L.A. County's first toll road?

  Officials began meeting this week on plans for the High Desert Corridor, which would connect the fast-growing Antelope Valley with the fast-growing high desert communities of San Bernardino County. Many officials want it to be a freeway, but there is talk, according to the AV Press, to have private developers build it as a toll road:

The concept of letting a private company build the High Desert Corridor as a toll road - proposed by Lancaster Republicans State Sen. George Runner and his wife, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner - doesn't sit well with Ledford. "A toll road is, in reality, a tax," [Palmdale Mayor Jim] Ledford said. "The JPA is coming from two counties without much definition. Somebody's in charge, and I think it might be the public-private partnerships - the private side - that's got the information." Sen. Runner said the idea of using public-private partnerships or tolls to build the corridor is an important issue and "one of the reasons the JPA is going to be so important."

President Bush would likely approve.

Comments

[Peter McFerrin]

First, most of the traffic will be truck traffic, and I believe that segment would not support tolls.

I'm not so sure about that. Work done in Atlanta on the feasibility of truck-only toll lanes on some of the freeways there found that truckers are extremely supportive of tolls if they help them achieve better speeds. The one thing that truckers really want is to not have to carry fifteen different transponders in their cabs; if FasTrak could be integrated with the I-Pass system used in the Midwest and the EZ-Pass system used in the Northeast, that would eliminate that problem.

As for federal and state funding, most of the tollways in Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago were built with considerable federal and state funding as well. The fiscal advantage of tolling is that it allows you to build way more road for the same level of Federal Highway Trust Fund expenditure. Tollways that are financed 100% with toll revenues only get built in EPA air quality non-attainment zones like Los Angeles and Houston, where Highway Trust Fund money is not available.

[Cahwyguy - Daniel]

I don't think making this a toll road is a good idea. First, most of the traffic will be truck traffic, and I believe that segment would not support tolls. More importantly, however, is that this route is being built with loads of federal and state funding.

For example, the following specific earmarks were in the SAFETEA-LEU bill:

High Priority Project #624: Begin construction of a road from US 395 west towards Route 14. The specifics of this aren't given, but it could relate to the High Desert Corridor and the Cross-Valley Connector (see below), which when combined with the I-5 to Route 14, and US 395 to I-15 segments, would complete the Metropolitan Bypass Freeway. The funding, however, is insufficient to complete this. $800,000.

High Priority Project #1342: Construction of new freeway between I-15 and US 395, including new interchange at I-15. This is the last part of the High Desert Corridor (see Route 138). This will provide new highway access to the Southern California Logistics Airport. $4,000,000.

Some funding may come from Nevada. According to an LVRJ article, the California Department of Transportation recently completed its study of a proposed six-lane highway, dubbed the High Desert Corridor, to link Palmdale and Victorville. By facilitating travel between I-15 and I-5, the $1.5 billion project would help alleviate congestion on I-15, which is a major concern to area tourism officials. The State Senate has approved legislation (which still requires assembly concurrance and the Governor's signature) authorizing Caltrans to look for a private company to build a new east-west highway across the eastern Antelope Valley as a toll road. This toll road would be located a few miles north but parallel to Route 138. Note that this does mention the toll road

Lastly, I'll note more information is available at my page on Route 138 (http://www.cahighways.org/137-144.html#138) [go near the bottom] and at http://www.sanbag.ca.gov/projects/other_high-desert-corridor.html