While volunteering Saturday at MUST Ministries’ distribution center in Marietta, Deal spoke to the Journal about the Georgia Department of Transportation’s sudden announcement on Wednesday to put the brakes on the estimated $1 billion project, believed to be the largest transportation contract in state history.
The plan called for private investors and tolls to pay the majority of the cost, with the state paying up to $300 million.
“We’re re-looking at it in terms of whether or not we can do this with just state revenue, instead of having to be obligated to private investors for a very extensive period of time — initially up to 60 years with an additional 10 years on top of that,” Deal said.
“As the estimate of the cost of the project dropped, it appeared that with some good planning that perhaps the state, along with federal assistance, could build the project without having to turn over the tolling authority to a private industry.”
Since GDOT’s announcement was made, there has been speculation that the proposal was tabled because the private investors involved wanted non-compete provisions in the contract, such as limits on bus or rail along the same corridor. Deal said such provisions would not have been anything out of the ordinary.
“That would have been one of the conditions of a contract – is that basically the state and local jurisdictions would have had to give exclusive control over that corridor to the private company that would have invested in the project,” Deal said.
“I think we all know that over the next 60 to 70 years, hopefully, we will see growth that will demand that we do more than just what that project anticipates.”
The governor said he did not speak with Cobb County officials about not going forward with the proposed project. However, he said his office spoke with GDOT officials before the department pulled the plug on the plan.
“I certainly concurred with their opinion,” he said.
Some members of the Cobb Board of Commissioners have expressed bewilderment over the state’s announcement.
“I was a little surprised that they just, all of a sudden, came out and announced it was completely canceled,” said northeast Commissioner JoAnn Birrell.
Southeast Commissioner Bob Ott said he hadn’t discussed the cancellation of the project with anyone at the state level. Ott has opposed a transportation proposal to bring light rail line to Cobb, and introduced the privately funded Maglev train as an alternative. He said the long-term solution to transportation problems in the area would involve a variety of areas, including improving the Windy Hill Road/I-75/I-285 and I-285/I-20 interchanges.
“I’m not anti-transit,” Ott said. “I think it’s going to end up a collection of solutions.”
Birrell said it may be a positive that state officials stopped the reversible toll lanes project, because it could prevent anything from being done before the Alternatives Analysis study is released in 2013.
“When you look at what happened with the HOT lane issue in Gwinnett and the problems they’ve had with it, it’s not really surprising,” she said.
“I’m kind of glad in a way that there was a halt put to it. By not going ahead and implementing something like the HOT lanes, it will give us more options.”
The reversible toll lanes project, a partnership between GDOT and a group of developers, was the state’s first effort to fund public roads with private investors. GDOT had already put the project out to bid, with proposals due in February. The department also had already selected three firms as finalists.
The plan was projected to cost about $1 billion, with $200 million of that coming from normal state gas taxes, and another $100 million from revenue bonds. The private investors would have footed the remaining $700 million, with some of that eased by $270 million in federally subsidized loans. They were expected to be repaid with money from the tolls.
The project would have built 18 miles of toll lanes on I-75 and 11 miles on I-575.
In Cobb, the managed lanes would have run from Akers Mill Road to the Cherokee County line, just north of Hickory Grove Road. Of that, 11 miles, from the Interstate 285 interchange to the I-575 split, would have been two lanes, with one reversible lane covering the remainder of the project. I-575 would have had one reversible lane, running from I-75 to Sixes Road in Lebanon.
The toll lanes were to have been constructed alongside the interstates, separated by a barrier, rather than replacing HOV lanes, as was the case this past October in Gwinnett and DeKalb counties, where some motorists complained of more congestion in regular lanes.
Reporter Geoff Folsom contributed to this report.
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-The Kentucky Turnpike (I-65) from the city of Louisville south through the state of Kentucky to the Tennessee state line.
(Kentucky also has a statewide system of nine controlled-access parkways which were originally constructed as roads with tolls that were later removed, though it is unclear whether the tolls were removed from those roads immediately after the bonds sold to pay for them were paid off.)
-The Norfolk-Virginia Beach Expressway (I-264) in the Tidewater Region of Southeastern Virginia.
-The Connecticut Turnpike (I-95) along the Atlantic Coast of the State of Connecticut where tolls were removed in 1985. Though it should it be noted that before the removal of the tolls from that and other roads in Connecticut in the 1980's, Connecticut did not use federal funds to build roads as states with tolls were supposedly prohibited from using federal funds for road projects at that time.
Those examples are only ones that come to mind as for the most part, once a toll goes on a road it never comes off.
Personally, I can live with putting tolls on new roads and even new lanes ADDED to existing roads IF and only IF I knew that a road or lane was critically-needed and the revenues from the road would actually go to maintain and upkeep the road as I am well aware that roads cost money to build and maintain and that gas taxes are falling increasingly short in being able to do that.
But putting roads on EXISTING roads and lanes that have already been paid for with tax dollars should NOT be government policy. Period.
Whether it is toll lanes, more free lanes, enhanced bus service, BRT, light rail, heavy rail or maglev, I-75 is always going to be congested at morning and afternoon rush hour.
The only thing that these proposed solutions will do is decrease the rate of the increase in congestion.
There is no magic bullet for this problem.
We can spend millions and even billions in taxpayer funds, but do not expect the congestion problem to go away.
This applies to the entire region.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't try to do something about it, but let's be smart in the way we approach it and be realisitc in our expectations.
Deal must have some other motive. If he cared about the terms of the proposals he would at least receive and evaluate them.
There's something political going on here ! And it doesn't smell very good.
Deal didn't have to wait any longer to decide because the state already knew what the terms of the contract would be in from being in advance contact with these companies and from looking at other public-private toll projects around the country.
There's isn't a public-private toll project in the U.S. that doesn't have a contract life shorter than 50 years. To be restricted from improving I-75 itself and nearby major roads and adding mass transit as needed for 60-70 years would have been totally and completely unacceptable to the public, especially when the need arose to do so because of increased traffic in that I-75 Northwest Corridor.
Considering the circumstances and the ever-changing dynamics of the I-75 NW Corridor and Metro Atlanta, dynamics which call for constant transportation improvements, Governor Deal may have made the BEST DECISION of his Governorship and one of the best decisions that a Georgia governor has ever made.
The only "motive" was that Deal was not very hot on the toll lane concept from the beginning and never has been too HOT (no pun intended) on the HOT lane concept even before taking office.
Considering that the I-75 public-private toll lane project was planned and put together BEFORE Deal even ran for Governor and after seeing the widely hated mess that the I-85 HOT lanes have become (Can you imagine being committed to THAT NIGHTMARISH MESS for 70 years?), NOW was the PERFECT time to pull the plug on this project, especially considering that the state wants to make extensive improvements to nearby roads (Hwy 41/Cobb Parkway) and add extensive rail and bus transit in the corridor that with the coming massive increase in already very heavy freight truck traffic on I-75 have become non-negotiable.
I grew up in here, lets just say about 60 years ago. Who we are today is nothing like who we were 60 years ago. And I can well imagine that who we are in 60 more years will look little like who we are today.
I don't know what is involved in that "obligation" to a private business - but I do know that a 60 year obligation of any kind is crazy.
On top of that, if the state decided that they needed to add capacity to either I-75 or any paralleling major road in that corridor before the end of the contract, the taxpayers would be on the hook for hundreds-of-millions of dollars that would be owed to the private investors for breaking the terms of the contract.
Governor Deal had this in mind because the same thing happened in California years ago when the state had to pay close to $300 million to a private company to get out of a contract for a very unpopular and little-used public-private toll road project that became a public relations nightmare for the state of California.
went to Washington and developed (Demo ethics).
Returned to Georgia in cheap Republican clothing and
was elected as a Republican Governor.
Brought Sunday Alcohol sales to many towns.
But portrays as a Conservative Baptist.
North East Georgia Ethics in there finest.