units show, even the perception of cutting corners on automated driving safety and performance carries massive business risks.

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Trucking Organization Proposes Repeal of Tax on New Trucks

The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) is the trucking industry’s think tank. On April 30, it released a 36-page report making a case for Congress to repeal the 12% federal excise tax (FET) on new trucks. This tax dates back to World War I. ATRI’s main argument is that the tax, which can add $20,000 to $50,000 to the cost of acquiring a new commercial truck, acts as a deterrent to the sale of new trucks. As economists often note, if you want less of something, put a tax on it.

The report makes two arguments for the potential benefits of repealing this tax: environmental and safety. Without the tax, trucking companies are more likely to replace aging trucks with new ones. Since new trucks emit somewhat less CO2 and other exhaust products, ATRI’s researchers estimate that diesel emissions would be reduced annually by 1.2 million metric tons of CO2.

The other potential benefit is safety. Without the tax on new trucks, safety technologies such as advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) would be more affordable. Assuming that all new trucks were so equipped, the report estimates that 750 crashes per year might be prevented, with a saving of $13.5 billion in crash costs over 10 years. This calculation strikes me as far more speculative than the CO2 reduction.

As a final argument, ATRI argues that the truck excise tax “does not function well as a funding mechanism for the federal Highway Trust Fund.” Unlike, say, the diesel fuel tax, the excise tax revenue fluctuates from year to year, due to fluctuations in new truck purchases.

ATRI’s news release devoted no attention to what should replace the FET, which currently averages 14 percent of each year’s user-tax revenue for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). When I downloaded the 36-page report, I was relieved to find a 1.3-page section near the end (pp. 32-33), “Offsetting Revenue Impacts of a Truck FET Repeal.” First, it explains that in 2023, this tax provided $6.78 billion, slightly more than 14% of HTF revenue that year. After mentioning such ideas as replacing fuel taxes with a Road User Charge/Mileage-Based User Fee, the text then focuses on fuel tax increases to replace the FET revenue. If both gasoline and diesel tax rates were increased for this purpose, the gas tax would go from 18.4 cents/gal. to 20.7. But if the objective were to have the trucking industry bear the cost of the replacement (as it should), the diesel tax alone would be increased from 24.4 cents/gallon to 35.6 cents/gal.

Kudos to ATRI for at least contemplating the idea that if the trucking industry is relieved of one user tax, it should bear the cost of replacing the lost revenue for the Trust Fund. As a final note in this section of the report, ATRI notes that federal fuel taxes have not been increased since 1994. Had the gasoline and diesel taxes been increased to keep pace with inflation, the federal gas tax would today be 39.7 cents/gal. and the diesel tax rate would be 52.7 cents/gal. You can see why the HTF has lost so much of its purchasing power over the past 31 years.

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Washington State’s New P3 Law Has Bipartisan Support

Thanks to Eugene Gilligan’s informative Infralogic article (June 18), I learned that Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed SB 5081 on May 20, providing WSDOT with new public-private partnership (P3) capabilities. I’d seen nothing in any of my other transportation sources about this legislation, and I’m pleased to note that it passed with bipartisan support.

Indeed, a major source for Gilligan’s article was Sen. Marko Liias (D-Edmonds), who co-sponsored the bill. Liias explained that Washington legislators learned a lot from P3 successes in Colorado and Virginia. He also noted that “Some projects are more complicated than others, so this provides more ways of procuring them with more sources of funding. . . . With P3, the ability to bring in some private equity to help at a time when budgets are stretched is also attractive.”

When it came to suggesting potential P3 projects, Liias offered several ideas. He said he expects more tolled highway projects in the state over the next two decades, and he noted that Virginia could provide Washington with a template for P3 managed lanes projects. He also notes that Virginia’s Transform 66 P3 is transit-friendly, with new express bus service operating in the uncongested express lanes.

Getting the bill to the finish line was a P3 Work Group. It included not just legislators but also designees of the governor’s office, the state DOT Secretary, and members of the legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee. Section 204 of the state’s current transportation budget directed the legislature to develop “a new statutory framework for WSDOT’s P3 program.”

WSDOT told Gilligan that the agency’s next step will be “to assemble a qualified team of industry P3 experts to educate decision-makers both within and outside of WSDOT on this project delivery approach and develop a comprehensive screening process for evaluation and selection of projects,” prior to the effective program date of Jan. 1, 2027.

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News Notes

Florida Ends HOV Lanes
In what appears to be a first, Florida legislators have repealed highway legislation that enabled HOV lanes on the state’s highways. The rapid growth of express toll lanes in the state’s four major metro areas has undermined support for continuing HOV lanes, with their inherent enforcement difficulties and their failure to stimulate carpooling (which has declined by more than half over the last two decades nationwide). Express toll lanes inherently encourage carpooling, in which several people can split the cost of the variable toll. And they have the major benefit of enabling faster and more reliable travel when people really need such trips.

US DOT Is Making TIFIA Into a Subsidy Program
Politico reported (July 7) that DOT’s Build America Bureau is “revamping” TIFIA, the carefully managed loan program aimed at providing gap financing for P3s and other innovative transportation projects. Originally, TIFIA loans were limited to 33% of a project’s cost and required that other financing have investment-grade ratings. Projects were limited to transportation improvements, narrowly defined. The new TIFIA will finance up to 49% of project costs and be available to “all types” of transportation infrastructure, which appears to include (based on recent loan requests) transit-oriented development projects, state infrastructure banks, and natural habitats affected by infrastructure. These changes pose a threat to the credit quality of TIFIA’s loan portfolio, which has an excellent track record.

North Carolina I-77 Express Toll Lanes Moving Forward
NCDOT plans to release its request for qualifications (RFQ) in August for potential bidders on its $3.2 billion project to add 11 miles of express toll lanes from Charlotte (where the current I-77 ETLs terminate) to the South Carolina border. NCDOT Division Engineer Brett Canipe told the Charlotte Observer that the agency expects “stiff competition” among potential P3 teams, with a long-term agreement expected to be signed by late 2027.

Utah Railway Group Seeks $2.4 Billion Private Activity Bonds for P3 Project
After winning a challenge to the environmental review of its planned railroad via a landmark Supreme Court ruling, the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition is seeking $2.4 billion in tax-exempt PABs for the 85-mile Uinta Basin Railway. The coalition’s private-sector partner, Drexel Hamilton Infrastructure Partners would use the PABs to finance major components of the project, as Infralogic reported on June 11. The planned railroad would link the oil and gas resources of the Uinta Basin to markets in other states via existing railroads.

Converting U.S. 1 Near Raleigh, NC to a Toll Road
In response to a request from the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), the North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) analyzed the feasibility of converting 10 miles of Capital Blvd. (U.S. 1) from a four-lane arterial to a six-lane toll road to relieve congestion on this urban corridor. And based on the NCTA study’s results, in May CAMPO approved the tolling option, which will require approval from the NC legislature. The new tolled corridor will run from I-540 in Raleigh to Purnell Road in the suburbs. The estimated cost of the project is $1.3 billion, which will be financed based on toll revenue.

Ohio and Kentucky Unveil Brent Spence Companion Bridge Design
The $3.6 billion project will implement a two-level cable-stayed bridge to relieve congestion on the existing Brent Spence Bridge. Early plans to replace the old bridge with a larger one, financed by tolls, were rejected by legislators of both states for many years. Thanks to borrowed federal money from the federal IIJA program, the new bridge project has been approved for a $1.636 billion grant, with the two states now needing to come up with the remaining 55% of the project’s cost. This is a prime example of how “free federal money” can reward tolling opponents if they hold out long enough.

Austin Express Toll Lanes Project Moving Forward
The MoPac South project, as proposed by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, would extend the existing express toll lanes on the MoPac Expressway eight miles further south, aiming to reduce projected levels of peak-period congestion. The project was among a list of transportation improvements approved by CTRMA’s board on June 25. An environmental group called Save Our Springs has ongoing litigation aiming to remove the project from CTRMA’s agenda.

New York State DOT Contracts for Removal of Syracuse I-81 Viaduct
NYSDOT has awarded a $251 million contract to tear down the first portion of the 1.4-mile I-81 viaduct in Syracuse. The project will demolish the southern end of the viaduct and replace it with a “community grid” of pedestrian-friendly streets. Subsequent contracts will demolish further portions of the viaduct, and the community grid will be redesignated as Business Loop 81. Another contract will redesign/redevelop interchanges on either end of the viaduct. Through traffic heading north and south on I-81 will have to bypass downtown on the 15-mile I-481 ring road.

Mexico Planning DBOM Highway Projects
Infralogic reported (June 23) that Mexico’s Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation Secretariat (SICT) plans four new P3 highways via planned design/build/operate/maintain P3 concessions. The first of these is the 53-mile Cardel-La Tinaja highway, estimated to cost $484.5 million, including a branch road to the Port of Veracruz. Financing would be primarily by the government, including the development bank Banobras.

Brightline Florida Growing—But Still Losing Money
Despite continued growth in ridership, especially between Orlando and South Florida, the privately financed higher-speed passenger rail line is still operating in the red. In May, Fitch reduced its bond rating to junk status, as did two other rating agencies. The problem appears to be reduced commuter ridership in South Florida. That reduction seems to be linked to a major price increase imposed last year: the former 40 tickets for $400 ($10 each) were replaced by 40 tickets for $1,400 ($35 each). A price increase may have been called for by reduced commuter revenue, but that change seems to have driven away much-needed commuter business.

Florida’s I-4 Express Lanes Loan Rating Upgraded
Moody’s Ratings last month upgraded from Baa1 to A3 its rating on I-4 Mobility Partners’ $845 million TIFIA loans. The rationale for the upgrade included a sound operational track record since the project’s completion in 2022, a manageable scope of operating and lifecycle requirements, cash reserve funds, and a longer-than-usual two-year concession tail for an availability payment P3 project. I-4 Mobility Partners is a special-purpose entity of Skanska ID and John Laing Investments Ltd. Their I-4 Ultimate project rebuilt 21 miles of I-4 in the Orlando area and included the addition of express toll lanes in both directions.

Australian State Plans Eventual Takeover of Tollways
The New South Wales government has created NSW Motorways that will take over the state’s long-term P3 toll roads when their concessions expire. The new entity plans to establish uniform rules and standards for all the toll roads, bridges, and tunnels, including new toll rates. It will also create positions for a Consumer Advocate and an Independent Tolling Ombudsman. The government’s statement said that, “The NSW government is driving towards a fairer toll road network, with the establishment of NSW Motorways to progress toll reform and advocate for motorists.”

Union Truck Drivers Reject In-Cab Safety System
Several vendors now offer AI-enabled cameras for truck cabs that track driver eyelid behavior and other signs of alertness. As noted in a Wall Street Journal commentary by Jordan McGillis, San Diego-based Lytx’s in-cab system now includes a real-time fatigue scoring system that uses both in-cab and highway data. Unfortunately, the Teamsters and other unions oppose this innovation, and in 2023, negotiated bans on in-cab systems in union contracts with major freight companies, including UPS. Last October, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claimed such tools could violate driver union rights, but the US Circuit Court for the District of Columbia denied enforcement of the NLRB ruling. 

Vietnam Province OKs P3 Toll Road Project
As reported by Infralogic (June 11), a four-lane, 125 km toll road will link the country’s Central Highlands with the Southeast, with construction expected to finish by 2027. The project will be developed as a P3 by a consortium led by Vingroup, whose special-purpose entity will be Vingroup-Techtra Infrastructure Investment and Development Joint Stock Company. The toll road will be the first component of the planned Gia Nghia-Thanh expressway.

California Rescinds Diesel Locomotive Phase-Out
After failing to receive federal approval, the California Air Resources Board voted unanimously to revoke its in-use locomotive rule. The measure would have required rail operators (public and private) to phase out diesel locomotives, leaving it vague what would replace them, since hardly any railroad lines in California are electrified.

Tennessee DOT Choice Lanes Advocate Steps Down
On June 6, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced that Butch Ely, the Deputy Governor and Commissioner of TDOT, would step down after seven years of statewide leadership. Ely championed express toll lanes for the state’s most-congested urban Interstates and came up with the brilliant name “Choice Lanes.” He made the case to the public and legislators not only for Choice Lanes but also for long-term P3s financed based on toll revenues, both of which passed with majority votes. Prior to his career in Tennessee, Ely had a long history in transportation, playing a key role in the new industry of privately contracted highway maintenance. Ely says he is not retiring, but he has not announced his future plans.

California Permitting Reform Is Less than You Might Think
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that reduces the scope of the state’s counterpart of NEPA—CEQA. It reduces the threat of litigation only for residential real estate projects, not for infrastructure. And as Allysia Finley pointed out in the Wall Street Journal, that relief applies only to urban housing; any housing projects in the suburbs still face the threat of CEQA litigation.

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Quotable Quotes

“[S]ummary data from a survey that is opt-in and such a small sample size isn’t a very good basis on which to make project decisions. . . . Of the 400-plus comments [Tennessee] DOT received through its public involvement survey, . . . approximately 60% of the commenters opposed the [Choice Lanes] project while only 25% supported it, with the remainder uncommitted or conditional. However, this tells us less than nothing about the level of support for the project among the broader public. Comment-and-response consultations capture a tiny sliver of the population, and there are many reasons to assume that sampling is biased in opposition to any project in question.”
—Michael Bennon, “500 Comments on Tennessee’s I-24 Choice Lanes,” Public Works Financing, April 2025

“I like to say that the fuel tax is like a rock star on his farewell tour. You know, we keep saying, ‘Well, this is going to be it. We’re going to find a solution, We’re going to find a solution.’ And we’re to the point now where the rock star has done three or four farewell tours, and we actually need to come up with something. . . . Tolling by itself is not going to work, because local streets can’t be tolled. On roads with traffic signals, tolling is a challenge, and so we need something that can work on all roads in all places. . . . There is a high-tech solution where a device plugs into the vehicle’s OBD2 port and collects the when and where of highway use. . . . There’s a medium option, where you have a device, but it’s only collecting the miles, it’s not looking at the location or time. And then a low-tech option, such as an odometer reading, which can be done with a photo or other types of verification through inspections that require very little in the way of new technology or new costs.”
—Baruch Feigenbaum, testimony before the Michigan House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, June 24, 2025

“The tasks performed by transit workers have remained basically the same for decades even as wages have risen to keep up with economy-wide trends. The agencies themselves deserve some blame for not finding ways to modernize operations and improve efficiency. But Congress itself is a major culprit, specifically . . .Section 13c of the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964. This provision, as Marc Scribner of the Reason Foundation points out, makes cost-saving reforms difficult if not impossible. . . . The law requires that agencies which receive federal funding, which is essentially all of them, to protect collective bargaining rights, guarantee re-employment of workers who lose jobs, and safeguard employees ‘against a worsening of their positions.’ The upshot is that not only do transit agencies face all the usual obstacles to making their workforce more efficient, they are in many respects prohibited from doing so.”
—Matthew Yglesias, “If Your Commute Is a Nightmare, Blame Congress,” Bloomberg Opinion, May 4, 2025

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Source: https://reason.org/transportation-news/indiana-takes-the-lead-on-interstate-tolling/