The state Senate quietly blew off one of the big items in Gov. Bev Perdue's proposed budget for 2010-11: $94.6 million for a new Mobility Fund that would help fix the I-85 Yadkin River bridge-and-bottleneck now and fix other unspecified transportation problems later.

Perdue had proposed to divert $22 million this year, and more in future years, from the dwindling yearly transfer from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund. And she wanted to produce another $74.6 million a year in new money by hiking some DMV fees -- mostly by increasing everybody's car registration fee from $28 to $35.

None of this was included in the budget moving through the state Senate this week.

Some transportation and urban advocates had cheered the idea, arguing that any increase in transportation spending was welcome.

But the Mobility Fund was vaguely explained from the start, and the ideas for how to spend it varied widely from one side of the capital to the other. ... [MORE]

These transportation bills were filed on first day of the 2010 legislative session:

- HB 1685 (Cole) TURNPIKE AUTHORITY TOLL ENFORCEMENT CHANGES

- HB 1686 (Cole) BICYCLE SAFETY CHANGES (require cyclists to travel no more than two abreast on the highway, and to go single file when a faster car wants to pass them)

- SB 1129 (Boseman) GAP FUNDING FOR CAPE FEAR SKYWAY BRIDGE (set aside $40 million a year to cover gap between cost and expected toll collections on this Turnpike Authority project)

- SB 1131 (Goss) TURNPIKE AUTHORITY TOLL ENFORCEMENT CHANGES

- SB 1132 (Goss) MOTOR VEHICLES LAW CHANGES

Gov. Bev Perdue isn't ready to hike taxes to meet more of the state's transportation needs, but in her 2011 budget proposal she finds $94.6 million in "new" money from two sources the legislature has tapped in the past.

She proposes to hike Division of Motor Vehicles fees again ($74.6 million) to help establish the N.C. Mobility Fund for big transportation projects. (See today's story - some details were cut because of space limitations.)

And she cuts off another slice ($22 million) of the controversial transfer from the road-building Highway Trust Fund that, until a few years ago, was pumping $172 million a year into the non-transportation General Fund.

The annual registration fee for cars and light trucks will rise from $28 to $35 if the legislature adopts Perdue's recommendation. ... [MORE]

The N.C. Turnpike Authority awarded three contracts worth $37.6 million Friday for an all-electronic toll collection system for the 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway.

The Triangle Expressway is expected to open to traffic in 2011 in Research Triangle Park and in 2012 in western Wake County between RTP and Holly Springs. It is expected to be the first turnpike built in the United States without toll booths for collecting cash from drivers.

TriEx users will be identified with electronic transponders carried in their cars, or by video cameras that record license plate numbers.

Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services won two contracts worth $23.4 million to design and implement the toll collection and billing systems. URS Corporation, based in San Francisco, won a $15.3 million contract to staff and manage TriEx customer service facilities.

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.” ...