Private highways in the United States

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The Chicago Skyway is privately owned by the Skyway Concession Company ChicagoSkyway1104.jpg
The Chicago Skyway is privately owned by the Skyway Concession Company

There are relatively few private highways in the United States, compared to other parts of the world.

Contents

The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, opened in 1795 between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was the first major American turnpike. According to Gerald Gunderson's Privatization and the 19th-Century Turnpike, "In the first three decades of the 19th century, Americans built more than 10,000 miles [16,000 km] of turnpikes, in New England and the Middle Atlantic states. Relative to the economy at that time, this effort exceeded the post-World War II interstate highway system." [1] Because electronics did not exist in that era, all tolls had to be collected by human cashiers at toll booths, creating high fixed costs that could only be covered by a large volume of traffic. As railroads and steamboats began to compete with the turnpikes, less profitable highways started to shut down or be turned over to governments. (See Category: Pre-freeway turnpikes in the United States for a listing.)

The National Bridge Inventory lists roughly 2,200 privately owned highway bridges in 41 states and Puerto Rico. [2]

Alabama

The Foley Beach Express is one of four toll roads privately owned and operated by American Roads LLC in Alabama. The company declared bankruptcy in 2013. [3] [4] Syncora Guarantee, Inc., became the owner. [5]

Alaska

Dalton Highway

The Dalton Highway in Alaska was built in 1974 to allow construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. It runs 400 miles (640 km) from near Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. Rather than relieving congestion, the highway was built to allow access to the previously-inaccessible Prudhoe Bay Oil Field. Until 1995, permits were required to drive on the highway. Currently, it is owned by the state of Alaska and open to the public. [6]

California

AB 680, passed in 1989, allowed up to four private highway franchises to be granted. [7] The 91 Express Lanes in the median of the Riverside Freeway were privately owned and operated by a private consortium (one of the members of which was Cofiroute, France's largest private highway operator) from 1995 to 2003. [8] As of 2003 the expresslanes have come under the ownership of the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), a public transportation authority serving the area of Orange County, California. [9]

Colorado

The Colorado legislature considered a bill to ban the use of eminent domain to condemn private property for private highway construction. [10] [11] [12] Such legislation was vetoed in 2005, but a compromise bill was enacted into law in 2006. The new law requires toll road developers to get approval from cities and counties affected by a proposed road and requires projects to go through a transportation department approval process, complete with an environmental assessment. [13]

Super Slab

The Super Slab is a proposed private highway that would run from north of Fort Collins to south of Pueblo. It sparked a debate on the use of eminent domain for such purposes. proposed the Castle Rock Alternative Parkway, which would run through the home of Super Slab developer Ray Wells. [14]

Florida

Orchard Pond Parkway

The Orchard Pond Parkway, located north of Tallahassee, Florida. OrchardPondParkwayRoadside-CR0344sign.jpg
The Orchard Pond Parkway, located north of Tallahassee, Florida.

Regarded as "the first privately built toll road in Florida," [15] the Orchard Pond Parkway is a 5.2-mile (8.4 km) route north of Tallahassee, Florida, acting as a northwestern partial bypass of the city, that opened on April 18, 2016. [16]

Reedy Creek Improvement District

The Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID), established in 1967 by the Reedy Creek Improvement Act, operates six-lane freeways in the Walt Disney World area near Orlando, Florida. Technically, the RCID is a public corporation administered by a five-member Board of Supervisors elected by area landowners. [17] However, through a carefully constructed legal framework, Disney operates the roads and utilities as wholly owned subsidiaries, rather than as a public-private partnership.[ citation needed ]

Disney is the primary landowner and controls the remaining land through contractual arrangements. In this way, the company is able to hand-pick the landowning electorate. An Associated Press article notes, "Board members are non-Disney business people from central Florida and must own at least an acre [4,000 m²] in the district." [18] An Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability report explains the contractual arrangement as follows: "Historically, each board member has been deeded approximately five acres [20,000 m²] of land by an affiliate of the Walt Disney World Co. . . . According to RCID officials, a Walt Disney World Co. affiliate has the exclusive option to purchase land back from board members at any time." [19] Landowners also have a right to recall board members before the completion of their four-year terms.[ citation needed ]

Financial arrangements are also circular. According to the RCID Finance Department, Walt Disney Co. is RCID's largest taxpayer, paying about 86% of the district's taxes in 2004. The remaining taxpayers are board members and lessees of property owned by Disney affiliates (e.g., House of Blues, Travelodge, and Hilton) paying ad valorem taxes. An American Prospect article notes, "Disney pays taxes to Reedy Creek, which gives the money straight back to Disney, and the circle is closed". [20]

Illinois

Chicago Skyway

In 2006, Mayor Daley leased out the Chicago Skyway for 99 years for $1.8 billion. [21] The road had lost money for decades and only recently turned a profit. [22]

Indiana

Indiana Toll Road

On June 29, 2006, in what may serve as a "test case" for the privatization of other major highways in the United States, the state of Indiana received $3.8 billion from a foreign consortium made up of the Spanish construction firm Cintra and the Australian Macquarie Infrastructure Group, and in exchange the state ceded operation of the 157-mile (253 km) Indiana Toll Road for the next 75 years to these outside corporations. The consortium will collect all the tolls. [23] In 2014 the operators sought bankruptcy protection with a creditor-supported restructuring plan after dwindling traffic soured a $3.8 billion bet on a 75-year lease. [24]

Texas

In early 2007, there were plans for a private developer, Cintra-Zachry, to invest $1.3 billion to build a 40-mile (64 km) toll-funded southward extension to complete the "Trans-Texas Corridor." [25] [26] However, also in 2007, the Texas legislature enacted legislation placing a two-year moratorium on private equity toll concessions. [27] [28] Texas State Highway 130 was largely funded and operated by private developers but has been criticized for its poor quality and lack of use. [29] [30]

Virginia

Dulles Greenway

The Dulles Greenway, Virginia's first private toll road since 1816, is a 14-mile (23 km) highway connecting Washington Dulles International Airport with Leesburg, Virginia. In 1988, the Virginia General Assembly authorized private development of toll roads. To take advantage of this opportunity, the Bryant/Crane family of Middleburg, Virginia, AIE, L.L.C., and Kellogg, Brown and Root of Houston, Texas joined together to form Toll Road Investors Partnership II (TRIP II). Brown & Root constructed the road with private funds, opening it for traffic on September 29, 1995. Autostrade International, a company with over 30 years of experience in the development, construction, maintenance, and operation of Italian toll road networks, formed an American subsidiary to take over operation of the Greenway. [31]

The Greenway has several methods of expediting traffic flow. Six traffic lanes, a uniform 65 mph (105 km/h) speed limit, and a complete absence of traffic lights keep traffic moving at a steady pace. In addition, electronic toll collection, using the Virginia Department of Transportation's Smart Tag system, enables Smart Tag lanes to "process five times as many vehicles per hour as conventional cash payment lanes". [32]

The Dulles Greenway charges a fixed amount for use of the road, regardless of whether the driver exits before driving the complete length of the Greenway. In 2004, the operators won approval from the State Corporation Commission to increase tolls from $2.00 to $3.00 per car. [33] In 2005, Tom Sines of TRIP II announced plans for widening the highway, adding two new exits, expanding the main toll plaza, building a ramp to the airport, and reconfiguring an exit as a cloverleaf interchange. [34]

Toll roads to serve development

In addition to many private toll roads built to serve ordinary travel needs, some have been built to serve new housing developments. Those include the following:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Florida Tourism Oversight District</span> Improvement district in Florida, United States

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD), formerly the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID), is the governing jurisdiction and special taxing district for the land of Walt Disney World Resort. It includes 39.06 sq mi (101.2 km2) within Orange and Osceola counties in Florida. It acts with most of the same authority and responsibility as a county government. It includes the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, as well as unincorporated land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Jersey Turnpike</span> Toll road in New Jersey

The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. The 117.2-mile (188.6 km) mainline's southern terminus is at the Delaware Memorial Bridge on I-295 in Pennsville. Its northern terminus is at an interchange with I-80 and US 46 in Ridgefield Park. Construction of the mainline, from concept to completion, took a total of 22 months between 1950 and 1951. It was opened to traffic on November 5, 1951, between its southern terminus and exit 10.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay Lake, Florida</span> City in Florida, United States

Bay Lake is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 29 at the 2020 census. It is named after a lake that lies east of the Magic Kingdom. All four of the Walt Disney World Resort theme parks, and one of Walt Disney World's two water parks, are in Bay Lake, though all Disney parks in the region have mailing addresses in nearby Lake Buena Vista.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia State Route 267</span> State toll highway in northern Virginia, US

State Route 267 is an expressway in the US state of Virginia. It consists of two end-to-end toll roads – the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Greenway – as well as the non-tolled Dulles Access Road, which lies in the median of Dulles Toll Road and then extends east to Falls Church. The combined roadway provides a toll road for commuting and a free road for access to Washington Dulles International Airport. The three sections are operated and maintained by separate agencies: Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Access Road are maintained by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA); the Dulles Greenway is owned by TRIP II, a limited partnership, but is maintained by Atlas Arteria, an Australian company which owns the majority stake in the partnership. The Dulles Access Road's median hosts the Silver Line of the Washington Metro between the airport and Tysons.

E-ZPass is an electronic toll collection system used on toll roads, toll bridges, and toll tunnels in the Eastern United States, Midwestern United States, and Southern United States. The E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG) consists of member agencies in several states, which use the same technology and allow travelers to use the same transponder on toll roads throughout the network.

Florida's Turnpike, designated as unsigned State Road 91, is a controlled-access toll road in the U.S. state of Florida, maintained by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE). Spanning approximately 309 miles (497 km) along a northwest–southeast axis, the turnpike is in two sections. The SR 91 mainline runs roughly 265 miles (426 km), from its southern terminus at an interchange with Interstate 95 (I-95) in Miami Gardens to an interchange with I-75 in Wildwood at its northern terminus. The Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike continues from the southern end of the mainline for another 48 miles (77 km) to US Highway 1 in Florida City. The slogan for the road is "The Less Stressway". The mainline opened in stages between 1957 and 1964, while the extension was completed in 1974. The turnpike runs through Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, where it parallels I-95, and through Orlando, where it crosses I-4.

State Road 417 (SR 417), also known as the Central Florida GreeneWay, Seminole County Expressway, Eastern Beltway and Orlando East Bypass, is a controlled-access toll road forming the eastern beltway around the city of Orlando, Florida, United States. It is owned and maintained by the Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) and Florida's Turnpike Enterprise. The CFX section was posthumously named after former Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority chairman Jim Greene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital Beltway</span> Highway in the Washington metropolitan area

The Capital Beltway is a 64-mile (103 km) auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Washington metropolitan area that surrounds Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and its inner suburbs in adjacent Maryland and Virginia. It is the basis of the phrase "inside the Beltway", used when referring to issues dealing with US federal government and politics. The highway is signed as Interstate 495 (I-495) for its entire length, and its southern and eastern half runs concurrently with I-95.

Smart Tag is the former name of a transponder-based electronic toll collection system implemented by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). It was launched as Fastoll on April 15, 1996. Fastoll was rebranded as Smart Tag in 1998, and was placed under the umbrella of Smart Travel. In November 2007, the Smart Tag brand name was retired in favor of E-ZPass Virginia, several years after the Smart Tag system became a part of the E-ZPass network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Route 192</span> Highway in Florida

U.S. Route 192 is an east–west route of the United States Numbered Highway system in central Florida. It runs 75.04 miles (120.77 km) from U.S. Route 27 in Four Corners, Lake County, east past Walt Disney World and through Kissimmee, St. Cloud and Melbourne, to end at State Road A1A in Indialantic, one block from the Atlantic Ocean. It crosses its "parent", U.S. Route 92, in Kissimmee, for only 3,700 feet (1,100 m).

State Road 429 (SR 429), also known as the Daniel Webster Western Beltway or Western Expressway south of US 441, and the Wekiva Parkway north of US 441, is a controlled-access toll road built and maintained by the Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX), the Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). Its mainline extends 51.77 miles (83.32 km) from I-4 (SR 400) in Four Corners north to I-4 in Sanford. Control cities are Apopka and Tampa although the control cities for traffic at the entrances at US 441 and north are Orlando, Tampa, and Daytona Beach. SR 429 was originally planned as a western half of SR 417.

State Road 589 (SR 589), also known as the Veterans Expressway and Suncoast Parkway, is a controlled-access toll road near the Florida Gulf Coast. Maintained and operated by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, this 68-mile (109 km) transportation corridor extends from State Road 60 in Tampa, north to State Road 44 near Lecanto. The Veterans Expressway was built to accommodate the increasing commuter traffic in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metropolitan area, with the Suncoast Parkway opening in 2001, extending from near the northern terminus of the Veterans Expressway to U.S. Route 98, with a possible northern extension to U.S. Route 19/U.S. Route 98 in Crystal River in Citrus County in the planning and development stages. As of February 28, 2022, Phase I of the extension is now open between US 98 and Florida State Road 44. Phase II, which would further extend the highway to County Road 486, is undergoing the design phase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osceola Parkway</span>

Osceola Parkway, signed as County Road 522 (CR 522) since around 2003, is a 17.5-mile-long (28.2 km), partially tolled arterial road extending east–west across the northern boundary of Osceola County, Florida, roughly paralleling the border with Orange County. It connects Walt Disney World with Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike before terminating at Simpson Road near Buenaventura Lakes, and is maintained by Osceola County. Only the section between the Southern Connector and a toll plaza east of Shingle Creek is tolled; the rest includes mainly at-grade intersections. A portion of the Osceola Parkway was once called Dart Boulevard.

State Road 570 (SR 570), also known as the Polk Parkway, is a 24-mile (39 km) controlled-access toll road which runs through Polk County, Florida. It is operated as part of Florida's Turnpike Enterprise system of tolled freeways. The Polk Parkway mainly serves as a beltway around Lakeland forming a semicircle, which along with I-4 circumscribes most of the city limits of Lakeland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open road tolling</span> Boothless toll collecting

Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major advantage to ORT is that users are able to drive through the toll plaza at highway speeds without having to slow down to pay the toll. In some installations, ORT may also reduce congestion at the plazas by allowing more vehicles per hour/per lane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas North Tollway</span> Highway in Texas

The Dallas North Tollway is a 30.2-mile (49 km) controlled-access toll road operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), which runs from Interstate 35E near Downtown Dallas, Texas (USA), to U.S. Highway 380, in Frisco, Texas. On December 20, 2023, the NTTA announced the Tollway's next extension which runs 6 miles (9.7 km) through Prosper and Celina and ends at FM 428.

There are approximately 25 current toll roads in the state of Texas. Toll roads are more common in Texas than in many other U.S. states, since the relatively low revenues from the state's gasoline tax limits highway planners' means to fund the construction and operation of highways.

There have been plans in Florida for expressways, but some were never constructed due to financial problems, community opposition and environmental issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florida State Road 538</span> Highway in Florida

State Road 538 (SR 538), also known as the Poinciana Parkway, is a 7.2-mile (11.6 km) controlled-access toll road built in Osceola and Polk Counties, Florida. Construction began in 2013 and was completed in 2016. The road had been planned for decades to provide a traffic outlet from Poinciana northwest to US 17/US 92 and Interstate 4. Costs skyrocketed after land along the planned route was converted to a mitigation bank, requiring a bridge to span most of the 1.2 miles (1.9 km) stretch through the restored wetland. The road was originally planned to be built by Avatar—the primary developer of Poinciana—as a four-lane, limited-access highway; after the decision was made to build the bridge across the mitigation bank a toll was planned for the bridge segment of the road, but the collapse of the 2000s housing bubble and increased costs forced Avatar to abandon their plans to build the private toll road. About the same time, Osceola County formed the Osceola County Expressway Authority to build a loop road around the Kissimmee-St.Cloud area, which would include the Poinciana Parkway.

References

  1. ↑ Gunderson, Gerald: Privatization and the 19th-Century Turnpike Archived January 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine , Cato Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring/Summer 1989.
  2. ↑ "Questions and Answers on the National Bridge Inspection Standards 23 CFR 650 Subpart C - National Bridge Inspection Standards - Bridge Inspection - Safety - Bridges & Structures - Federal Highway Administration". Fhwa.dot.gov. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  3. ↑ Benman, Keith. "When good toll roads go bad". nwitimes.com. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  4. ↑ "American Roads LLC Files for Bankruptcy". Transport Topics. August 2, 2013. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  5. ↑ Benman, Keith (December 27, 2014). "When Good Toll Roads Go Bad". The Times of Northwest Indiana . Munster, IN. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  6. ↑ Aurora WebMasters (December 20, 2014). "Dalton Highway, otherwise known as the Haul Road". Fairbanks-alaska.com. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Toll-Highway Finance Lessons from Orange County" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 7, 2008. Retrieved January 20, 2008.
  8. ↑ Archived July 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ Archived June 9, 2024(Date mismatch), at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ "An Act : Senate Bill 06-078" (PDF). Leg.state.co.us. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Toll Road Controversy Changes Colorado Law On Private Takings | Planetizen: The Urban Planning, Design, and Development Network". Planetizen. September 22, 2006. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Owens' veto puts toll road developer back on track". Northfortynews.com. June 30, 2005. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  13. ↑ Henley, Kyle (February 1, 2006). "Toll-road decision a victory, not end, for critics". The Gazette (Colorado Springs).
  14. ↑ "Rocky Mountain News: Local". Archived from the original on January 24, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2008.
  15. ↑ Ensley, Gerald (March 9, 2015). "Private toll road intended to save nature, wildlife". Tallahassee Democrat . Tallahassee, FL. Archived from the original on December 4, 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  16. ↑ Waters, TaMaryn (April 18, 2016). "Orchard Pond Parkway opens to grand fanfare". Tallahassee Democrat. Tallahassee, FL. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
  17. ↑ "About the Reedy Creek Improvement District". Archived from the original on March 11, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2008.
  18. ↑ "The Reedy Creek Fire Fighters Association Local 2117 - Press Releases". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2008.
  19. ↑ Central Florida's Reedy Creek Improvement District Has Wide-Ranging Authority, Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, Report No. 04-81, December 2004.
  20. ↑ Wolf, Joshua: Hidden Kingdom: Disney's Political Blueprint Archived January 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine , The American Prospect, Inc., Volume 6, Issue 21, March 21, 1995.
  21. ↑ "Socialism In Reverse". Ncpa.org. March 23, 2009. Archived from the original on October 24, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Toll Roads With A Cash-Out Option". Ncpa.org. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  23. ↑ Schulman, Daniel (January 1, 2007). "The Highwaymen". Mother Jones. Retrieved April 30, 2007.
  24. ↑ Bathon, Michael (September 22, 2014). "Indiana Toll Road Seeks Bankruptcy as Traffic Declines". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  25. ↑ "Tackling The "Time Tax"". Ncpa.org. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  26. ↑ "Long-Term Concessions Paying Off". Ncpa.org. March 23, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  27. ↑ "Texas Toll Road Moratorium Proceeds". Thenewspaper.com. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Texas moratorium author, Sen Robert Nichols writes". Toll Roads News. March 13, 2007. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  29. ↑ "Texas' seldom traveled toll road". San Antonio Express-News. October 6, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  30. ↑ "Private Toll Road Backed By $430 Million in Federal Funds Goes Bust". Streetsblog USA. October 18, 2016. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  31. ↑ "Dulles Greenway facts". Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2008.
  32. ↑ Archived January 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  33. ↑ Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  34. ↑ "ABC 7 News - Dulles Greenway Expanding". Archived from the original on March 11, 2006. Retrieved January 20, 2008.
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