River Cities Business Journal: Construction

Politicians eying toll roads; Havasu Senator advocates private road, bridge building

News West

BULLHEAD CITY - Anyone who has relocated to the West from the Northeast and Midwest is familiar with toll roads and bridges.

While still a rarity in the West, more and more traffic planners are considering toll roads or HOT (High Occupancy Toll) lanes on existing freeways.

Some traffic engineers advocate changing HOV lanes (High Occupancy Vehicle) for vehicles with two or more passengers into HOT lanes for people who want to pay to go faster during peak traffic hours.

Sen. Ron Gould (R-Lake Havasu City) has just taken over as the state senate's transportation committee chairman. He said HOT lanes are mostly being considered for the Phoenix area.

He also advocates looking at adding toll roads as well. “ ... the advantage of that is we don't tie up taxpayer money. You have a private company come in and build the road and charge the toll.” Both toll roads and HOT lanes are gaining prominence in California, Gould said.

Whether or not toll roads will come to Mohave County is not known at this time.

Referring to the proposed Highway 95 bypass or realignment, Pawan Agrawal, Bullhead City public works director said “I just don't expect ADOT (the Arizona Department of Transportation) to be able to find $250 million anytime soon and there may have to be other creative options including toll roads that would need to be examined.”

“I wouldn't think that the Highway 95 realignment would qualify for something that would work as a toll road,” Gould said.

But he added, “If we couldn't come up with the money any other way it might be something to look into.”

Gould doesn't think the widening of existing Highway 95 through Bullhead City is the answer.

“It looks to me just as a layman that areas with the most congestion you don't really have the space to widen those lanes,” he said. “You'd end up eminent-domaining the guy's business that you're trying to provide access to.

“When push comes to shove you'll probably get more bang for the buck realigning Highway 95,” Gould said.

Toll bridges may also be in Mohave County's future. Agrawal has a proposal to turn the Laughlin Bridge and any new bridges into toll bridges. He said the traffic volume would generate enough revenue to build a new bridge and expand the existing one, set up a fund to pay for maintenance “and retire the toll in 10 years or less.”

Locals would pay less and have their own express lane at the toll booth, he said.

“We would have to show our financial analysis here and if people want to support it and believe it, that's fine,” Agrawal said.

“If the people don't believe it and they're afraid the toll would stay they (can) shoot down the proposal,” he said. “It's a democratic society.

“The proposal and analysis would be presented in public hearings ... “ Agrawal said. “We can make the bridge work with a toll ... and develop an analysis that shows that the toll needed would be relatively low.”