With bids for new road building projects coming in at “historically low levels,” Florida Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad said Monday that now is the time for the state to ramp up construction, laying out a vision for a major upgrade in the state’s highway infrastructure.
“This is kind of like a buyer’s market,” Prasad said of the low price of construction and materials in the current economic downturn.
In an interview with The News Service of Florida, Prasad said Gov. Rick Scott wanted to advance about $1 billion worth of projects that had been slated for farther into the future, getting bids and starting construction now to take advantage of the low cost of construction. Prasad said bids were coming in as much as 25 percent lower than before the economy went into a slump.
“We have the ability and we felt like it was the right opportune time,” Prasad said.
Prasad also said that the state will be open to using tolls to pay for new highway infrastructure, particularly bridges, but also new lanes on the state’s highways, acknowledging in the current anti-tax environment the near certainty that gas taxes won’t be raised to pay for new construction.
“Bridges come with a huge price tag,” Prasad said. “The gas tax is not going to be sustainable. If you wait for gas tax money …. it’s 20 years before you’d be able to build a bridge.”
Prasad echoed several politicians who have said that existing free lanes should remain so, pledging that only newly constructed infrastructure would be considered for new tolling.
Prasad told a group of road builders late last week about Scott’s vision for ramping up road construction and elaborated on it in an interview Monday with the News Service.
The plan also includes going forward with nearly $2 billion worth of new projects in the Florida Turnpike system, including getting started with a new Wekiva Parkway in central Florida as early as next year.
Prasad said the state will continue to consider “public-private partnerships,” where private companies could collect tolls on new express lanes in exchange for upfront cash, but he said the Turnpike system is often the best at handling the toll collections.
“We have a great turnpike in the state that’s sound and very well managed,” Prasad said.
While downplaying the possibility for privatization on Monday, Prasad told road builders last week that it was a big part of the agency’s vision.
“Here’s the bottom line – we will be doing even more outsourcing – if it’s in the yellow pages, we shouldn’t be doing it,” Prasad said Friday.
Among the road building projects that the state plans to begin sooner include work on Interstate 75 in Lee County, I-95 in Indian River and Brevard counties, the Veterans Expressway in Hillsborough County and the Pinellas Byway in Pinellas County.
Several projects on state roads will also be advanced, including a Quincy Bypass, to get trucks on U.S. 90 around downtown Quincy; work on SR 9B in Jacksonville, and upgrades to SR 823 in Miami, U.S. 27 in Polk County and SR 50 in Hernando County.
One thing Florida will assuredly continue is its experiment with “managed lanes,” express lanes of sorts that add capacity to existing highways, particularly in South Florida.
“What you’ll see is a loop of managed lanes around southeast Florida to better serve our customers,” Prasad told road builders last week.
The HOV lanes already in use in Miami on I-95 are an example of managed lanes. Under the agency’s proposal, such lanes in the future would likely be tolled. It will pursue a public-private partnership to put in new lanes on I-75 in Broward County in the spring, Prasad said. An additional lane is also envisioned for Miami’s Palmetto Expressway.
Prasad also said the department would conduct a traffic and revenue study next year for managed lanes on I-4 – an idea also being pushed by U.S. Rep. John Mica, a central Florida Republican who chairs the Transportation Committee in the U.S. House.
“The goal is to move people and goods more effectively and efficiently through managed lanes and other alternatives throughout the state,” Prasad said.
TRI-RAIL PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
Prasad also said the DOT will work to enter a public-private partnership with a private company to help run Tri-Rail, the commuter rail system in South Florida that in the past typically operated at a deficit. Prasad said such an agreement would not only lower taxpayers’ commitment to the rail system, it could actually lead to expanding service.
NEW OFFICE
The DOT also is creating a new Office of Freight Planning and Logistics, Prasad said, to better coordinate development of the state’s ports with supporting infrastructure such as roads, bridges and tunnels. It includes a Seaports Office, a Rail Office and will also focus on cargo movement by truck and air. Improvement of cargo moving infrastructure has been a major push for Scott, who has also championed the expansion of the Miami port to accept new larger cargo ships that will be using an expanded Panama Canal.
By David Royse
