Point Pleasant, WV-
The recently appointed U.S. Route 35 Local Advisory Committee of the West Virginia Parkways Authority (the “LAC”) met in joint session today with the Finance Committee of the Authority and issued the following preliminary findings.
- Today’s LAC meeting and the meeting this afternoon with the Mason County Commission are the next steps in getting U.S. Route 35 completed as a modern four-lane highway in Mason and Putnam Counties.
- Completion of Route 35 is essential to local citizens as well as the traveling public to provide a safe, modern and efficient four-lane highway.
- The only way to complete U.S. Route 35 in Mason and Putnam Counties is to make it a toll road and to issue toll revenue bonds of the Authority to help fund the completion of Route 35.
- West Virginia Department of Transportation/West Virginia Division of Highways (DOH) engineers currently estimate that the construction costs of completing the last 14.6-mile section of the highway, and constructing two sets of toll plazas, will be approximately $190 million.
- Even with providing maximum possible support from all federal and state highway funds and sources, the highway cannot be completed without the imposition of tolls.
- Although the in-depth traffic and revenue study is still underway and is not complete, preliminary locations have been identified for two sets of proposed toll plazas. One toll plaza would be in Mason County between Three Mile Creek Road (County Route 34) and Five Mile Creek Road (County Route 36) which is just off of Jim Hill Road (County Route 27). The other toll plaza would be in Putnam County between Tucker Branch North (County Route 32) and Tucker Branch South (County Route 13). These two proposed locations seem reasonable and provide a reasonable balance between the needs to have adequate toll revenues to support the bonds and the convenience of the local citizens.
- While a completion of the study will provide the final recommendations on suggested toll rates and discounts, preliminarily $2.00 per car, per toll plazas and $8.00 for 5-axle trucks per toll plaza seem reasonable.
- Preliminarily, a proposed commuter discount program for passenger vehicles, that are high frequency users of this highway, seems reasonable and appropriate.
- While the final recommendations are not yet available, a commuter discount program for such high frequency users who purchase a West Virginia E-ZPass transponder from the Authority, with tolls in the approximate range of $100.00 per year, per toll plaza, or $25.00 per quarter, per plaza, for unlimited travel through that toll plaza, seems reasonable.
- This potential commuter discount program for passenger vehicles would represent a significant savings for such high frequency users.