It will take a lot of time and planning to build a toll road in Arizona, transportation experts say. But as other funding sources dwindle in the future, tolls may become one of the more viable ways to pay for new roads.
While other options also need exploration, toll roads are one way to get around, and ahead of, gas-tax and federal funding shortfalls, the experts say.
Discussion of toll roads most recently surfaced here when members of the State Transportation Board discussed a possible bypass to allow some Interstate 10 traffic to avoid the Tucson and Phoenix metropolitan areas.
While that's one specific project in which tolls could help build a new road, there's also a wider perspective about the potential benefits of toll roads.
"There are discussions going on in Phoenix, statewide and here about doing things differently; tolling is one of those things," said Gary Hayes, executive director of the Tucson-area's Regional Transportation Authority.
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While state and federal transportation funding are the long-standing sources for money, those sources aren't making ends meet anymore.
"I would be willing to guess within five years there will be no more federal gas-tax money to build roads, only maintain them," said Stephen Hogan, executive director of Northwest Parkway Public Highway Authority. The Northwest Parkway is a 10-mile toll road near Denver, opened in 2003. The project was entirely funded by a private company, and was completed in five years.
"No one wants to pay a toll, but whether it's a toll or a tax, everybody's paying," he said. "If you do it through an entity that's focused on building a toll road, you'll get it done quicker," Hogan said.
And the faster a new road is built, the faster the traffic has another route to take.
Because the costs of congestion are great, everyone is interested in reducing it, said Dale Miller, president and CEO of Kirkham Michael, an engineering consulting company.
He said congestion reduces a person's involvement in the community by 10 percent for every 10 minutes he or she spends sitting in traffic.
Other local transportation officials agree toll roads could be on the horizon.
"We never have enough money to build all of the transportation improvements we would need," said Priscilla Cornelio, Pima County transportation director. Toll roads, because they are funded by private companies, can provide a solution.
However, as a state outlook, Cornelio said she thinks toll roads are more realistic and more likely in Maricopa County. The increased congestion and more established freeway systems there could make the most-populous county in the state a better candidate for a toll road than any other.
County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said he sees two versions of the state's future. In one, transportation is nearly paralyzed with congestion and gridlock. This is the future if nothing changes, he said. Some efforts, like the 20-year Regional Transportation Plan, set us in the right direction but don't make up for lost time, he said.
In his other version of our future, local governments find other sources of transportation funding, including toll roads, and make some forward progress in improving transportation, he said.
The current transportation funding sources are "woefully inadequate," Huckelberry said. "We're just getting farther and farther behind; there has to be a realization that transportation and its efficiency is directly related to the economy."
But that doesn't mean toll roads are right around the corner.
The Arizona Department of Transportation would consider construction or operation of toll roads only if there was public support for any fees assessed to drivers, as well as support from policymakers, including the Legislature, said spokeswoman Teresa Welborn.
At a meeting Friday at Central Arizona College, Thomas R. Biggs, a senior adviser for PBS&J, an architecture, planning and engineering firm, said toll roads built now may take 30 years to earn enough toll revenue to pay for the project.
But before a toll road is even built, a private company has to pony up the cash to build it.
Neil Pogorelsky, a senior economist with HDR, a national engineering company, said some things companies consider before funding a toll road: Will people be willing to pay? Will there be enough users? Will economic growth in the toll road's location continue? Will construction stay on schedule and costs remain as anticipated?
It may also take some changes to state law, said Hayes, of the Tucson-area RTA.
The issue is that state law is vague, he said.
"One of the problems we have in Arizona is that the current legislation that's on the books does not directly or indirectly permit tolling," Hayes said.
"No one wants to pay a toll, but whether it's a toll or a tax, everybody's paying. If you do it through an entity that's focused on building a toll road, you'll get it done quicker."
Stephen Hogan
Northwest Parkway Public Highway Authority
