Remarks for Secretary Tippett
Transportation Founders Fund Banquet
Capital City Club, Raleigh
April 4, 2006
Thank you, John, for that introduction.
I'm pleased to be here with you all tonight.
TURNPIKE AUTHORITY UPDATE
The North Carolina Turnpike Authority has been busy over the past year, and there is a lot to update you on since I spoke to you last year.
The Authority appointed its first executive director, David Joyner, 10 months ago.
David is full of energy and good ideas, and he has quickly assembled a talented staff.
I'd like to add that David selected a number of these people from my agency.
Like I said, he has a top-notch staff.
David, I am glad you could join us for tonight's program.
Thank you for your ongoing efforts to bring toll roads to North Carolina.
In the past several months, we have begun taking a careful look at six projects and evaluating their potential for development as the state's first toll facilities.
Two of those projects are here in the Triangle area.
· The extension of NC 147 further south - known as the Triangle Parkway, and
· the western and southern portions of I-540.
There are also projects to help facilitate traffic flow around Gastonia and Monroe, as well as new bridges to improve access to Wilmington and the Outer Banks at Currituck.
In the past several months, the Turnpike Authority has begun taking a careful look at five projects and evaluating their potential for development as the state's first toll facilities.
For each project, a detailed study is being conducted to estimate future traffic and gauge potential toll revenues.
The results of those financial feasibility studies are due within the next couple months.
Those results, together with updated project cost estimates, will give us a pretty good idea of how much money we can raise for the projects via bond sales and what the expected gap in funding will be.
This gap is the critical element and will largely determine how successful we may be in developing toll roads in the Tar Heel State.
I do not have to tell you how difficult our transportation funding situation is becoming.
We're looking at a $16 billion funding gap between needs and resources over the next decade and a $30 billion shortfall in 25 years.
Everywhere I go, I encourage people to "think outside of the box" to help create solutions to better meet our transportation needs.
Toll funding is a promising solution that would allow us to get critical roads on the ground and open to traffic faster than we could using traditional funding methods.
It is said that "necessity is the mother of invention," and this is certainly the case with toll roads.
More than 30 states and countless other countries are now using toll roads to augment their highway systems.
We can learn much from those other states about best practices in toll road development and operation.
To this end, the authority recently traveled to Texas, a state where every new state highway is considered for development as a toll road.
We will continue to take an in-depth look at the possibility of tolls in North Carolina, and I will keep you updated as we progress.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Your partnership and expertise have been and will continue to be incredibly valuable to us in this endeavor.
Which brings me to my next order of business, to introduce this evening's keynote speaker.
Fidel Saenz de Ormijana is no stranger to toll roads and how they can help a state meet and exceed its transportation goals.
In fact, he hails from the state I just mentioned - Texas.
Dr. Saenz holds a master's and doctorate degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
Since 1994 he has worked with Ferrovial Agroman, the contracting arm of Grupo Ferrovial, which is responsible for designing international toll road projects.
Between 1999 and 2001, he was a design manager for the Highway 407 Express Toll Road in Toronto, Canada.
As part of his present position as technical director, Dr. Saenz is involved with several transportation projects in the United States involving private sector participation.
Among his projects is the planning of the High Priority IH-35 Trans-Texas Corridor and the recent privatization of the Indiana Toll Road.