A Triangle with multisided benefits

Officials in North Carolina broke ground on the road of the future on Aug. 12. The state’s Triangle Expressway (TriEX) will be a controlled-access, 18.8-mile toll road that will use an all-electronic toll collection system and charge motorists by the mile—a first in the U.S. New FHWA Administrator Victor Mendez was on hand to celebrate the occasion.

“There will be no toll booths and no stopping to pay tolls,” U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood commented on his blog. “Customers purchase a transponder that automatically charges for road use.”

TriEX toll rates have not been set yet, but similar toll facilities charge anywhere between 10 to 20 cents per mile.

North Carolina used alternative financing sources—$270 million in toll-revenue bonds and $353 million in Build America bonds—to move the TriEX project forward. The U.S. DOT also provided $386 million in TIFIA loans.

“With gas and tax revenues declining and North Carolina’s population exploding, North Carolina will fall billions short of the revenue needed for roads, bridges and transit over the next 25 years,” said LaHood. “The state had no choice but to search for alternative financing sources.”

According to the U.S. DOT, toll financing is based on user fees and requires no increase in taxes, freeing up existing resources for other transportation projects. Financing the project with the toll-backed securities allows bonds to be issued to finance new transportation infrastructure “decades sooner than otherwise possible.”