Toll-road plan dies before it’s even revved

By David McGrath Schwartz

Friday, April 10, 2009 | 2 a.m.

A bill to allow the state’s first toll project died quietly Thursday, after the chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee questioned how forthright Transportation Department officials had been in explaining the plan to lawmakers.

Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, chairman of the committee, decided not to introduce Assembly Bill 524, which would have created a network of toll lanes along sections of U.S. 95 and Interstate 15 in Las Vegas.

“It’s dead, gone,” Atkinson said.

The North Las Vegas Democrat said he was troubled by state Transportation Department Director Susan Martinovich’s statements to his committee about the Pioneer Program, in particular that she had not clearly stated that lanes built with tax dollars would be surrendered to a private company to operate as toll lanes.

“We asked questions with regard to existing lanes, the HOV lanes, when they could be used,” Atkinson said. “I didn’t think we got honest and straightforward answers.”

The Las Vegas Sun reported Thursday that miles of existing lanes along I-15 and U.S. 95 would be converted to toll lanes under the bill. Lobbyists and lawmakers said that fact wasn’t readily apparent from Transportation Department testimony.

Martinovich acknowledged Thursday that she could have better communicated how the toll project would be developed, but said her testimony was honest.

Martinovich had argued that the $1 billion project is needed to expand Nevada’s most congested corridor at time when the state faces a funding shortfall for such projects. The Pioneer Program would have created toll lanes along U.S. 95 from north of Ann Road, through the Spaghetti Bowl and on I-15 south to the Las Vegas Beltway.

The project required legislative approval to move forward. State law prohibits toll lanes.

Bills must pass out of legislative committees by today to remain alive, but the plan could be resurrected as an amendment to another bill or through other procedures. But to do so would require the defeat of another piece of legislation.

Senate Bill 204, which has passed the Senate Energy, Infrastructure and Transportation Committee, would require legislative approval for a toll road agreement and prohibit public highways “in existence on October 1, 2009” from being converted to toll roads.

Martinovich has testified that requiring the Legislature to give final approval to a toll project would kill the Pioneer Program because it would slow it down too much.

The Transportation Department unsuccessfully sought to exempt the Pioneer Program from SB 204.

Sun reporter Brian Eckhouse contributed to this story.