No 2 Bridge Tolls

Why is tolling still part of the Ohio River Bridges Project?

One reason is the East End approach is too expensive.

The East End approach (the road to the East End Bridge) alone is $798 million. That is about $100,000 a foot! The East End Bridge, which crosses the Ohio River and Indiana’s approach combined are $558 million. The East End Bridge and Indiana’s approach are $240 million less than a 1.4 mile stretch of road on the Kentucky side?

How has that happened?

River Fields and the Kentucky Heritage Council

These two organizations have worked together from the beginning to keep an East End Bridge from becoming a reality.

These two have manipulated the East End approach part of this project using their influence to drive up project cost in effort to make it unaffordable.

River Fields has a lawsuit against the East End Bridge.

If we want a bridges project our community can afford, then we need to encourage serious reductions to the East End approach. This approach is nearly three times the amount of the bridge. This approach could be reduced over $500 million.

Contact your Governor, Senators, and Congressmen.

Thank You,

Paul Fetter

Co-founder
Organization For A Better Southern Indiana, Inc.

No2bridgetolls.org

(812) 283-5555 Ext 27
paul@clarkcountyaa.com

INDIANA

Governor Mitch Daniels

(317) 232-4567

http://www.in.gov/gov/

Email Contact Form

http://www.in.gov/apps/options/email.aspx?url=http://www.in.gov/gov/

Senator Dan Coats

101 NW M L King Blvd
Evansville, IN 47708-1924
(812) 465-6313

Email: http://coats.senate.gov/contact/

Senator Dick Lugar

(812) 465-6313

Fort Wayne – (260) 422-1505

Email:  http://lugar.senate.gov/contact/contactform.cfm

Rep. Ron Grooms

(800) 382-9487

Email: Senator.Grooms@iga.in.gov

Rep. Ed Clere

(317) 232-9648 or (800) 382-9841

Email: h72@in.gov

200 W. Washington Street

Indianapolis, IN 46204

Rep. Steve Stemler

P: (317) 232-9600 or (800) 382-9842

Email: h71@in.gov

200 W. Washington St.,

Indianapolis, IN 46204-2786

Rep. Dan Coats

P: (317)554-0750

10 West Market Street

1650 Market Tower

Indianapolis, IN 46204

Email: http://coats.senate.gov/contact/

Rep. Todd Young

(812) 288-3999 F: 812-288-3873

279 Quartermaster
Jeffersonville, IN 47130
Email: https://toddyoung.house.gov/contact-me/email-me

INDIANA FHWA:

Bob Tally, (FHWA co chair)

Indiana Division

Email: robert.tally@dot.gov

P: (317) 226-7476, Fax: (317) 226-7341

KENTUCKY

Governor Steve Beshear

700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100

Frankfort, Kentucky 4060

Main Line: (502) 564-2611

Fax: (502) 564-2517

Email: http://www.governor.ky.gov/contact/contact.htm

Senator Mitch McConnell

601 W. Broadway, Room 630
Louisville, KY 40202

Phone: (502) 582-6304

Email: http://mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm

Rep. John Yarmuth

P: (502) 582-5129. F:502-582-5897

Romano Mazzoli Federal Building

600 Martin Luther King, Jr. Place, Suite 216

Louisville, KY 40202.

Email: http://yarmuth.house.gov/index.html

Rep. Rand Paul

P: (270) 782-8303

P: (202) 224-4343

http://paul.senate.gov/?p=contact

Washington, DC
208 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC, 20510
Phone: 202-224-4343

KENTUCKY FHWA:

Jose Sepulveda, Division Administrator,

Kentucky Division Office, Federal Highway Administration:

jose.sepulveda@dot.gov

330 West Broadway, Room 264

Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

P: (502)223-6720 FAX: (502)223-6735

FEDERAL FHWA:

Ray Lahood – Cheryl J Walker/ Special Assistant

Federal Highway Administration

Office of the Federal Highway Administrator

(202) 366-6378

Cheryl.Walker@dot.gov

As part of its mission to actively engage leaders and develop ethical leadership that impacts our region, LSI is hosting a Bridges Forum. This forum will provide citizens an opportunity to become better informed of the bridges issues, in particularly, the status of the bridges project and any updates since the Sherman Minton Bridge closure.

Mark Scherrens, Executive Director of the Bridge Coalition, and Paul Fetter of No 2 Tolls will present their positions and/or updates. Questions may be submitted to LSI at info@leadershipsi.org and will be asked by LSI to the presenters during the Q&A period. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of why the bridges are needed, what legal obligations are required, how the impact of the closing of the Sherman Minton Bridge has changed the current plans for bridges, and current toll options.

The Bridges Forum is free and open to the public. It will take place November 17, 7:00 PM at Kye’s, 500 Missouri Avenue, Jeffersonville. For planning purposes, please email info@leadershipsi.org if you plan to attend.

If you missed the June 21 Strategic Meeting in preparation for the June 27 and 28th meetings, check out this video covering progress to stop tolls and incongruencies of what can and can’t be done (project changes). Click here and remember, CHANGE CAN HAPPEN and it takes effort on everyone’s part to stop tolls. Thanks to everyone who is a part of changing the course of this project so we can stop tolls! Tolls are bad for families and businesses.

To all “No Tolls” supporters – Thank you! Our combined efforts are working to reduce to the size of the massive bridges plan and we still believe that taking tolls off the table is possible.

We invite you to continue helping us fight tolls by doing two things:
1. Plan to attend the June public meetings to show strong support for “No Tolls.”

2. Call Washington Federal Highway and your state’s Federal Highway Transportation. (Template letter follows)

Robert F. Tally

(FHWA cochair)

Division Administrator

FHWA Indiana Division

575 North Pennsylvania Street, Room 254

Indianapolis, IN 46204

Tel: (317) 226-7476

Fax: (317) 226-7341

robert.tally@dot.gov

Jose Sepulveda

Division Adminstrator

Kentucky Division Office

Federal Highway Administration

330 West Broadway, Room 264

Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

Voice: (502) 223-6720

FAX: (502) 223-6735

jose.sepulveda@dot.gov

Cheryl J Walker

Special Assistant

Federal Highway Administration

Office of the Federal Highway Administrator

(202) 366-6378

Cheryl.Walker@dot.gov

No2BridgeTolls is opposed to financing the downtown infrastructure through the use of tolls or user fees on the I-65 Corridor/Kennedy Bridges System.

Clarksville, Indiana June 3, 2011 No2bridgetolls.org recognizes Governors Daniels and Beshear, and Mayor Fischer for their eagerness to make the Ohio River Bridges Project friendlier to the community it will serve.

“We are very pleased with these new reductions, and would like to thank all of our supporters that helped make this happen. This is the second move to reduce the price of the Ohio River Bridges Project in the last six months, and we may possibly be at that point where I-65 does not need to be tolled. We will continue our efforts until that is achieved.” said No2bridgetolls Co-founder Paul Fetter.

“In January 2010, Ohio River Bridges Project estimated cost was $4.1 billion, which was $2.2 billion short of the $1.9 billion in available funds. The logical answer would be to reduce the project cost, but all of the state officials, the Ohio River Bridges Project design team, and the Bi-State Authority said, ‘The project cannot be changed because the Record of Decision and the Environmental Impact Study’ and consequently tolling was put on the table to fund the shortfall. We now know the project can be changed and believe financing without tolls is possible.

“The project was originally designed far beyond its capacity to deliver traffic due to lane limitations on all of the interstates that connect to it. We want it built in a financially responsible manner, community friendly, without tolls on our existing transportation routes. Many of these changes are what we’ve been asking for and are a great improvement to the over-designed project they started with,” added Fetter.

“Our group formed because tolling our existing infrastructure and transportation routes would divide our river city, and would be bad for families and businesses,” said No2BridgeTolls.org co-founder Wes Johnson.

Since its formation in September of 2010, the organization has collected over 10,000 signatures on petitions against tolling and polled Kentuckian residents and determined that over 85% are against tolling I-65. The group has also secured city and township anti-toll resolutions from Jeffersonville, New Albany, Clarksville, Utica, Sellersburg, Georgetown, Louisville, Clark County Council, Clark County Commissioners, Jeffersonville Main Street Association, and the Southern Indiana Tourism Bureau; and collected statements from both Southern Indiana mayors: Tom Gallagan, Mayor of Jeffersonville, and Doug England, Mayor of New Albany opposing tolling of I-65.

About No2BridgeTolls.org

We are a broad-based coalition of businesses, organizations and private individuals who are opposed to tolls on the I-65 Corridor/Kennedy Bridges System. We have formed under the entity of “Organization for a Better Southern Indiana, Inc.” (OBSI.) Our purpose is to educate the public of the true impact of the current proposed bridge toll on both sides of the river. We are a 501-C6 non-profit organization that has been formed for the purpose of disseminating information. We are not against the bridges—just tolls or user fees on the I-65 Corridor/Kennedy Bridges System, which  will divide our community, be a regressive tax that our citizens and businesses cannot afford, and will adversely affect the local economy, disproportionately affecting  Southern Indiana.

On May 16, 2011 the Courier-Journal covered the excessive cost overruns on the Ohio Rivers Bridges Project traffic study. No2BridgeTolls.org is responding to that news story in an effort to underscore the waste of time and money that has gone into an enormous project that rightfully should be downsized to an affordable and manageable scale that does not unfairly affect the working people of Kentuckiana. More specifically, the tolling plan will unjustly affect the residents of Southern Indiana who will be paying $4 to every $1 Kentucky residents pay in tolls. The CJ article was comprehensive and should be read by all who say or think, “Let’s just build the bridges no matter what it costs.” The cost continues to mount and this excessive plan will cost us all for many years and generations to come.

Who is profiting from the Ohio River Bridges Project? The traffic study alone is approaching $1 million—nearly 10 times the original amount approved by Kentucky’s transportation cabinet just last year. To date $180 million has been spent in studies with another $900,000 in toll study budget over run. There is excess everywhere you look, including the cost of coring samples for a tunnel, which should not be there in the first place. The tunnel was added to the plan to appease wealthy East-enders who have the financial resources to leverage it into the original plan. Having a tunnel approach to the east end bridge would force potentially hazardous cargo through downtown because that traffic won’t be allowed to travel through the tunnel.

The Ohio River Bridges Project was grossly over-designed years ago when it was expected that the Federal Government was going to pay for it all. The current expected cost of the Project is $3.6 Billion. The plan was ‘packaged as an all-or-none’ at that time with influence from the aforementioned east-enders, and some speculate, with the hope that none of it would ever be built to plan, sort of like sailing a boat with all anchors in the water.

Who is going to pay for this over engineering and all of this miss-spent money now that the Fed’s are only paying a portion? We are–in tolls. And Hoosiers will be significantly more. Kentucky has the least amount of funds and will benefit the most, yet Hoosiers will be paying the lion’s share of tolls. How illogical is that?

The sales pitch continues to be: “Build the bridges already.”  And some of the other familiar companion statements are: “We have been waiting for the east end bridge for 40 years; if we don’t do this now it’s never going to happen,” and, “We need the bridges–whatever it takes.” Others cry, “If you don’t want tolls, you don’t want bridges.” And the popular target toll rate response has been, “it’s only going to be a dollar—what’s a buck anyway?”

Remember “read my lips, no new taxes?” Let’s face it—the published or target toll rate will be a low-ball figure to sell its acceptability to the public. Whatever the toll starts at, it will go up every year at 2% even if tolling revenue meets projected numbers, and if you read the CJ article, that could be a big “if.” It could go up in increments of dollars if the tolling numbers do not meet expected tolling revenues—think $5 or $6 is out of the question? It all depends on projections and traffic. And residents and businesses that cross the river daily will have no choice but to pay it.

Follow the money: who has already profited from, and who is standing to profit from the Ohio River Bridges Project?  And at who’s expense? Yours and mine. So if we are paying for it, then the decision is ours and the fight belongs to each and every one of us.

So what do we want?
We want and need a fiscally responsible project, designed and built to accommodate only traffic it can actually deliver. Not a plan to lines the pockets of the construction and finance industries.

No local tolls on I-65. It can be done. We’ve been sending out emails to each of you asking to take a few minutes a day to make a difference by calling elected officials and representatives to urge them to find a better way. If you’ve been making those calls and passing along those emails, thank you. If you have been waiting for ‘them’ to take care of the fight, you have to realize that ‘them’ is us/you.

The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Members of our organization have used our own money and spent countless hours and energy communicating the impact that tolls will have on this area. Many of us have met with (some multiple times) elected and appointed leaders and discussed reductions and toll alternatives (see below). In June we will likely see the last opportunity to have a public show of dissent for tolls. Take time now by calling your elected officials and make sure they know you oppose tolls and support a responsible, affordable plan.

No2BridgeTolls.org founders and members have discussed reductions and tolling alternatives with:

Indiana Department of Transportation Executive Officer, Scott Stewart
Indiana Department of Transportation Projects Manager, Paul Boone
Bi-State Authority-Chairman Charles Buddeke, and other members
Ohio River Bridges Project Manager, John Sacksteder
Governor Daniels Chief of Staff; Earl Goode
Congressman Todd Young, and Chief of Staff Tony Schy
Senator Richard Lugar’s Regional Director Larry Ordner
Senator Dan Coats Regional Director Lance Rhodes
Indiana Senator, Ron Grooms
Indiana Senator, Jim Smith
Indiana Representative, Steve Stemler
Jeffersonville Mayor, Tom Galligan
New Albany Mayor, Doug England

Follow us on Facebook and on our website and please, please, keep making calls and sharing with your friends and neighbors that the time is now to stand up to the tolling plan and speak now, or forever hold out your wallet when you cross the river.

The following letter from No2BridgeTolls co-founder, Paul Fetter, is in response to letter to the editor (third on the page) of the News & Tribune written by Kevin Hammersmith, Chairman of One Southern Indiana:

Organization For A Better Southern Indiana, Inc. was founded to protect the interest of families and businesses of Southern Indiana, and our agenda is exactly that. No2bridgetolls.org is the name of our cause and website. We are all Southern Indiana residents, business owners and operators that have decades of experience in eking out a living in Southern Indiana. We know by these years of experience the challenges of drawing Kentucky consumers and visitors to Southern Indiana. It is the knowledge we have gained in operating successful businesses that give us the understanding of the division that will occur if you toll the bridges that connect our river city, charging admission to visit and do business in Southern Indiana.

We also have families and employees, that have to use the I-65 corridor bridges to go to work and school, attend to family, medical, and spiritual needs. This is currently a free transportation route that they must travel many times a day. If I-65 becomes tolled, the financial burden will be added to their budget, most cannot afford it.

Read the rest of this entry »

“I am against tolls on the bridges.  Not only do I, my husband and my son all work in Louisville, we also have several neighbors who are Veterans coming across the bridges to the VA hospital quite a bit.  It would be a shame to charge retired, senior citizens who have served our country during war time a toll just for health care.”

***

“I fully agree with the stand that bridge tolls should not even enter the bridge building equation. I live in Charlestown, IN & work in Louisville, KY. With gas prices on a steady incline, the last thing my family & I need is to be hit with another tax or toll. If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it!  That’s the way I’m expected to live & that’s how I expect my state & govt. agencies to operate as well.”

(names withheld)

Elected Officials Silence Speaks Volumes

Hoosiers – call Ron Grooms, Ed Clere and Steve Stemler and tell them Southern Indiana needs their support! Tell them we don’t need tolls on the I65 Corridor. We need a responsible plan that does not include tolls.

Ron Groom voted “YES” to SB 473 allowing tolling by Governor decree without legislative review. Call him at (317) 232-9400 and tell him this is unacceptable. He needs to work toward a solution that does not unfairly impact Southern Indiana.

Paul Fetter, co-founder of No2BridgeTolls.org, has actively engaged the community and our elected officials to raise awareness that tolls on existing structures are bad for families and businesses. Senator Dick Lugar responded with a letter encouraging participation by residents and businesses on the bridges project. Let’s keep the calls and letters coming to all our elected officials so they know we are watching and are opposed to tolls on the I-65 corridor and Kennedy Bridges system.