PRIVATE STATE ROADS SURFACES AGAIN - Pooling Of Public And Private Funds - Toll Roads, Parkway Or US 33 Upgrade Not On List

(01/12/2003)

A proposal to use private dollars on state road projects will face the legislature next week, but the roadblocks will likely be the same as last year. The highway improvement change would allow private developers to pool resources, including state and federal highway funds, for projects the state can't afford on its own, and the roads would use tolls to repay developers. Twenty-six other states allow similar private funding. House Fianance Chairman Harold Michael said Virginia and South Carolina have put their funds with private developers and lost the ability to maintain public roads. The proposal would create a commission headed by the transportation secretary to review the projects. The project would make possible toll roads that could be built over the next five years, including expansions of state Routes 2, 35 and 522, as well as portions of the King Coal Highway between Beckley and the Kentucky border. The L-K Parkway or the longtime proposed Blue-Gray upgrade of U. S. 33 between the Ohio River through Jackson, Roane, Calhoun and Gilmer, have yet to make any priority list.

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