Toll roads for Nebraska?

LINCOLN — The State of Nebraska needs to consider toll roads and other ways to leverage private funds if it hopes to build highways and bridges in the future, according to an Omaha-based conservative think tank.

A report to be released today by the Platte Institute for Economic Research says that Nebraska, like many states, won't have enough money in the future to do more than maintain its existing transportation system.

With road building's traditional sources of funding, such as fuel taxes, either flat or on the decline, states need to look to public-private partnerships in particular to finance expensive freeways and bridges, the report says.

Examples would include the $145 million bridge over the Missouri River planned south of Bellevue and the $175 million south beltway project around Lincoln — projects with no existing funding sources.

At least half the states already allow such partnerships, said Shirley Ybarra, a former Virginia state roads director who wrote the report.

“This is a tool in the toolbox,” said Ybarra, a Lincoln native. “What we're asking is that perhaps Nebraska should consider this tool.”

One key state senator, Tim Gay of Papillion, said Monday he was skeptical that toll roads would work in a small-population state such as Nebraska, but said he was willing to explore other ideas suggested in the report, such as privatizing road maintenance work.

“We need to explore bonding and how we prioritize our road needs,” Gay said. “We need to be creative.”

The report is being released less than a month before state lawmakers convene for their 2010 session, in which road funding will be a major topic.

Members of the Legislature's Transportation Committee spent the fall crisscrossing the state to attend public hearings in the hope of finding a solution to what some officials call a crisis in funding for road building.

Though construction costs and needs continue to rise, less driving and more fuel-efficient vehicles have created a slump in gas-tax revenue, the major source of road-building funds.

As a result, state roads officials have said, current funding is barely enough to keep up with current maintenance needs, much less new projects such as widening roads or building Interstate interchanges.

Ybarra, now a policy analyst for the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based “free market” think tank, said fuel taxes are not likely to recover. So, if states want to keep up with the competition, they need to look elsewhere for road funds — namely, to private investors and private contractors.

If states wait until they have the tax revenue before they build more roads, she said, it could be years before expensive projects are built, such as the $20 million project to expand Nebraska Highway 133 to four lanes between Omaha and Blair.

Contracting with a private company not only to design but also to build, finance and even operate such roads can save money, Ybarra said. The State of Colorado, the report said, saved nearly $200 million on the construction of the $600 million E-470 toll road around Denver.

She also suggested that Nebraska outsource things such as road maintenance. Multiyear, performance-based maintenance contracts can save money, Ybarra said, by allowing private companies to use cost-saving steps that state government cannot, such as using lower-cost labor and more specialized equipment.

Other recommendations by Ybarra:

Ÿ Use other types of partial private financing that would be repaid from state revenue. These would be an alternative to issuing bonds to finance roads, which is being considered by some senators, including Gay. Pension funds, Ybarra said, are looking for infrastructure projects to invest in.

Ÿ Consider toll lanes for trucks. Such designated lanes are currently being studied by Wyoming and Missouri.

Ÿ Give more weight to relieving traffic congestion in urban areas in state road-funding formulas rather than try to spread funds equally across the state. The Omaha area currently ranks 49th among metropolitan areas in congestion. By 2030, congestion levels in Omaha are projected to double and will compare with delays experienced now in the Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth areas. Spreading funds around politically, the report said, means some needed urban projects go undone “while empty highways get built in sparsely populated areas.”

Ÿ Nebraska ranked eighth nationally in 2008 in highway department “performance,” an annual assessment by the Reason Foundation that gauges the quality of roads in a state compared with what it spends. The state rose from No. 19 in 2007 by improving the overall condition of its rural and urban Interstate highways.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com

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