Price Discovery for Strategic Compensation of Toll Road Operators to Relieve State Maintenance Impacts

The concept of compensating toll operators if tolls are suspended to encourage users of a parallel or nearby route to move to the toll facility during maintenance or reconstruction has not been widely used. However, closing a segment to traffic during maintenance or reconstruction has been shown to be efficient and offer significant benefits in terms of safety and the quality of the work. This research was undertaken to (1) document how state DOTs currently work with toll road operators, including public–private partnership (P3) concessionaires and public toll authorities, to mitigate the impacts of major maintenance and other planned and unplanned facility outages; (2) examine whether and how much states could further mitigate the adverse impacts of scheduled major maintenance and unanticipated facility closures by cooperating with the operators of nearby facilities operated by toll road operators; (3) examine how much states could benefit by designing major maintenance programs that, by using such mitigation measures, allow larger-scale and more efficient major maintenance strategies; (4) estimate the feasibility and cost of such cooperation to the state DOT and the toll road operators and devise potential strategies to enable such cooperation. A literature review, interviews, and modeling demonstrate that having a pre-existing strategy for compensating toll operators maximizes social welfare. A game theory model of the decision process showed that an ex-ante (as opposed to an ex-post) compensation arrangement is optimal. The model and solution method were applied on a case study associated with facilities along I-15 in California. The research demonstrated that the concept is promising and that respecting the perspective of the different actors is important. The federal government and many states have shifted significantly away from reliance on gas taxes and begun to rely much more heavily on general revenues and sales taxes. At the same time, interest in access to private capital markets, risk tolerance, and technological savviness has grown, and that often relies on toll-based delivery. As this shift unfolds over the decades ahead, this research has illustrated the potential benefits and challenges of a new type of collaboration and cooperation.

• Record URL:
  • https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.psu.edu/dist/c/89826/files/2024/08/CIAMTIS-Final-Report-Price-Discovery-FINAL-needs-rpt-no-and-POP-14-1.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/77988
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Delaware, Newark

  Newark, DE  United States  19716

  Pennsylvania State University, University Park

  University Park, PA  United States  16802-4710

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  Department of Transportation
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Center for Integrated Asset Management for Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CIAMTIS)

  Pennsylvania State University
  University Park, PA  United States  16802

  George Mason University

  Fairfax, VA  United States  22030
• Authors:
  • Gifford, J
  • 0000-0001-6216-2118
  • Miller-Hooks, Elise
  • 0000-0002-6849-2916
  • McNeil, S
  • 0000-0001-5983-8623
  • Lee, N
  • Mamdoohi, Sohrab
  • Atolagbe, B
  • Hurley, T
• Publication Date: 2023-1-31

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 76p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Concessions; Construction scheduling; Game theory; Maintenance; Public private partnerships; Road construction; State departments of transportation; Toll facilities; Tolls
• Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01934731
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: CIAM-UTC - REG19. 7.8
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, RITA, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 22 2024 3:48PM