A Close Look At DelDOT's 301 Funding Plans

From the Middletown Transcript (link):

The Wilmington Area Planning Council’s public comment period for the FY 2009-2012 Transportation Improvement Plan has been extended to April 7 due to an amendment that reclassifies the new U.S. 301 from an “aspiration” to a “financially constrained” project.

Heather Dunigan, principal planner at WILMAPCO, said an aspiration project is one the council hopes to do, while a financially constrained project will go forward, but has limited funds. This change was due to the Delaware Department of Transportation’s recent decision to fund the road through bonds from the General
Assembly. “If the bond is approved for the project, that opens up another source of funding,” Dunigan said.

Drew Boyce, assistant director of Project Development North for DelDOT, said the federal government usually pays 80 percent of a road project so long as it is eligible, meaning they will not do local roads or maintenance work. However, the U.S. 301 project is currently estimated to cost $704 million dollars overall. “That would have completely wiped out the rest of the program,” Boyce said.

Under the current plan $81 million of the project will be paid for out of the state transportation trust fund, the Federal-aid Highway Funds will pay for $21 million – which will go toward right of way, and $602 million will come from bonds from the General Assembly. Boyce said the borrowed bonds will be paid back by tolls from the road. The bond will be a 40-year one.

Dunigan said DelDOT will not be requesting the bonds until FY 2010 at the earliest. If all goes according to plan, the FY 2010 start date for U.S. 301 will also not change. U.S. 301 is expected to be complete in FY 2017 and begin earning money back then.

She said before WILMAPCO can approve the TIP, they must receive the results of the Air Quality Conformity Determination. Then, after the public comment period ends, the next step is for the U.S. 301 project to be approved by WILMAPCO. A meeting is planned for April 10. From there, DelDOT would need to get the money in its trust fund and the bonds from the general assembly. WILMAPCO would watch the project in an advisory capacity.

If the project is rejected, DelDOT would have to re-submit the project through the process again. Dunigan said DelDOT’s actions do not mean they are not considering the use of federal funds. “They go after federal money that other states don’t use,” she said.

Boyce said the bond option was one of multiple options considered. Others included utilizing federal funds or privatizing part of the roads. Jim Westhoff, community relations officer for DelDOT, said all of the money from the tolls would go into the bond until the debt was paid off. After that, toll money would go into the Transportation Trust Fund. “We would want to pay back that debt service as soon as possible,” he said.

Andye Daley, chairwoman of the Middletown Corridor Coalition, raised questions over whether DelDOT would be able to pay back the bond through toll revenue. She cited a study by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program titled “Estimating Toll Demand and Revenue,” which was also brought up by Jim Burnett of RK&K Engineers in an email to DelDOT.

In the email, Burnett stated projections for toll revenues tend to be inaccurate for facilities in outlying areas with less established traffic patterns and on developed corridors with established traffic patterns that contained potential alternative routes. He characterized U.S. 301 as being similar to these two descriptions.

Boyce said the other transportation organizations tended to overestimate when they built brand new roads. He said this is an existing roadway and that motorists would use it. “We already have a lot of data on existing traffic on existing U.S. 301,” he said.

The public comments should make for some good reading. You have until April 7th to speak your piece.

Andye Daley dug around a while to find out more details on the 301 funding process. Here is a letter in response:

Ms Daley
I believe the answer you are looking for with regards to the FY 2008 bond issuance limitation is found in Section 95 (b) of SB 155 which reads as follows:

(b) New Transportation Trust Fund Debt Authorizations. To fund a portion of the projects authorized herein, the Delaware Transportation Authority is hereby authorized to issue bonds in an amount not to exceed $50,381,000 pursuant to the provisions of 2 Del. C. c. 13 and 14, of which not more than$47,100,000 shall be used for purposes set forth in the Section 1 Addendum of this Act with the remainder,
not to exceed $3,281,000 to be used to fund issuance costs and necessary reserves for the Reserve Account.

This issuance falls within the limitations as stated in Delaware code that I had forwarded to you previously.

Please let me know if you need additional information.

*******************************************
Robert L. Scoglietti
Director of Policy and External Affairs
Delaware Office of Management and Budget
(302) 739-4206 (W) (302) 233-2196 (cell)

Andye writes:

How bout this..... DelDOT wants to ask for $130 million in 2011, $130 in 2012 ,and $95 million in 2013 etc......
What do you think of that?

Good question, Andye. You know that the TTF still has a great deal of the debt service yet to pay off from the construction of Route 1. I don't know if this 301 project is being driven by the legal stranglehold that Minner got us into with the 100 million Transportation Infrastructure Agreement "GIVE-AWAY" that she had Nathan Hayward strike with Pam Scott-Paul Clarky and Jay Sonecha whose City of Bayberry will be served by 301.

And Paul Clark wants to keep his job as NCC president. Tsk, tsk, tsk. His wife secures multi-millions in public monies for her clients as with the Blenheim Bayberry Transportation Infrastructure Development Agreement and with the county's Souther Sewer Core. He profits through her income directly from taxpayer outlay AND WE ARE SUPPOSED TO LIKE THAT?