[360Rich]

Key private partner drops out of Newberg-Dundee bypass project
Posted by The Oregonian July 27, 2007 11:27AM
Categories: Breaking News, Yamhill County

NEWBERG -- A long-planned bypass to ease congestion at the gateway to Oregon's wine country was dealt a blow today when a key player dropped out of the planning process.

Oregon Department of Transportation officials, working with Macquarie Infrastructure Group, an Australian corporation, had hoped that a public-private agreement to build and operate the so-called Newberg-Dundee Bypass would generate enough money through tolling to make the project profitable.

A review of the project indicated that wasn't possible, said Adam Torgerson, an ODOT spokesman.

"We've agreed that it's just not financially feasible under a public-private concession agreement to build this project as planned," Torgerson said.

Still on the table are a number of options included in a report by an outside analyst, Bear Stearns, which suggested that a public-sector model could cut financing costs of the estimated $500 million project.

Chief among them are a public-sector tolling option, building the 11-mile bypass in phases and reducing the scope of the planned project.

Torgerson said ODOT officials have not yet had time to thoroughly evaluate the consultant's suggestions, although he did say that scrapping the public-private plan will likely delay any construction start beyond the 2008 or 2009 dates originally eyed.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/07/key_private_partner_drops_out.html

[NJD]

Good. Both Macquarie tolling projects (Sunrise and Newberg-Dundee) were going to rip off Oregonians... why let the private sector charge twice as much as a public tolling project would equate to? Haven't we been paying attention to their rip-off schemes in Indiana and Texas?

[WonderlandPark]

Damn, nothing is going to get done about this. :shakinghead:

[pdxman]

^^Ditto...The public is ridiculous--they want better roads and less congestion but they bitch about tolling and then vote down any tax increases. HELLO!! Who the hell do they think is going to pay for it?! I guess the magical road fairy will just wave her wand and then POOF! Sunrise corrior and Newberg bypass! Its that easy...I'm usually against privatizing things but when you the let the public try to make decisions things will never get done.

[MarkDaMan]

^there is ABSOLUTELY no reason a private company should have control to toll public roads. If a private company wants to purchase right of ways, build a roadway, and toll the hell out of it, all the more power too them But I have to agree with Rep. DeFazio in this Blue Oregon article.

In the Mother Jones article, they point to the toll road scandal in Indiana -- where Republican Governor Mitch Daniels gave a multinational company the rights to charge tolls for 75 years. There's an extensive segment with Congressman Peter DeFazio -- due to become the chairman of the Highway and Transit Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Here's that clip:

The hearing was a fairly docile affair—that is, until Oregon's Peter DeFazio, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, got his turn questioning [Governor Mitch] Daniels. "So you're saying that there's no political will to raise the tolls," he began, "but if you enter into a binding contract which gives a private entity the right to infinitely raise tolls, then that'll happen—but politically you couldn't say we're going to go out and raise the tolls."

"Well, you're a busy man, Congressman," Daniels responded dryly. "I don't expect you to understand our state."

"No, sir. I'm just asking a question," DeFazio shot back, his voice rising. "Are we outsourcing political will to a private entity here?"

When DeFazio spoke with Mother Jones months later, he was still seething. Daniels, he said, "just screwed the state of Indiana and the people of the state of Indiana." In his view, mig-Cintra has "a license to print money here. They do the deal, put money up front, turn around and go to a bank, which will gladly give them whatever they want, and pay themselves back, and they are left with equity and debt. They are projecting that they already would have broken even around the 15th year. So we've committed an asset for 75 years and after 15 years the state could have been making money on it."

DeFazio continued, "When you look at the Chicago Skyway, that's even worse. They are not even reinvesting the proceeds of the sale in transportation. They're using them for operating costs. That would be like anybody selling their assets in order to live. You can't sell your assets very long to put food on the table—before long you're out of assets. Chicago has sold an asset, which will be extraordinarily profitable for the company that got it."

DeFazio's take harkens back to Eisenhower and his vision of a national highway system as vital to economic development, commerce, and even national security. "It's a scam, basically," he says. "And you lose control of your transportation infrastructure. It means you fragment the system ultimately. It just does not make sense for an integrated national transportation system."
http://www.blueoregon.com/2006/12/peter_defazio_i.html


Once the roadway is congested enough, or failing, the residents will eventually tax themselves, or allow a public agency to toll, to fund the upgrade or risk having the highway completely shut down.

[WonderlandPark]

Once the roadway is congested enough, or failing, the residents will eventually tax themselves, or allow a public agency to toll, to fund the upgrade or risk having the highway completely shut down.

The road has been "congested enough" for 20 years now. Fact is that Dundee is way, way too small to tackle this. The lack of inertia is shocking, this is a state issue and has to be handled with state and federal funding. To say that Dundee should tax its way out of the problem is silly, what quadruple the local property tax? That will not even cover half of it. At some point, a bigger entity has to take a pool of funds and do the bypass. Then there are locals who post those asinine "don't build a tollway" signs. WTF?

Screw it, to get to the Coast, it is faster to drive way down out of the way to friggin' Salem already.

Same thing with Sandy and Sisters, they have strangleholds over some vital roads for tourism and commerce in Oregon, and those problems have been around for a decade or more and absolutely NOTHING is being done about it.

[MarkDaMan]

I agree that Dundee is too small to pay for this themselves. However, all these small communities team up to defeat any tax, gas or otherwise, to produce a statewide road improvement effort. I personally find other ways around, even if it means longer detours, while these small towns continue to see more and more congestion. Between traffic in their precious little towns getting as bad as some stretches of Portland, and new residents moving in, eventually they will look at local and than statewide solutions when the price tag shocks them into reality.

[zilfondel]

commuter rail...

But in all reality major highways should not run right through small towns or downtowns. Europe did it right by routing all of their major highways & freeways AROUND the cities and towns, not through them, since that just creates conflict.