Now that construction is under way on a toll road to extend the 540 Outer Loop through western Wake County, the N.C. Turnpike Authority has started planning the proposed 30-mile southern and eastern sections that would bring the loop full circle around Raleigh.

The 18-mile Triangle Expressway will run from Interstate 40 at Research Triangle Park to Holly Springs in southwest Wake. Drivers will pay tolls electronically when it is completed in late 2012.

Commuters and truckers, weary of rush-hour congestion on I-40 through Wake County, have been eager to see the state build the proposed Southern Wake Expressway from Holly Springs to I-40 near Garner.

There has been less support for the Eastern Wake Expressway from Garner to Knightdale, where it would meet the existing 540 loop. ... [MORE]

Yes, say a lot of peeved southern Wake residents. They envy northern Wake's tax-paid, toll-free 540 Outer Loop.

They aren't looking forward to having the Triangle Expressway, North Carolina's first modern toll road, an extension of the Outer Loop, running through their part of the Triangle:

Why would the people utilizing the southern portion of 540 be required to pay tolls, when the people who have been utilizing the finished portion have not, and will not have to in the future? ... Wouldn't it be more efficient to add tolls now to the finished part and start collecting now instead of waiting until the new portion is finished? - Barb Hartsfield

Who can blame them? But they won't be alone for long. TriEx is our first toll road, but we have more toll roads on the way.

This week a bunch of national transportation policy wonks are debating interstates and tolls on the National Journal's transportation blog.

Federal law does allow tolls on existing, federal tax-financed freeways, but only in limited circumstances. . . . [MORE]

North Carolina broke ground today on its first modern toll road, and you can be sure it won't be the last.

The 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway is expected to open for business -- with customers paying their tolls electronically -- by the end of 2011 on the Triangle Parkway section that will extend the Durham Freeway south through RTP to NC 540. The rest of it, extending 540 south to the NC 55 bypass at Holly Springs, will open by the end of 2012.

Are you willing to pay a toll if TriEx can save you up to 20 minutes on your rush-hour trip to work? Let me hear from you today by phone (919-829-4527) or e-mail. Don't forget your name and daytime contact info.

Nobody's crazy about paying tolls, but where else will we find the money for new and wider freeways?

The Chevy Volt will get 230 miles to the gallon. That doesn't sound like a lot of gas tax money.

Ready or not, here they come.

The N.C. Turnpike Authority will hold a groundbreaking ceremony at 10 a.m. Wednesday for the state's first modern toll road, the $1 billion, 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway.

The event takes place at the end of N.C. 540 (interchange with N.C. 55) just south of Research Triangle Park. TriEx will extend 540 south from N.C. 55 to the N.C. 55 bypass at Holly Springs. That part of toll road is to be open for business by January 2013.

The other part of TriEx, called Triangle Parkway, extending N.C. 147 south through RTP to NC 540, is to be open to traffic by January 2012.

To attend the groundbreaking, take NC 540 southwest from I-40, and drive until it ends. Don't take the final exit 66A for eastbound N.C. 55. Instead, look for attendants who will tell you where to park.

Minutes after depositing $1.01 billion in borrowed funds at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, the N.C. Turnpike Authority began spending the money to launch construction of the state's first modern toll road, the Triangle Expressway.

David W. Joyner, the agency's executive director, signed construction contracts pledging $584 million to companies that will start work right away on the six-lane, 18.8-mile TriEx in western Wake and southern Durham counties.

Surveyors will be on the ground Thursday, and earth movers will start rumbling by mid-August. A ground-breaking ceremoney is planned for Aug. 12 at the end of the 540 Outer Loop, at N.C. 55 south of Research Triangle Park.

Landowners will be receiving offers for 525 acres needed to finish the project, a combined value estimated at $230 million. The turnpike authority wants to take title to most of the land within the next six months.

Traffic is expected to start moving, and paying tolls electronically, on the Triangle Parkway portion through Research Triangle Park by January 2012. The Western Wake Freeway portion from RTP to Holly Springs is expected to open by January 2013.

The N.C. Turnpike Authority sold $624 million in bonds Monday and Tuesday to complete its financing for the state’s first modern toll road, which is expected to start construction by early August in the center of the Triangle. [Wednesday update: see today's story with reader comments.]

Demand for the bonds was better than expected, creating more favorable terms that will let the turnpike agency pay off its debt – and quit collecting tolls on the 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway – several years sooner than originally planned.

The $624 million bonds will carry a term of 30 years, instead of a 39-year repayment schedule that had been planned. A federal loan of $386 million, approved last week to finance the rest of the project, is to be repaid in 32 years.

“It was far better than our expectations,” said David W. Joyner, the turnpike authority’s executive director. “We actually saved some money because of the strong offering.” ...

The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved a $386 million loan to help the N.C. Turnpike Authority finance construction of the $1 billion, 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway, a toll road through Research Triangle Park and western Wake County.

"This project will go a long way toward serving the travel needs of commuters in key educational and employment centers in this important region," Ray LaHood, the U.S. transportation secretary, said in a press release.

The turnpike authority expects to sell $615 million in bonds to raise the rest of the money, which would be repaid from toll collections. Construction is expected to begin in early August.

As the NC Turnpike Authority moves closer to selling bonds, signing contracts and breaking ground -- possibly by the end of July -- on the $1 billion, 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway, the Southern Environmental Law Center is claiming that the agency overstated likely traffic and toll revenues by as much as 50 percent (see today's Road Worrier column with reader comments).

Here are more details of the claims and counter claims, with links to supporting documents. ...

Things are looking good, so far, for the N.C. Turnpike Authority's effort to sell Wall Street on its new plan to finance the state's first modern toll road, the 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway in Research Triangle Park and western Wake County.

The TriEx would be the biggest single road-building project in state history, employing a few thousand workers.

The turnpike agency wants to borrow about $1 billion so it can buy up the real estate it needs and award about $584 million in construction contracts to get going.

So far, the authority is staying on its timetable to negotiate a series of approvals needed from a string of bond rating and insurance agencies, state regulators, a federal lender, and Wall Street bond traders.

If everything stays on schedule, the financing deals and construction contracts could be signed by the last week of May, Grady Rankin, the turnpike authority's chief financial officer, told the turnpike board today.

The final right-of-way purchases would move ahead quickly, and bulldozers would start rolling, said Steve DeWitt, the turnpike authority's chief engineer.

"You're going to see equipment showing up there" after the contracts are signed, DeWitt said. "You'll see clearing happening very, very rapidly. It won't take six months. It will be happening almost immediately." ... [MORE]

Drivers one day might be asked to pay tolls on the northern 540 Outer Loop after all — but not, as some folks in southern Wake County propose, to help build the loop’s southern arc.

A new $13.4 billion long-range transportation plan for the Wake area, approved Wednesday evening, says toll collections are the most likely funding source for extra lanes that will be needed on 540 to reduce congestion levels expected a decade from now. (See story with comments.) ... [MORE]