> SOUTHERN INDIANA — In order for the Kentuckiana Regional Planning Development Agency to continue moving forward with its long-range transportation improvement plan it needed an estimate on which routes would be followed and what dollar figure would be associated with the Ohio River Bridges Project and its possible tolls.

“We have been asked to deliver a particular tolling scenario for the limited purposes of conducting a planning exercise,” said Steve Schultz, executive director for the Louisville Southern Indiana Bridges Authority. “In concert with KYTC (Kentucky Transportation Cabinet) and INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation) we’re delivering that with the purpose of allowing the air quality modeling exercise to begin. It’s also the same scenario that we have to use for our financial demonstration document. So, we have arrived at a tolling scenario.”

The bridges authority is planning on using, and presenting at its next regular meeting, a tolling scenario that would include tolls on the existing Interstate 65 Kennedy Bridge, the newly proposed I-65 bridge and the East End bridge.

A rate of $3 per toll for a base toll rate — which is the high end of the rates examined in the Wilbur-Smith study — will be the initial figure that the bridges authority will use.

The rate of $3 for tolls are not necessarily the final rate that will be imposed on the bridges as Schultz said the bridges authority retains a lot of flexibility in the plan.

“For planning purposes ... we decided to use a conservative assumption for air quality purposes,” he said. “And that conservative assumption is what causes the most traffic diversion, because tolling something creates traffic changes.”

Tolls, as part of the plan moving forward, will not be imposed on the Sherman-Minton Bridge or the Clark Memorial Bridge.

“Since that’s the one that would cause the most traffic changes that’s the one we decided to go with, just for the limited purposes of the planning exercise,” Schultz said. “Once we come up with our actual financial plan, the long-range plan will need to be amended. The toll rates that we ultimately consider and determine, if any, for our financial plan can reflect time of day and all of those kinds of other changes.”

A more realistic expectation on what the actual toll rates might be was offered by David Nicklies, chairman of the Bridges Coalition.

“We believe these tolls will be from $1 to $3,” he said. “The commuters running back and forth on a daily basis are probably going to be in the $1 range. The federal government is requiring this number to be put out there to move forward with air quality and that’s where this number that [Schultz] is putting out is coming from.”

A decision on tolling was prompted by KIPDA because it is looking to complete its long-range 2030 Horizon Transportation Improvement Plan.

Until a funding scenario was determined for the bridges project, KIPDA and other transportation projects in the Metropolitan Planning Organization would be in a lapse — in which transportation plans could not be amended. If the funding scenario were still not determined by Dec. 8, 2010 construction projects in the MPO would go into a freeze.

“If we do not have an update by December 8 that basically leads to a federal funding freeze in the TIP,” said David Burton, transportation planner with KIPDA. “[A] freeze basically means we cannot obligate any more additional federal funds for projects.”

KIPDA was following two paths: one included the bridges project in the long-range plan with tolling options included; and a second scenario was to remove the bridges project from the plan and place it in an illustrative list, which meant once funding was determined a request would have to be made to vote the project back into the long-range plan, Burton said.

“We are reaching a point ... where we need to conduct the air quality analysis,” he said. “And the air quality analysis cannot be conducted on both. So we need to know what option [to follow].”

The decision on which plan would be pursued was an easy one for transportation officials.

“From our perspective ... including the bridges [in the long-range transportation plan] is our preferred course,” said Mike Hancock, transportation secretary for the KYTC. “There is no doubt in our mind which way we lean. I’m incredibly optimistic that we can get to the place where we need to be in the metropolitan plan.”

The risk is that the bi-state authority has not completed their funding assumptions yet, in the other scenario federal funding obligations for the bridges project could not be made until it was moved back into the long-range plan.

But there will be a tight window for the tolling scenarios being handed over to KIPDA so it can complete its air quality analysis.

“We need the funding assumptions by July 16,” Burton said.

Plans are to have the air quality scenario and consultation with planning partners complete by the end of July.

KIPDA hopes to have its public involvement period begin in early August, with the long-range transportation plan adopted by October and approval before December 8.

Kentucky has $401 million programmed for 2011 and Indiana has $174 million programmed.

Burton added a freeze does not mean all of the funding programmed would be lost, but it was offered as a concept of how much funding is on the table in the next year.

“That’s what we have programmed for those years in both states,” Burton said.

With speed being a regular topic brought up Schultz said he is confident that the bridges authority will be able to submit a financial plan to the Federal Highway Administration by the end of the year.

Schultz was not the only one confident the bridges authority will meet its goal.

“With this move today, they can be in the bond market early next year,” Nicklies said.