National Road Pricing Conference
Proceedings
SESSION 3
How to Implement Your Pricing Project
Moderator: Matt MacGregor, Texas Department of Transportation
Public-Public Partnership for Houston's New Katy Managed Lanes Project
Lisa Castaneda, Harris County Toll Road Authority
Here is some background on the Katy managed lanes. In 1984 the I-10 Katy HOV opened to vans and buses only. In 1986, Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) opened the lane to HOV 2+ carpools. Due to congestion in the HOV lane, in 1998 METRO raised the HOV occupancy to 3+ during peak periods and began a program called Quick Ride (HOT lane implementation) which allowed a 2 person carpool on the lane for a $2.00 charge during the 3+ peak periods.
In the late 1990s the corridor was moving 212,000 vehicles per day, with 6-10 main lanes, 4-6 frontage lanes, and one reversible barrier separated HOT lane. In 1998 when occupancy requirements during peak periods were raised to 3+, the HOV lanes started running at a free flow rate while the general purpose lanes continued to see increased traffic. At this point the corridor was capacity constrained and the agencies in Harris County knew something needed to change.
The I-10 Katy Freeway managed lanes are the first in Texas, not by choice but because of necessity; the timing for this project was right. Three partner agencies emerged from this project: Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA), TxDOT, METRO. HCTRA was able to come into the project with back office support and contribute $250 million. TxDOT was able to use the HCTRA funding to build the new facility. METRO got a four lane facility (two lanes in each direction) that had expanded hours, instead of a one-lane reversible HOV lane. Harris County would take over maintenance and enforcement.
The overall plan was to offer more reliable travel times for buses and HOV riders while selling the unused capacity. The project is 12 miles long, has 2 lanes in each direction, serves mass transit and HOV needs during HOV hours. The unused capacity is made available to single occupancy drivers for a toll. The lanes are separated from the general purpose lanes by pylons/candle sticks and operate 24/7. The HOV aspect operates from 5-11am and 2-8pm, Monday-Friday and as a toll way at all other times. The goal of the managed lanes project is to keep at level of service C or 45MPH in the lanes.
HCTRA uses electronic toll collection on this facility. There are three locations for payment on the facility and three or four access/egress points in each direction which is much different from the earlier barrier separated lanes.
The project benefits all agencies involved with the implementation. METRO continues bus and HOV operations and has four times the capacity with expanded hours. HCTRA receives the tolls from SOVs and since these SOVs are no longer on TXDOT's general purpose lanes the congestion is improving in the general lanes also.
HCTRA (Harris County) has its own officers for enforcement. The compliancy rate is good as HCTRA places officers on the lanes during the HOV operations Monday-Friday. User complaints are mostly regarding the transition area on the I-10 diamond lanes before and after the lanes turn into the managed lanes. Most people do not realize that the diamond lane is not a toll lane and HCTRA has found it difficult to sign this transition area.
The managed lanes are variably priced with prices changing four times a day. Originally HCTRA put out speed sensors and had software for complete dynamic pricing with changes every five minutes but decided against using the true dynamic pricing but since the hardware and software are installed, HCTRA has the potential to implement dynamic pricing in the future. The managed lanes are all electronic and toll users must have a transponder that is interoperable with our agency to use the facility. Exempt vehicles include emergency vehicles and buses. Two plus HOV users and motorcycles are exempt from toll during designated HOV operations. SOV drivers and trucks pay tolls at all times on the facility. Trucks pay $7 at each tolling point, up to $21.00 for the 12 mile facility, which kind of discourages trucks from using the facility.
The rates vary throughout the day. During off peak hours the toll is $1 for all 12 miles split among the three tolling points ($0.40 at the toll plaza furthest west and $0.30 at the other two plazas). During the peak hours (and peak direction, east in the AM and west in the PM) the toll is $4.00 for the whole trip. To prevent the price from jumping from $1 to $4, HCTRA has $2.00 "shoulder" hours on either side of the peak hours.
The toll lane is a self-declaration lane. The tolling system was originally modeled after one in California with two lanes that continue through the plaza. One lane would pull out to declare a toll next to the booth and a third lane was available for HOV users to pull out into (to avoid tolling). Unfortunately, as the project was developing, gas prices went through the roof and we did not know if we could withstand the criticism from making the entire system HOV 3+, so we thought since we had the capacity we would try to accommodate HOV 2+ riders. Allowing HOV 2+ users changed the design because the amount of HOV 2 riders we expected could not weave in and out safely. So the design now is simply two lanes and as you are at the toll point the left lane is the HOV lane (closest to the observation booth) and the right lane is the tolled lane. During non-HOV hours, both lanes are tolled.
There are three points for declaring at the three observation booths. The signs at each toll both designate the lane a driver should be in. SOVs should be in the right lane during HOV hours to be tolled. Constables are only providing enforcement during the HOV hours but HCTRA does have staff in the three booths that try to validate occupancy (which is difficult). The constables know how the lanes work and are often able to identify patterns with violators. It is not unusual to drive past a plaza and see a constable there. The violation enforcement system is the same one HCTRA uses on the rest of the toll roads except violations only happen in the EZtag lanes. An SOV driver that passes through the EZtag lane without a transponder tag will be considered a violator and sent a notice.
Users of the managed lanes see an average time savings of eight minutes during peak travel times (not including incidents). The average speed on the managed lane is 58 mph whereas on our general purpose lanes it is 36 mph. The managed lanes have been open for one year; we opened in April 2009. The lanes currently carry approximately 1,720 HOV vehicles during the peak hour and 2,100 SOVs per hour. The mix of vehicles it is split with about half HOV users and half SOV users.
The monthly transactions on the managed lanes have increased from approximately 350,000 to over 1.2 million. Over the last 12 months the lanes have had 5.51 million EZtag transactions and 5.42 million HOV transactions with a total of a little over 10 million transactions on the lanes. When comparing the number of transactions of our system to other existing managed lane facilities we are in the middle. Managed lanes in both Florida and California are HOV 3+ and we are still at HOV 2+.
So far the system has been well accepted by the public because the system did not take anything away from the public. I-10 went from being three lanes in each direction with one reversible HOV lane to 4 or 5 lanes in each direction with two HOV lanes in each direction. The entire facility has expanded, so the managed lanes project added value for everyone, not just HOV or transit users.
Audience Questions
Toll Concession Model for the I-495 Beltway HOT Lanes
Tony Adams, Transurban
I would like to give the private sector's view of toll concessions; the pros and cons of these projects. The Capital Beltway HOT lanes project is now under construction in Washington DC. I would like to discuss how private sector together with Virginia DOT (VDOT) put together this concession tolling project.
Transurban is an Australian-based company. We are a toll road manager, investor and operator. Our company has a $ 7 billion market capitalization (as of two weeks before the presentation) with over 5 million customers worldwide. We are pioneers for all-electronic tolling in Australia.
In Australia we have six assets, primarily in the south along the east coast and in Sydney. In the US we have a road in Richmond, VA (Pocahontas Parkway) and in the DC region we are currently developing the Capital Beltway HOT lanes and looking at developing the I-95/I-395 HOT lanes.
Why do we get involved as an operator and an owner? As mentioned earlier, livability, sustainability, and equality are the three major issues; we work as partners with government agencies to bring about all of those ideas. We bring long term focus. We do not just design it, build it and get out letting someone else operate it. We build valued partnerships with the government and the community. We do not treat the assets as single assets, we treat them as systems assets that will provide benefit. From a long term perspective, innovation is important, and we provide continuous improvements in our systems to provide more value.
From the federal government perspective, traffic is one of the top major concerns. In northern Virginia people still see traffic as the biggest issue. A study was done in April 2009 where 50 percent of those using the Beltway proposed traffic was their major issue because they were experiencing six to eight hours of congestion a day. This congestion costs the local economy approximately $5.5 billion a year. That $5.5 billion could improve a lot of projects. We are working to improve these corridors so this money can be used in the community.
HOT lanes are one solution. They have been proposed and accepted by the community and the community understands that HOT lanes are not the only solution. The Capital Beltway project began in early 1990s and continued through December 2007. It involved a huge land take and environmental impact. The project took over 350 homes. VDOT took the concept of HOT lanes which was very innovative at the time and is still innovative. The project was developed as a private/public partnership through Virginia law. The project involved 40 miles of lanes widened by two lanes in each direction with two middle lanes used as HOT lanes which will be tolled. Tyson's Corner is the second largest employment zone in the area of the Capital Beltway project. The most important thing about the project is that it provides a choice for general purpose lanes, transit, HOV, or concession lanes. It has several entry and exit points for HOT lanes which allows greater choice for users.
We have an 80 year agreement with five years to design and build and 75 years to operate and maintain. It is quite an investment and risk because all the risk has been shifted to the concessionaire. The state does not hold any risk for the next 75 years. The Commonwealth is not restricted from making any transportation improvements in the area. The concessionaire has to meet significant performance goals. There are penalties if goals are not met.
In December 2007, the financing was very innovative but it would be more difficult in the current financial environment. The Beltway project involved money from the Commonwealth, Transurban and private activity bonds. The private/public partnership worked for the Beltway project but it is not a solution for all types of projects; particularly, it is not a solution for projects which are not feasible. Concessionaires will not be looking at those projects where there is not a return involved. Another key issue with these partnerships is that private firms do deliver projects more quickly.
The Beltway will use dynamic pricing to manage the demand on the road. Transurban will be looking at using switchable transponders. The average toll for five or six miles will be $5-6 dollars. There is no toll cap for pricing. We can increase the toll to move people out as needed. We have to maintain safety and performance with a minimum speed of 45 mph. We try not to go below the 45 mph performance measure and try to maintain free flow as much as possible.
There are a lot of new technologies put out on these roads. The electronic system will have a fully-automated traffic management system with 62 cameras with incident detection panels so we can respond quickly and clear incidents. Enforcement from the HOV will be done by state troopers with a technology pioneered in Minnesota with mobile enforcement readers. We have looked at occupancy detection cameras, but our research shows that they not viable at the moment.
The trip time reliability and travel time savings are incentives for carpooling on the transit side of things. Carpools, HOV 3, and transit have the opportunity to use the HOT lanes for free. We provide customer choice, technology, safe roads with important information passed to users. The key to take away is that the project stimulates the community. Stimulus can be used as a catalyst to take on to the next project. Economists have determined that construction of the Capital Beltway supports the community by creating 30,000 jobs in Virginia and putting $3 billion into the economy during the construction period. Fairfax County where the road travels through had 10 percent job growth and 20 percent growth of the total economy. These are significant numbers when you look at the entire project. To wrap up, concessions work but private partnerships are not the end solution for non-feasible projects but one way to achieve an outcome.
Toll/Availability Payment Model for I-595 Express Toll Lanes Project
Ed Regan, Wilbur Smith and Associates
Building managed lanes sometimes requires rebuilding the whole freeway. State Route (SR) 91 was a notable exception where the lanes could be squeezed in the existing median and it was relatively low cost. The I-595 express toll lanes in Broward County Florida combine the innovative use of availability payments together with pricing. Wilbur Smith and Associates did the traffic and revenue studies for the project. The project is the addition of reversible priced express lanes being added as part of the reconstruction. The project is very comparable to the I-10 project, not as much new construction but similar in length and it being a multi-billion dollar project. The project includes major access improvements, interchanges being rebuilt (braided configurations due to lots of bottlenecks at access points) and auxiliary lanes are being added. The total project costs were around $1.7 billion. The project has three reversible express lanes down the middle of the road. The express lane portion probably cost around $300 million but the reconstruction of the entire facility is the majority of the cost.
The express lanes will be a chute-based lane project with very limited access points from Fort Lauderdale to I-95 and I-75 in the west. The project is part of a long term plan for fixed guide way transit which will either be express bus service or light rail which was another factor when determining how to finance the road. The I-595 project is 11 miles that runs from around I-75 (in Miami-Dade County) where I-595 turns southeasterly toward I-95 and the Florida turnpike near downtown Fort Lauderdale. In a regional context, this project fits in with other managed lane projects, specifically the very successful I-95 expressway project. Phase 2 of the I-95 expressway project will extend north of I-595 with a multi-managed express lane network from I-95 north of Fort Lauderdale south to Miami for about 22 miles. The I-595 will not quite connect with it but will fit in with it sometime later.
The corridor is heavily congested with 175,000 to 225,000 vehicles per day. It has limited points of access to and from the west and east and none in middle. It has three reversible express lanes and is being financed with a Public-Private Partnership (P3) concession arrangement with a twist. The total I-595 project including the express lanes and entire corridor are being delivered through a P3 concession but tolling will only be used on the express lane and will be controlled by FDOT. Repayment to concessionaire is based on availability payments not directly on toll revenue.
The rest of the presentation will focus on why is this approach is being used and why it may be more common in future. Availability payment is a competitive procurement process (this one has a 35 year contract term) where the concessionaire brings the financing to the project to design, build, operate and maintain the full corridor. The concessionaire will get an annual availability payment that is a competitive bid number but not dependent on revenue from tolls but is based on annual appropriation by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). FDOT recognized that tolls alone could not pay for the entire project (probably only the cost of the express lanes but not the overall project) and this is why FDOT chose to use a concessionaire. FDOT's goals in choosing this financing were to:
- provide capacity improvements sooner,
- maximize corridor throughput rather than toll revenue from express lanes,
- minimize the required FDOT corridor outlays while transferring the cost performance and delay risks to the private concessionaire; and,
- enhance the long term life cycle cost efficiency and service quality of the overall facility.
On the issue of revenue maximization versus traffic optimization, FDOT recognized that the revenue would pay for less than half of the project cost. However FDOT decided to maintain control so it could make policy decisions to optimize the distribution of traffic and focus on maximizing the throughput of the total corridor and not on generating maximum money to pay for the project.
It is common to think of roads as toll roads or free roads. If the project is going to be a free road it uses public funds but it cannot be a tollway. This project broke the rules because it used public financing but preserved a portion of the capacity for tolling so the road will be free flowing and the state retained the right to use tolls. Using a higher toll rate of $3 per trip will increase the revenue by 25 percent but traffic in the express lanes would decrease by 50 percent. The added traffic into general purpose lanes would drop speeds by 6 mph. So by retaining control of the toll rates and revenue risks of the project, FDOT can optimize the throughput on the project and minimize the pain (congestion experienced) of the people who do not choose to use the managed lanes.
The concept of the priced express lane is still a critical part of project. Revenue generated from the express lanes will not pay for the entire project but it is still enough to offset part of annual availability payment costs. FDOT did two availability concession deals in the county's history: the Miami port tunnel in which no tolls were charged and payments were paid 100 percent with availability funds; and the other being the I-595 project where core availability payments come directly from FDOT but FDOT will get some of the money back by collecting tolls. First, you have to break the idea that it is either a toll or free road; that you can combine the two. FDOT can set prices to optimize traffic and FDOT can maintain control of pricing which helps to reduce the public fear of privatization and the raising of toll rates.
The concessionaire did arrange for the financing of the project. The funds that were used are all secured against the availability payments, not against toll revenues. The availability payments do not begin until the project is complete. The capitalization cost is born by concessionaire. The availability payments are also dependent on conformance with operation and maintenance criteria.
So why did FDOT want to maintain control over pricing? FDOT's goals were to:
- increase throughput in the corridor and not maximization of toll revenues;
- remove public opposition against congestion pricing and the relatively high toll rates that may be required in the future to manage demand;
- retain control of pricing in the region. There is a plan for broader network of congestion-priced lanes throughout Florida and private control of I-595 may have impaired FDOT's ability to manage toll rates effectively throughout the region;
- let the concessionaires provide the financing and removing the revenue risk; and,
- allow for implementation of long range plans and ability to make future decisions such as putting rail in the corridor.
Using a concessionaire was a good decision in this case. The Value for Money Analysis showed the availability payment delivery approach saved $78 million in financing over traditional methods. A portion of the capacity will still be priced to manage demand and help pay for the availability payments. Pricing decisions still remain with public sector to ensure its public priorities are achieved in terms of revenues versus management.
Can it work in the future? This project breaks the historical model of free roads versus toll roads in respect that it is both a toll road and a free road. The concept may expand the range of potentially viable projects nationwide. Construction just started a couple of months ago and is supposed to open in 2014.
Audience Questions
Lisa, the Katy project shows 4,000 vehicle throughput during peak hours on Katy. Is that approaching your design benchmark for free flow traffic?
Lisa Castaneda: Yes, we were looking at 1,800 cars per lane per hour being the benchmark but Houston drivers drive fast and close together. In some cases we have in excess of 2,700 cars per lane per hour so we are looking at a tolling structure that will control the capacity in the lane. A change in the tolling structure will affect the toll paying customers which are around 2,200 per hour. We are looking at time of day pricing but with a table with the help of Wilber Smith and Associates to spread the peak hour a little bit.
Ed Regan: The challenge is the part they cannot control which is the free HOV 2+ users. It is nice to have them, but you don't have the ability to manage. The HOV 2+ go through different lanes, right?
Lisa Castaneda: Yes, we have one toll lane and one non-toll lane, but if people start complaining of congestion we could perhaps raise occupancy to HOV 3+ during the peak hours or look at a registration process.
Ed Regan: The significance of the question was to show that the traffic is in different lanes and one lane you cannot manage. You have to manage both of those different types of users independently because it is not just the sum of the traffic, it is the traffic in each lane. Being only able to manage one aspect of the traffic can be problematic. It is an amazing success story so far.
Lisa Castaneda: We do not expect HOV 2+ will last forever. Eventually we may have to change the process due to increased volume. At the time we looked at different tag vendors and tags; but we have an established tag base here and we did not want them to have to take out their tags and start with another, we wanted to be able to introduce a second tag and have the reader read both tags. We were thinking that if the users had both tags they could zero out the tolls and then we could use both lanes but we decided to start simple with just the declaration lane.
At the west end of the Katy project, in the afternoon, in the transition from the managed lane to the HOV lane, has this caused issues with merging? Are you using additional signing to tell the users that paid the toll (SOVs) that they need to exit the lane?
Lisa Castaneda: Yes, the toll road operates to SH 6, which is the end of the managed lanes and the TxDOT diamond lanes there continue to operate but are enforced by the toll road authority, so our officers have jurisdiction. There is no good signage available to say the toll road stops here. The officers have come up with DMS signs and are pulling SOVs over.
Does the I-595 project have a 35 year contract for operation and control on the facility?
On the I-595 project the Florida Turnpike will collect the tolls and the concessionaire will maintain and operate in terms of traffic operations on the toll lanes and on the general purpose lanes.
The operations of the facility are going to be influenced by the toll rates that are set by FDOT who is retaining price control. Does the concessionaire help to control the benchmark criteria to set these operations?
No, I don't see how they could for either the general purpose or managed lanes because the state is retaining control of them. The state is trying to maintain rates as low as possible that will keep the lanes free flow.
All projects in various states run into political problems either at the state level or local level. The recent projects in Florida have seemed to move well. Can you tell us what the political back story is that has expedited these projects?
Ed Regan: The UPA project was obviously a big priority of FDOT in Tallahassee in terms of availability of program. The UPA program offered an opportunity to do the project a lot sooner. In my opinion, the I-95 project in Miami worked exactly in accordance with what the US DOT wanted with the UPA initiative. The I-95 project provided innovative thinking and smart ways to do things such as narrowing lane widths, maximizing efficiency and reducing delays. Its success contributed to the support of the Tallahassee project.
Jennifer Tsien: There is less and less money to do things and the congestion was getting worse in the Miami area. Miami was repeatedly in the top most congested cities in studies. Florida has a high appetite for tolling and public support was high with the possibility of UPA money. We needed a partnership and had to go the concessionaire route because we didn't have the money and wouldn't for many years. In our long range plan there was other money but we couldn't wait that long because ten years after the I-595 corridor opened it was already congested. The timing was just good on these projects. Three years before the UPA money we were asked to do lots of studies such as "how can my constituents pay more tolls?" Timing was great due to the introduction of the sticker tags and $5 transponders in combination with the success of I-95 project has let to public support for the extension of those lanes and other facilities.
Ed Regan: It is noted that the public opinion changes once you start the project and they see it works, they get behind it. In Miami, 2-3 years before the UPA project we had to make on-demand presentations to the Miami Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) board about managed lanes because there was a predominant opposition there because it is a very economically diverse county and it was a challenge because there was a sense of inequity. It was seen as unfair before these presentations because the rich could buy their way out of congestion, but eventually the public supported it because the UPA program made the people think they should try it.
Angela Jacobs (US DOT): The value pricing program funded some marketing and outreach when they were looking at the I-95 study. Also, in Florida there are currently three MPOs that have adopted plans which are considering pricing to help address transportation problems and this has gone a long way for outreach. We do have a fact sheet about the I-95 UPA project and hopefully we will have some information about the operations of phase 1B as well.
On the Beltway project are you going to require registration for the project or just as long as you are an HOV user it is ok to use?
Adams: Yes we are going to use a mandatory switchable transponder which can go from HOV to toll lane, but for people who cannot have a transponder we will have a nomination process. The nomination process is where the user can contact the customer service center to give their license plate to set up and pay a nominal fee. Enforcement will be required to ensure they are not taking advantage of the nomination process.
Do you think that over time you might go to a cashless system?
Adams: Those systems have merits but we are not looking at it on the Beltway HOT lanes nor the I-95 project we are developing at the moment. The main reason for us not looking at these systems is because the concession says that we will have in place all electronic tolling, no cash booths, essentially a no cash system. What you are suggesting is a version of smart card almost which have kiosks and booths off the road and we are not considering at this time.
In regards to the availability payment models, is there any reason that the value of depreciation to the private sector couldn't be brought into that so that the private sector might reduce the payment we could get from the government by recognizing depreciation value also?
Ed Regan: I'm not sure. Bob can you address? I don't know if this is an ownership question.
Bob Poole: I'm not tax expert, but with the Indiana highway lease one reason we went to a 75 year lease instead of 50 year was that the tax people told us that in order for a concession company to take depreciation the lease period had to be at least as long as the conceivable useful life which with highways is around 50 years. They wanted to ensure there were no legal issues so they went with 75 years.
Ed Regan: Most important is that the public entity made the decision to do pricing in order to preserve capacity but recognizing that pricing was not sufficient to pay for the entire project but the state used it anyway to take what they can get and help pay for the facility.
I like the concept of availability payments but in Texas you get pushed back because it obligates future legislatures. Have any of you had to deal with this before? And, how did you deal with it?
Ed Regan: I think that is an issue anywhere because no one does appropriations for 50 years in advance. Within the financial community I'm finding they would consider appropriation risk because we cannot obligate some future legislature to appropriate money but it is considered a much lower risk than a revenue risk. So we have found the ability to finance with availability payments is much easier than using toll revenues to support it. Maybe there is a constitutional reason it cannot be pursued in a specific state.
I was really referring to the legislators willing to obligate future colleagues and communicate to legislators that it is okay to do this.
Adams: From a concessionaire's point of view we would be more likely to fund based on revenues than money that is perhaps delegated by the government in 20 years. There is enough science in the forecasts that we can look at the risks and then join with an agency to share them. We are backing our ability to look at the long term risk and appropriate it with the agency we are working with for the project.
What I was thinking is you can convince the legislators on the point that the agency controls the revenue rates and maybe from a public perspective that control is a positive thing.
Ed Regan: Yes, it is a very positive thing. Appropriations funding opens up a whole new world. When you start to break down the barrier between public (free roads) and private (toll roads). Many more projects will become feasible if we stop thinking that public roads cannot have toll roads but I don't know when we will get there.
Matt MacGregor: We have a pass through toll and pass through finance program which has 15-18 projects that were previously established that we (TxDOT) have a budget and we are spending that program out. These programs were an obligation made for the future. We had some rules out there and we got some kickback/feedback on it and we are now looking at changing it again. We are looking closely at what is going on with these programs in order to improve the programs and increase size. The challenge in Florida is to be nimble enough with those that control the toll rate in order to control the operations of the facility. Transurban can be as nimble as they want to keep it working. Houston is just on the front side of needing to be nimble, so that is your job.
Ed Regan: That is an interesting task but we have seen the public sector raise tolls much higher and faster than when the private sector had control of the roadways in Florida. For example the SR 91 project where a private entity built and sold concession to the public sector, the public sector has embraced raising tolls to manage demand without considering political considerations. "Shadow tolls" is the other term for pass through tolls programs and is used a lot internationally. You get reimbursed for each vehicle that uses your facility even if the vehicle does not pay a toll.
How broad can the scope of projects be with the expansion of states embracing availability payments? In Virginia the attorney general stated that availability payments would be considered a state debt and would come under state debt limits. It is thought that this is the case in most states. Has there been any discussion? Florida has a $2 billion dollar scale of availability projects. How much can they afford?
Ed Regan: I understood that availability funding is a different funding mechanism and doesn't necessarily impact the state debt.
We really need to get answers to this before we present it to other states and try to implement it on a large scale (referring to availability payments).
Follow up comment: Florida passed legislation statutes where availability and design finance is the first draw against future allocations before new projects. So this legislation has reduced the appropriations risk in the future.
On the I-495 project, you spoke of traveler information and integrating it into the system. I am interested in what type of information and what is the integration? What is the emerging state of the art?
Adams: We currently have two gantries at the entry that can be used for traffic information. We are looking to integrate with other agency's information such as traffic management, 511 and smart phone technology to make all information available on our roads and as users enter HOT lanes to make everyone aware of incidents. SMS texts can be sent out to people but this has to be in the context of safe driving because we have to be aware these people are driving and we cannot just send messages out to their phone. It is about the right way to get messages out to people. These projects are crucial in terms of outreach, education, and marketing. We want to tell people about the HOT lanes project, how to get a transponder and how to use the roads. We will be starting again in terms of construction to let users know about the opening of the project, how to use the road and what information you can expect to see on the road.
