The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Local News

December 3, 2009

New toll system could cost $7 million

Mannix Porterfield

A new electronic toll system, replacing the antiquated one that is imposing growing pressure on officials to shop for new parts, could cost between $5 million and $7 million and not be up and running until late 2011.

Turnpike Manager Greg Barr supplied the estimate — emphasizing it was only that since no actual bids had been made — after the West Virginia Parkways Authority met Thursday to speed up the process for getting offers.

Once bids are advertised, companies will outline their proposals, and a contract is to be let by April. However, the projected completion is October 2011.

Ideally, the upgrade will give the turnpike a system that lasts fully a decade, Barr said.

“And with the 2019 window of decision of what happens to tolls when the bonds are paid off, this will get us to that point,” he said.

Under a state law, the turnpike must have all the bonds satisfied by that date, and the tolls are supposed to be removed.

Normally, a toll system is designed to last eight years, and the one in use now was installed in 1999.

Although it survived the infamous Y2K scare of the new century’s arrival, it has become increasingly difficult to find parts to replace worn ones, Barr said.

“We’ve gone to eBay to look for parts,” he said. “These servers are 10 years old. Imagine if you had a computer that was 10 years old. They don’t make the parts any more.”

And by the time the new one is installed, Barr said, the current system will have been used fully 12 years.

“Technicians are constantly giving us warning, saying, ‘You know, we’re worried; we’ve been able to find parts so far, but if this breaks, boy, we’re going to have a problem,’” he said.

“It gets kind of scary.”

After months of shrinking traffic, Barr found some positive notes on Thanksgiving week travel, telling the board it was the highest turnout in the road’s history — a new record of 177,000 transactions. Contrasted with last year’s Thanksgiving numbers, the increase was 6 percent.

More good news came when the manager pored over the figures for the entire month of November — a 5 percent boost in passenger cars and a 1 percent increase in commercial trucks.

The latter figure might seem pale, but Barr quickly provided the meaningful perspective — truck traffic had diminished a whopping 18 percent.

“When I looked at 2006, we’re just about equal to where we would have been without the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the recession,” he said.

“But we are showing a trend of starting to increase back to normal levels.”

Barr found the turnaround in commercial truckers especially encouraging.

“And I think that’s an indication of the Christmas season coming on,” he said. “Maybe everybody is feeling a little better about things turning around.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

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