Politics And Business: Detours Ahead?

Potholes and bumps slow, but don't stall, private roadways.

Walter C. Jones

August 28, 2008

T he concept of using private companies to build highway improvements in metro Atlanta seems to have run into a ditch recently, but the engine still is running, and a course correction may be all that's required.

In July, the Georgia Department of Transportation, with the advice of consultants from the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), decided to step back from an experiment in public-private initiatives and halt consideration of all pending proposals. RBC recommended doing some planning before the board agrees to accept any proposal.

The experiment began shortly after Republicans won control of the governor's mansion and Senate in 2002. They had promised new ideas, and one was private highways. The legislation not only allowed the state to contract with private companies to build toll roads or toll lanes, but it also permitted companies to recommend which roadways.

The argument made at the time by then-Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, was that letting road builders propose the corridors would result in faster, smoother implementation. Plus, it would open up the range of possibilities beyond what DOT bureaucrats might conceive, so the argument went.

Quite likely, lobbyists for road-building interests were whispering in Williams' ear at the time, but the whole idea seemed to make sense to the new Republican leaders. One philosophy that unifies Republicans is that private business usually can perform any function better than government.

However, the experiment ran into potholes right away. A proposal to hasten much-needed improvements to Ga. Hwy. 316 between Interstate 85 and Athens stalled in a flood of driver objections to the size of the toll. They'd be willing to pay a few pennies, they said in various news stories, but not folding money.

Still, other road builders weren't deterred, perhaps thinking that poor college students and liberal Athens residents might not have been the most receptive customer base. Seven other proposals came over the DOT transom.

Williams since has become Senate majority leader; the GOP has taken control of the House and added more of its followers to the DOT board; a new commissioner has taken the driver's seat at DOT; and yet none of the public-private initiatives has gotten a green light.

Why? Was it because the experiment was too radical? Or because the DOT's entrenched bureaucracy fought it? Or perhaps the public simply hasn't been sold on user fees?
 
The answer is, probably all three. But that doesn't mean the idea has hit a dead end.

The DOT board is delaying consideration until staff engineers sort through the 9,000 existing conventional construction projects. Only then will the board decide which private proposals to accept, based on their ability to satisfy the most urgent traffic demands.

That's a philosophical departure from the spirit of the experiment in that the board wouldn't be letting companies pursue the ripest commercial opportunities. And the result could be rocky. Companies may not see profit potential in the board's priorities or they may struggle if they make a go of a bad fit, because that's the only chance the government gives them. But then, private industry didn't do so well in gauging the market the first time with the Ga. 316 proposal.

One thing is certain: private companies one day will be pocketing tolls somewhere in Atlanta because Republicans won't raise statewide taxes enough to fund the construction as Democrats did for generations. The GOP thinks business can do a better job, and they'll insist on letting it try.

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