$4,000,000,000 Dollars For What?

If the Northwest Corridor Project goes through, the State of Georgia (i.e. the people of Georgia) will be $4 billion in debt. That is the equivalent of almost two years of the entire DOT budget.

This won’t be private debt, as some people believe; it will all be state issued debt. The DOT Commissioner points out that it is non-recourse debt, but would the government ever let Georgia go belly-up on a $4 billion debt issue? It would ruin the state's bond rating and greatly increase future borrowing costs.

That said, where would money come from if the costs continue to balloon, or if forcibly rerouting trucks fails to generate enough cashflow? Will other drivers be forced to pay the tolls? Will Georgia end up like other states, devoting fuel tax revenue to the project, raising registration fees, or increasing property taxes? All those things have happened, and happened in places where developers had first assured the state the toll road would work.

Will there be enough toll money from forcing trucks to pay the tolls?

Not likely. GTP’s own report, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, (DEIS) says the road will offer no productivity benefit to commercial trucks – because there is no time savings. Their solution to a project with no value for users is to turn voluntary user fees into mandated taxes. But that means there will be a powerful incentive for truck operators to leave the interstate and travel on state routes and surface streets. (DEIS 7.4.7 Trade-Offs between Non-Toll, Truck-Only versus TOT Lanes).

Is there a great need for safety improvements on this stretch of Interstate?

According to the DEIS, the area covered by the project is actually a safer stretch of road than other parts of the Interstate. It has been cherry-picked because it can produce revenue, not because it is in the greatest need of improvement for the public's safety. (DEIS 1.5.1 Crash Analysis) Even more troubling, the DEIS notes that there are not a high amount of car/truck crashes in this stretch of road, but what crashes there are often come because trucks are forced by law to make lane changes at the I-75 I-285 interchange. The project design will actually impose several more points that force truck lane changes and so force thousands more car/truck interactions each day. It may actually make the road less safe than it is now. (DEIS 1.5.1 Crash Analysis)

OK, forget the fact developers are making tax law; forget the fact this project may suck in more citizens’ dollars; forget the fact the road is already safer than most; forget the fact proposed changes may make the road less safe… Won’t it at least ease congestion?

The claims that Truck Only Tolls Lanes will dramatically ease congestion on I-75 are based on a study by the State Road and Tollway Authority. But those claims are wrong. The SRTA study found that voluntary Truck Only Lanes would significantly ease congestion, and that tolls could be used to manage traffic flow between the Truck Only Lanes and General Purpose Lanes. But the same study found that mandatory Truck Only Toll Lanes would create a traffic nightmare. GTP appears to be misusing the findings of the study by claiming the benefits of voluntary lanes. In fact, their own analysis echoes the SRTA findings. According to the Georgia Transportation Partners’ report, the project will actually increase traffic bottlenecks when complete. In fact, after $4 billion is spent, the project will make traffic flow worse that just doing nothing – unless the state then spends hundreds of millions more dollars on projects nearby; (DEIS 2.2.4 General Purpose Freeway Lanes).

Again it’s worth asking -- $4 billion dollars for what?

Will the project at least ease congestion?

Safer? Will the project make the corridor safer?

At least its a toll that I won't have to pay I don't drive a truck!