The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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Editorials

September 5, 2010

Financing

For The Register-Herald

BECKLEY — It’s looking more and more like the West Virginia Turnpike will not be the only toll road in the Mountain State.

The West Virginia Parkways Authority and the state Division of Highways took another step last week to implement tolls as a way to finance construction of the final 14.6-mile segment of the new four-lane U.S. 35 in Mason and Putnam counties.

And a third toll road could become a reality on a segment of the Mon-Fayette Expressway, a highway expected to link Pittsburgh with Interstate 68 east of Morgantown. A vote on a memorandum of understanding for that project was delayed until October.

On the U.S. 35 project, the Parkways Authority would sell bonds to fund the highway. The tolls would be used to fund the bond debt service, to pay the cost to operate and maintain toll plazas, and to reimburse the DOH for annual operating and maintenance expenses.

If the two new toll roads come to pass, they will be operated differently from the turnpike. For instance, they will not have their own maintenance divisions, State Police detachments or travel plazas.

“We will treat this like we do the rest of the state highways system,” Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox said.

But it looks as though there will be tolls. Some may dislike them, others reluctantly tolerate them, but don’t be surprised to see more and more toll roads in West Virginia.

Why? Because there is simply not enough public money to finance highway construction and maintenance needs, whether in West Virginia or elsewhere.

The solution is to implement user fees — i.e., tolls — or raise gasoline taxes, which fuel the federal Highway Trust Fund.

Two major highway projects in southern West Virginia are the Coalfields Expressway and King Coal Highway. Both are being built in small segments as money becomes available.

But there is intense competition for a dwindling supply of federal money, and no one can be sure if these highways can ever be completed under the current way of financing construction.

Tolls will likely be the only way these projects can be completed in the next 25 years and then maintained.

It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s better than having a so-called “road to nowhere.”

The possibilities need to be looked into and given serious consideration now rather than 10 years from now.

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