The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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December 14, 2005

Turnpike tolls going up Jan. 1; cars to pay $2

Officials cite maintenance, fiscal obligations as reasons for first increase since 1981

By Mannix Porterfield

Pack a few extra bucks inside your wallet, down in the console, or above the sun visor if you plan on cruising along the West Virginia Turnpike this New Year’s Day weekend.

You’re going to need some added dollars to get through the toll plazas by the time Auld Lang Syne is sung, and afterward to boot.

As of Jan. 1, the toll climbs to $2 per plaza for ordinary motorists, and up to $7 for five-axle commercial rigs — the first increase along the 88-mile toll road since 1981.

“It’s not an easy pill to swallow,” Alan Susman, head of the authority’s facilities committee, reflected shortly before the board’s unanimous vote Wednesday.

“But it’s something we have to do.”

Until the higher rates come on line, motorists pay $1.25 at the three barriers, and truckers are tagged with a $4.25 fee.

Susman and Tom Winner, head of the finance committee, said higher tolls were recommended by both Wilbur Smith Associates and the Public Resource Advisory Group as vital not only to maintaining the road but to meet future bond obligations and retain the authority’s ratings.

Faced with those recommendations, Susman said board members have mulled over the inevitable toll increases for some time.

“They agonized about the fact we have to increase the fare,” Susman said.

Joe Martin, an aide to Gov. Joe Manchin and the board’s chairman, gained strong assurances that the toll increase will not affect the special commuter cards and the EZ-Pass system.

Normally, he only votes to break ties, but had the board not exempted the commuter passes for frequent users, Martin said he would felt obligated to post a protest vote against the toll increase, because Manchin was “adamant” it remain the same.

- - -

Turnpike Manager Greg Barr said the higher tolls are projected to generate an additional $24 million a year at a time the turnpike is on the verge of two expensive projects — the addition of two lanes from the North Beckley exit to the Interstate 64-77 divide, and the proposed Shady Spring interchange.

Last year, the Legislature raised the parkways authority’s bonding capacity with a stipulation the Shady Spring interchange become part of its plans. An update on both projects shows the two-lane addition now will run $62 million, while the Shady Spring exit will cost $55 million. Originally, it was estimated each would cost $50 million.

Barr pointed out 84.4 percent of the turnpike’s revenues is derived from out-of-state travelers.

With the higher tolls, pegged at a 60 percent overall boost, he said the turnpike would be taking in about $82 million, and emphasized consultants called for this, based on traffic and engineering studies.

“Under the baseline of where we’re at now and projecting out, there were just not enough revenues to do the significant capital improvements that we needed to do on the turnpike,” he said.

“The turnpike has provided to the state and to southern West Virginia a significant increase in travel, tourism, commerce and economic development and nobody would have imagined it would have been that much 51 years ago when they opened the road.”

Approval of the increase will guarantee “continued viability and safety of the turnpike for future generations,” he said.

North Beckley exit users pay 25-cents to enter and exit, or $5 for a year-long pass, and that will not change. Nor will anyone using the future Shady Spring interchange be charged a toll, the board pledged.

Frequent users pay $100 annual fee for a pass at each barrier, or $95 if the fee is paid in advance. That means unlimited driving from Beckley to Charleston for a year would cost $190.

“If you had to pay that in cash at $8 a trip, it would cost $2,000 a year,” Barr said. “That’s a 90 percent discount — steepest discount in the nation.”

- - -

Back in the 1970s, when the road was upgraded to four-lane status and new sections were opened, traffic increased by double digits.

“So our revenues were sufficient to meet our needs,” Barr said.

“In 1988, we opened up I-64, and that created another boost to our revenues. That continued through the early ‘90s to the mid ‘90s. But just more recently, in the mid to late ‘90s and in the 2000s, we’re seeing a leveling off. In a couple of years, there would have been a decline in our revenues.”

In fact, Barr pointed out, within the past five to six years, traffic revenues have risen a mere 1 percent.

Traffic dipped somewhat when gas prices began to soar in late summer, but Barr doubted he would see a backlash when higher tolls are charged with the advent of the New Year.

“Our rate per mile on the turnpike when looking at other states — Florida, New Jersey, Illinois — is in the ballpark with our increase for passenger cars and trucks,” the manager said.

Within the past year, he pointed out, Pennsylvania jacked its tolls up 43 percent, while Illinois recently announced a 56 percent boost, and the Ohio Turnpike midway in the past decade upped its toll 80 percent.

“So, we are kind of way behind in the cost of trying to maintain this road,” he said.

Longtime users remember when the turnpike charged 50 cents to ride from Beckley to Charleston, based on a time ticket issued at either end with no stops in between.

Barr also reminded a reporter the turnpike gets no operating capital from the federal government, relying solely on the take at the tollbooths.

While turnpike tolls stayed steady for 24 years, Susman noted, the Consumer Price Index went up 103.3 percent, an average annual inflation rate of 3.18 percent. That means if the toll road had hiked tolls at 2 percent a year over the past two decades, much lower than the index, Susman said, users now would be paying $2.05 in cars and $6.97 when driving rigs.

- - -

In its initial half-century of operation, the turnpike served 590.5 million cars and trucks, covering a combined 19.4 billion miles.

Besides the two key projects in the Beckley area, the 30-year highway and bridge rehabilitation plan requires another $10 million each year over a seven-year span — money that isn’t within reach under the current toll schedule, Barr said.

Mix in the inflationary spiral that engulfs every thing in the market, the manager said.

“The cost of materials, asphalt — everything has gone up and up over the years,” he added.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

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