For the 90,000 drivers in I-75’s morning rush toward Atlanta each day, the hope of finding a lane that won’t be clogged may be just a few years away.
After years of false starts, the state Department of Transportation says it will soon open bidding on the largest transportation contract in state history — a $1 billion project to add 29 miles of reversible lanes alongside I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties.
It is the state’s maiden attempt to build public roads with private investment.
But it will come at a cost.
Drivers using these lanes will pay in tolls, and all Georgia drivers will pay in tax dollars. Some of the costs may remain secret, at least from the public, until after the final contract is signed.
The project between the Perimeter and Hickory Grove Road on I-75, and up to Sixes Road on I-575, will charge tolls that vary based on the level of congestion, though the DOT refused to divulge the rules for setting and raising the tolls.
In addition, a major issue in such deals elsewhere has been a clause — for the benefit of the private companies involved — that prevents the state from making other road improvements in the area that would ease traffic congestion and compete with the toll lanes.
For now, the exact provisions for Georgia are secret.
Electronic tolling — using just passes mounted on vehicles — is not unique: There is a smaller toll-lane project being built on I-85 in Gwinnett County, and others elsewhere in the country.
But the public-private approach on I-75/I-575 could pave the way for a network of privately financed toll projects throughout metro Atlanta.
Commuter reaction
After several delays and a wholesale redesign that drastically scaled down the project, DOT officials insist this time it’s really on a roll, and they say they expect to open it to bidding next month.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Scott Kravitz, an insurance agency owner who moved near his office on Windy Hill Road in order to stop driving in I-75 at rush hour. He still uses I-75 during the day for work, he said, and he might use the toll lanes, “depending on the time of day and the price.”
Not everyone agrees.
“The general concept of public-private does not sit well with me,” said Ken Ogle, a Cobb County handyman, citing aggressive ticketing by the city of Atlanta’s privatized parking ticket vendor.
Ogle, who drives his 1997 Ford pickup on I-75 just about every day, said that he didn’t want his tax dollars building a lane he couldn’t afford to use.
The state, though, is counting on drivers to pay hundreds of millions in toll fees over the next 50 years. Taxpayers will pitch in transportation money too, up to $450 million.
Crucial test for program
State transportation officials say it’s worth it. If no bidder meets the state’s requirements, then the state’s hopes for major investment of private dollars into roads will meet a critical failure after eight years of trying.
Brandon Beach, chairman of the DOT board committee that oversees public-private toll projects, said the project is a crucial test to show the program can work.
The DOT has given up on ever having enough money to sufficiently widen metro Atlanta’s interstates, because wider roads tend to just fill up again.
Instead, the state has planned a network of optional toll lanes. By keeping the toll high enough to keep out drivers who can’t afford it, these lanes offer one thing available nowhere else: reliable free flow, even at rush hour.
The goal is for traffic in the lane to always be moving at least 45 mph.
The Gwinnett I-85 toll lane, which will be about 15 miles, will charge about 90 cents per mile during the most congested times.
That toll lane, which will run from just south of Spaghetti Junction in DeKalb County to Old Peachtree Road in Gwinnett County, is about half as long as the I-75/I-575 project.
Details under wraps
Not all the I-75/I-575 project’s terms are public.
The DOT says it will not publicly release the state’s request for bids, or the contract, until the final contract is signed, probably next year.
Those documents will likely include information on the toll range, including when the private companies can raise the toll fee.
DOT spokeswoman Vicki Gavalas said the state needed to protect the integrity of the negotiations and that it was following the law.
The documents for the I-75/I-575 project also might address whether the state is restricted from other road building to ease congestion.
On a similar project in California a decade ago, the state was prevented by private toll lane operators from building merge lanes on an adjacent public road, because they could decrease congestion and drive down business for the private toll lanes.
In a public relations disaster, the government had to buy the lanes from the private company. Georgia officials say they’ve learned from California’s mistake.
Darryl VanMeter, Georgia DOT’s state innovative program delivery engineer, said the DOT had the ability to construct competing roads, but would not say what was restricted.
Georgia would lease out the road to the private company for 50 years, and the private road company would handle repaving and repairs. The state would administer the toll accounts — all electronic — and pay the company the money, minus an administrative fee, according to the DOT.
Advocates such as Benita Dodd, a vice president of the free-market think tank the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, say it’s “critical” that this project succeed.
“If this project does not work out, we are not going to be focused on the right kinds of transportation modes,” she said. “We need to be sure we have a successful project in this area.”
--------------------
I-75/I-575 schedule
● Early June 2011: Bidding opens.
● October/November 2011: Proposals due.
● November/December 2011: Preferred bidder identified. DOT board votes on approval.
● About six months later: Negotiate closing contract.
● 2012 or 2013: Construction starts.
● 2015 or 2016: Open to traffic.
Source: Ga. Department of Transportation
About the Author
