New IBTTA President Focuses on Toll Options

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DALLAS — Florida toll road executive Javier Rodriguez will ask Congress to expand transportation funding to include tolls of existing interstate highways during his 2015 term as president of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association.

Rodriguez, executive director of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, succeeded Ronald Heiligenstein of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority in the post on Jan. 1.

Rodrigues said he will lead IBTTA members as they lobby Congress for the inclusion of interstate highway tolling and other funding options in the next multiyear federal transportation bill.

States need the flexibility to levy tolls, including tolls on existing interstate routes, to fund critical transportation projects, he said.

"Our economy and mobility depend on the quality of our highways, bridges and tunnels," he said. "The tolling industry is front and center in providing solutions to address congestion, mobility, interoperability, and the reconstruction of highways."

Interstate highway tolling by states was proposed as an option in President Obama's proposed Grow America Act last year.

Three states — Missouri, North Carolina, and Virginia — have received permission to toll an existing interstate highway under a pilot federal program. Tolling of existing interstate lanes is currently prohibited by federal law.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is considering a recent report recommending tolling of I-70 to fund the repair and expansion of the highway from St. Louis to Kansas City. Virginia has converted some existing interstate high-occupancy restricted lanes to managed tolled lanes in the Washington area but has not tolled any free segments.

Pat Jones, executive director of the toll advocacy group, said Rodriguez's experience includes shepherding the conversion of an expressway system to all-electronic tolling by the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, known as the MDX.

"Javier has been instrumental in growing the operation and financing some of the busiest, most critical east-west roadways in the Miami-Dade metropolitan area," Jones said.

Part of his leadership role will be to advance the Moving America Forward public awareness campaign that IBTTA launched in early 2013 to highlight the benefits of tolling to elected officials and the driving public, Rodriguez said.

Rebuilding the interstate highway system over the next 50 years will cost $2.5 trillion, with the states being responsible for $1.8 billion of the work, the IBTTA said.

Before joining MDX in 2007, Rodriguez spent 16 years with the Florida Department of Transportation, including four years as director of transportation development.

Rodriguez is a registered professional engineer with a civil engineering degree from Florida International University.

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