Recently in Tolls Category

Here is today's Bridges Authority to look at 8664 Press Release (PDF). 

Per the release: 

"At last Thursday's Bridges Authority meeting, Authority Secretary Sandra Frazier of Tandem Public Relations announced that the Bridges Authority would be discussing the 8664 alternative and a bridge project in St. Louis that was scaled down to avoid tolls at their next meeting. Clearly there are new reasons for reconsidering the $4.1 Billion Ohio River Bridges Project.

"With last week's poll showing only 15% of Louisvillians support building two bridges, coupled with the overwhelmingly negative reaction to tolling Spaghetti Junction, it's clearly time to look for better options" said JC Stites, 8664 Co-Founder. According to Insight Communications' recent poll, while only 14.5% supports building both bridges, a combined total of 64.6% support building the East End Bridge."

This is exciting news for anyone who wants to see Louisville progress and find a more reasonable approach to solving our transportation needs. We have contacted the author of our Feasibility Study (Walter Kulash) and hope to have him here for the next meeting on October 7th.

Cynics have suggested that this politically-appointed board could have an ulterior motive, bringing up 8664 just to trash the idea. After all, the Authority's website says it "is not charged with changing the project's scope".

But we are going assume the best to go to the meeting with the full intention of presenting the case for a less expensive, more sustainable plan.

We would welcome your input. Email us at info@8664.org.

Nice work New Albany City Council! They passed a resolution opposing tolls on the ORBP and other SI communities should do the same.

Read about it on LEO and NA Confidential.

The Courier-Journal has not done a poll on bridge alternatives since 1996. Luckily, CN2 polled the issue and the results are dramatic.

According to a newly released poll, only 14.5% of Louisvillians support building two bridges. Here's a look at the results:

The Courier-Journal Editorial Board is at it again. They will do anything to thwart the region's most important infrastructure project -- the East End Bridge. Read the lies for yourself.

Now with propaganda and more propaganda from their "independent" news department. According to the CJ, we should all be perfectly happy to pay a $6 toll per trip across the river. Read the comments for some flavor of what most readers think about the tolls, the paper and Mayor's efforts to push the Downtown Bridge.

The Bridges Authority tried to bury the news of a $3 toll estimate on a Friday afternoon, but citizens are paying attention and are tired of the ORBP boondoggle. You can read the report, but it's more interesting to read what the Mayoral candidates had to say about it.

Hal Heiner:

"This afternoon the Louisville Southern Indiana Bridges Authority submitted a report to the regional planning agency with estimated tolls of $6 per trip.  This would represent one of Louisville's largest tax increases and I will not support this rate.  While we realize this is a preliminary number, I urge the authority to work diligently to reduce this rate.  If $6 per trip is the only way the authority can build 2 bridges, then I believe we need to reduce the scope of the project by breaking it into more manageable phases with the east end bridge being the first phase of a multi phase project.  While I believe I-65 and Spaghetti Junction will ultimately have to be addressed, I find a $6 trip financially irresponsible and a burden Louisvillians will not accept."

Greg Fischer:

"We need to build the bridges and to create the thousands of jobs that come with it - but a $3 toll is simply too much"

OK, now we're getting somewhere. The question is, what are we going to do about it? 

Here's what we had to say about it:

"It's time to divide this boondoggle of a project and build the east end bridge without tolls. We ask Greg Fischer and Hal Heiner to stand united for this important regional infrastructure project"

In this week's LEO, writer Steve Shaw covers the state of the ORBP's financing options. Attending last week's Bridges Authority meeting, he updates readers on the Bridges Project boondoggle:

"Last Thursday, the Ohio River Bridges Project Bi-State Authority heard impassioned pleas to finance and build the East End bridge first; downsize the demolition and expansion of Spaghetti Junction; not to toll existing bridges; not to toll any bridges; not to build a downtown bridge; and to scrap the project in favor of public transit."

Read the article on LEOWeekly

The end of the article also provided a curious quote from Candidate Greg Fischer:

"There's a lot of people that are excited about something that may not occur."

We'll try to seek clarification on that comment.

Here are some questions we submitted to the Bridges Authority today:

Wilbur Smith's November 2007 tolling study suggests that demand and resulting revenue from a tolled East End Bridge would be low if it were the only bridge tolled. That's not surprising considering an erroneous assumption that the Downtown Bridge and 23-lane Spaghetti Junction is completed.

Question #1: Did the previous study make this incorrect assumption?

According to the project's last published schedule (Jan. 2009), the EE Bridge should open 6 years before the Downtown Bridge. Therefore the projected demand for tolling the EE Bridge should be based on the assumption that there is no new Downtown Bridge or expanded Spaghetti Junction for at least the first six years? Additionally, this demand data should be itemized as "pre" and "post" Downtown Bridge completion.

Question #2: Will the Authority's new tolling study correct this issue?

There are also two other items which should be reflected in the new tolling study. Since the new Spaghetti Junction is scheduled to take 17 years to complete, the demand model should be calibrated for likely downtown construction delays.

Furthermore, since the last tolling study, KIPDA has removed the widening of I-64 through the Cochran Tunnel from the region's long range transportation plan. This will likely have a significant impact on regional traffic patterns. In fact, a study without constraining the width of I-64 to four lanes in that section would be clearly flawed.

Question #3: Will both of the above issues be incorporated into the new tolling study?

According to a News and Tribune article, the Bridges Authority was asked by KIPDA to set a rate scenario for tolls on the Kennedy and two new bridges. They decided to go with $3 per toll. That means $6 per day for 50,000+ citizens who live and work on different sides of the river. That is, unless they decide to save money and pollute our air by driving around to the toll-free Sherman-Minton Bridge.

It makes you wonder, doesn't it. We thought the purpose of the Bridges Project was to IMPROVE cross-river mobility.

One week after LEO's article about Louisville's most expensive house - the $260 Million Drumanard Estate - a group of local activists called Say No to Bridge Tolls filed a request with the Kentucky Heritage Council to have the house removed from the National Register of Historic Places. We can think of about 260 Million reasons this is a good idea. You can read all about it in today's Courier article, and you won't want to miss the comments to get some of the local flavor.

For those of you who haven't been following the ORBP boondoggle; a nice old house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places 20 years ago in an effort by wealthy land owners to prevent the much needed East End Bridge from going through their estates. Because of it's "historic" designation, Kentucky was going to spend an extra $260 Million to tunnel under the property. Clearly ridiculous.

On April 19th, we emailed a Transportation Questionnaire to all the Mayoral Candidates. Last weekend we received the final responses, so we've compiled the results. We'd like to thank the candidates and their campaigns for taking the time and responding to our questions about Louisville's transportation future.

Here's today's Press Release which began...

Mayoral candidates oppose the ORBP by a 2-to-1 margin

Strong agreement on the East End Bridge, opposition to tolls on existing bridges and reversible lanes on the 2^nd Street Bridge.

Here's a link directly to the results in table form.

And here are the unedited individual questionnaire responses:
Tyler Allen (D)
Greg Fischer (D)
Jackie Green (I)
Hal Heiner (R) - refused
Jim King (D)
Lisa Moxley (D)
Jonathon Robertson (R)
David Tandy (D)
Chris Thieneman (R)
Shannon White (D)