Posted on 04/01/2008 4:35:38 PM PDT by GoldwaterInstitute
Don’t Give Up on Toll Roads : The Private Sector Can Pave the Way
Byron Schlomach. Goldwater Institute Daily Email. April 01, 2008
The Arizona Senate recently rejected bills that would have allowed new, state-owned roads to be constructed with private money as toll roads. Let’s hope the idea resurfaces soon.
Toll roads make sense. They provide access to large sources of private capital – a real boon to a financially strapped state. Arizona could get several highways built today without spending a penny, if it would simply let the private sector help.
Private companies tend to insist that roads be built where they are most needed, as opposed to building a bridge to nowhere. And, in an effort to hold down costs, roads are constructed well, but without needless bells and whistles that builders contracting with the bureaucracy are sometimes too anxious to build.
Private sector partners also assume some of the financial risk and thus have no incentive to underbid a project and come back for more funds later.
Finally, private sector companies bring new talent and innovation. For example, a privately held company recently solved a 30-year impasse that had prevented conclusion of the Paris, France ring road – by building a tunnel under Versailles.
The weaknesses inherent in a tax-funded road system have shown themselves again and again. Congressional earmarks spend transportation funds on pet projects instead of truly needed ones. States can’t collect enough from gas taxes to fund every road they need. Meanwhile, drivers suffer in rush-hour gridlock, waiting for the current funding system to solve today’s problems in 20 to 50 years.
Twenty-one states are building toll roads. Arizona should follow suit.
Dr. Byron Schlomach is the director of the center for economic prosperity at the Goldwater Institute.
That’s simply not so for Texas, and the author btw is from Texas.
A lot of toll roads have been for local and regional mobility.
We have a number of tolls roads in central Texas for that purpose.
The anti-toll-road sentiment is a bit over-the-top when one looks at our history. The PA turnpike and Erie canal were built based on these principles and they worked. Lots of toll bridges have worked the same way.
I pay taxes for roads. The money is being spent in CA on services for illegals. I oppose toll roads.
“My gas taxes went to Boston to keep Ted Kennedy and John Kerry in office.”
Private tollroads can cost some money, but its investors loss if it screwed up or has cost overruns ... to really rape the taxpayers - like the $20 billion Big Dig - requires a govt-controlled and operated entity.
LOL! Not too worry. Waaaayyy too many NYers in the Carolinas which is why I didn’t move there six years ago when I left the Apple. };^)
Good luck getting our money back from Washington after Murtha, Byrd, Kennedy, etc. get their hands on it.
The thing I really like about the the TTC is that it isn't intended to just be highways. It also has rail, transit, and utility corridors. The rail corridors will allow the abandonment and reclamation of lots of old deteriorating rail lines around the state. Not only that, but it gets rid of the dangerous grade level crossings in the middle of towns and cities. The existing rail infrastructure was laid out in the 19th century when Texas had a fraction of its current population and is mostly single tracked. The TTC rail corridors will be double tracked and engineered to 21st century standards. The fact that they will bypass cities and are completely grade separated will mean that it will be possible to travel at 85 mph nonstop across the state. Abandoned rail rights of way could be used for lots of purposes such as commuter rail, street and highway rights of way and recreation.
Cintra has lots of experience building toll roads in Europe. Their knowlege would be very helpful in avioding design mistakes that are difficult or very expensive to correct. It would be really stupid to just use local engineering companies to make the same mistakes some other firm made elsewhere decades ago.
Many of the planned new roads in Arizona are really a conduit for Chinese trade. They are either Canamex or Canamex related, which is our state’s version of the Trans Texas Corridor, TTC.
This will connect Mexico, the US and Canada.
Autarky worked so well for the Soviet Union didn't it! If lack of roads protected the wealth of local econmies by keeping out foreign goods, Russia today would be very wealthy! Africa would be and economic powerhouse!
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