Transportation: High Roads & Low

The tollbooths that gobble up the loose change of American drivers as they sweep through bridges, tunnels and turnpikes ring up record profits every year. In 1966, toll-road traffic in the U.S. will increase by 10% over 1965, to 750 million vehicles. The new Verrazano-Narrows Bridge across the mouth of New York harbor earned $11 million in the year ending last July; in 1965, the six tunnels and bridges controlled by the Port of New York Authority grossed $64 million.

The New Jersey Turnpike has done well enough to pay for the early redemption of $136 million worth of its bonds. Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis carries more than double the original estimate of traffic, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel 20% more. Maryland authorities are looking for ways to build second crossings for both links. Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ohio and Texas turnpikes all earn two to three times more than they need to pay interest on the bond issues that built them.

The Losers. There are some exceptions to the success story. The 7¾-mile Chicago Skyway has been unable to meet its interest payments on time; the free, federally sponsored Dan Ryan Expressway runs a parallel route, so Chicago Skyway traffic is about half of what was estimated. In West Virginia, a turnpike from Charleston (pop. 85,000) to Princeton (pop. 20,000 and not to be confused with Princeton, N.J.) runs “from nowhere to nowhere,” according to critics. The route is losing money because the links with Interstate 64 and Interstate 77 will not be completed until approximately 1970.

The biggest and newest toll in trouble is the $200 million Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. With a trestle highway broken by two bridges and two tunnels, it covers 17½ miles between Norfolk and Cape Charles, across the stormy mouth of Chesapeake Bay. It is an engineering wonder that cuts the old 1½-hour ferry ride to 25 minutes of scenic driving. But traffic is only a little over half of what the experts predicted. As a result, revenue is not enough to provide the interest on the $200 million in bonds issued by the bridge-tunnel. Interest charges are $10,812,500 a year, and operating costs are another $1,400,000. But total revenue last year was only $8,387,994, forcing the bridge-tunnel authority to dig into its reserves. Moody’s Bond Survey, which has just given the bridge-tunnel’s C Bonds an unusually low rating of “Caa,” is “dubious” that the bridge-tunnel will achieve the 50% increase in revenue that it needs in the next five years.

The Reasons. One reason for the sparse traffic is the steep toll—$4 for car and driver, plus 85¢ for each passenger older than six. Another explanation: early completion of Interstate 95, which provides a competing route farther inland. Besides, an expected economic boom in the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area has simply not materialized.