BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 1175
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Torlakson
VERSION: 6/1/09
Analysis by: Art Bauer FISCAL: YES
Hearing date: July 7, 2009
SUBJECT:
Bay Area state-owned toll bridges
DESCRIPTION:
This bill adds the Antioch and Dumbarton bridges to the Toll
Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program and grants authorization for
voter-approved toll increases.
ANALYSIS:
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is designated a
multicounty regional transportation planning agency under state
law and a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) under federal
law. MTC is the transportation planning, coordinating and
financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. The
counties that comprise MTC include Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin,
Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.
MTC is governed by a 19-member policy board. Fourteen
commissioners are appointed directly by local elected officials.
In addition, two members represent regional agencies - the
Association of Bay Area Governments and the Bay Conservation and
Development Commission. Finally, three nonvoting members have
been appointed to represent federal and state transportation
agencies and the federal housing department.
The Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) is an independent legal
entity governed by the board of MTC. BATA manages and invests
revenues from all tolls levied on the seven state-owned toll
bridges: Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton,
Richmond-San Rafael, San Francisco-Oakland Bay and San
Mateo-Hayward. As part of these activities, BATA funds the
day-to-day operations, facilities maintenance, and
administration of the bridges. BATA also funds the long-term
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capital improvement and rehabilitation of the bridges. The
long-term capital projects are funded Regional Measure (RM) 1
and RM 2, approved by voters in the seven counties served by the
toll bridges. Two counties in the region, Napa and Solano, are
excluded because they have no toll bridges. Each regional
measure increased the toll by one dollar to fund the
construction of two new bridges and various transportation
projects in the toll bridge corridors.
The Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989 is the origin of the existing
law governing the management of the seven state-owned Bay Area
toll bridges. After that earthquake, the Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) conducted an engineering review of the
toll bridges and concluded that five of the seven had to be
reconstructed to increase their structural integrity in the
event of similar earthquakes. By 2005, the program to fund the
improvements had a $3.6 billion shortfall. AB 144 (Hancock),
Chapter 71, Statutes of 2005, was enacted to address the short
fall. It did the following:
Created an $8.685 billion financing plan to fund the
Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program (TBSRP), including
imposing an additional $1 toll on the bridges. The TBSRP
included the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the San
Mateo Bridge, the San Rafael-Richmond Bridge, the Carquinez
Bridge, and the Benicia-Martinez Bridge. The Dumbarton and
the Antioch bridges were relatively new and the engineering
assessment concluded they did not require seismic
upgrading. (The Golden Gate Bridge is under the
jurisdiction of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, and
Transportation District.)
Established new project management oversight and
reporting requirements, including the formation of the Toll
Bridge Program Oversight Committee (TBPOC), which is
composed of the executive director of Bay Area Toll
Authority (BATA), the director of Caltrans, and the
executive director of the California Transportation
Commission (CTC). The committee reports quarterly to the
Legislature and the CTC.
Assigned responsibility for the administration of all
toll revenues to BATA, established by SB 226 (Kopp),
Chapter 328, Statutes of 1998, created to administer the $1
base toll on the Bay Area's seven state-owned toll bridges
and oversee the RM 1 and RM 2 programs.
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Authorized BATA to set the toll schedule as may be
necessary to meet its bond obligations.
Required BATA to provide at least 30 days' notice to the
transportation policy committee of each house of the
Legislature, and to hold a public hearing, before adopting
a toll schedule reflecting the increased toll rate.
This bill :
1. Makes findings and declarations that to ensure the
safety of motorists the Antioch and Dumbarton Bridges are
in need of seismic safety retrofit.
2. Includes Antioch and Dumbarton Bridges in the TBSRP.
3. Transfers any cost savings in the TBSRP to BATA for
expenditure on the Antioch and Dumbarton Bridges.
4. Authorizes BATA to increase tolls on the seven
state-owned bridges in the Bay Area to complete the seismic
safety retrofit program.
5. Requires the TBPOC to include the Antioch and Dumbarton
Bridges in its oversight and reporting program.
6. Requires BATA to pay Caltrans for all bridge maintenance
and operating requirements after it meets all debt service
obligations.
7. Continuously appropriates to Caltrans money received
from BATA for planning, design, construction, operation,
maintenance, repair, replacement, rehabilitation, and
seismic retrofit of the seven state-owned toll bridges.
8. Authorizes BATA's governing board to increase toll rates
for the seismic program and provides that the toll
structures may include discounts for vehicles classified by
BATA as carpools and for users of electronic toll
collection.
9. Authorizes BATA's governing board to place before voters
in the seven counties that include state-owned toll bridges
a proposed toll increase to fund a program of projects to
improve the bridges and transportation facilities and
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services in the highway corridors serving the bridges. This
bill prescribes the election procedures to be followed
relative to these additional regional measures.
10. Requires Caltrans to conform to BATA's policies
regarding vehicle occupancy standards for high-occupancy
vehicle lanes that are approach lanes to the bridges.
11. Eliminates a three-year time for using $20 million in RM
2 funds for TransLink, MTC's transit smart card program.
12. Directs the State Controller to collect unpaid bridge
tolls, high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane fees, and any
relevant interest, penalties, fines, or other charges from
money owed a person or entity from state income tax refunds
or winnings in the California State Lottery and prescribes
procedures to follow for these collections.
COMMENTS:
1. Purpose . This bill is intended to fund the seismic
safety retrofit needs of the Antioch and Dumbarton bridges.
In addition, this bill recognizes that management of the
seven state-owned bridges is an ongoing regional
enterprise. To this end, this bill authorizes BATA to
obtain voter approval for toll increases to fund specific
programs or projects that improve the bridges and enhance
mobility in the highway corridors leading to them. Further,
this bill authorizes BATA to increase tolls as necessary to
ensure the integrity of the toll bridge seismic program.
This eliminates the likelihood of State Highway Account
revenue being used in the future to fund bridge repair
needs. The bill also allows BATA to manage the traffic
flows on the approach lanes serving the bridges under its
jurisdiction. Finally, the bill improves the management and
collection of toll revenue.
2. Better understanding of seismic risks . The Antioch and
Dumbarton bridges were constructed in 1978 and 1982,
respectively, and designed to seismic standards developed
after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake in Los Angeles County.
When the TBSRP was crafted after the 1989 Loma Prieta
Earthquake, Caltrans considered the bridges too new and up-
to-standard to be included in the program. The geotechnical
and engineering research initiated after the Loma Prieta
Earthquake, the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, and the 1995
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earthquake in Kobe, Japan resulted in the revamping of the
standards governing seismic engineering for bridges. A
two-year evaluation conducted by BATA and Caltrans in 2008
concluded both bridges needed significant strengthening to
protect public safety. The cost of upgrading the Antioch
Bridge is estimated to be $313 million, and the estimate
for the Dumbarton Bridge is $637 million. The cost
estimates include a 40 percent contingency to account for
unanticipated issues during the four-year construction
project.
3. Regionalization of tolls . Beginning in the 1980s the
state initiated a policy to shift responsibility for
funding state and local transportation improvements to
local agencies by authorizing county transportation
agencies to seek voter approval for local transportation.
These local taxes have become the principle source of
revenue for new state highway and mass transit facilities,
as the state highway program supported by the existing
excise tax on gasoline is almost entirely focused on
maintenance and rehabilitation. The state last authorized
increasing the gas tax in 1990 and most of the revenue from
that nine-cents per gallon increase was initially used to
improve the seismic integrity of state highway bridges
throughout California.
Consistent with the theme local responsibility for the
development of the transportation system, MTC introduced
the concept of voter-approved toll increases as a means of
funding improvements to the toll bridges and in the
corridors serving the bridges. The tolls, classified as
fees and not taxes, only require a majority vote to be
imposed.
In November 1988, the voters of the seven Bay Area counties
connected by the toll bridges approved RM 1, which
authorized a standard auto toll of $1 for all seven
state-owned Bay Area toll bridges. The additional revenues
raised by the toll financed several major projects,
including a new west span between Vallejo and Crockett and
the east span of the Benicia-Martinez Bridge. Bay Area
voters approved RM 2 in March 2004. This measure increased
the toll by an additional dollar and funds the Regional
Traffic Relief Plan, which includes a variety transit and
highway projects in corridors leading to the bridges.
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The current toll on the state-owned bridges is $4. The toll
is comprised of $1 RM 1, $1 RM 2, and $2 for the seismic
retrofit program. BATA can increase tolls to fund
additional seismic improvements for the five bridges in the
TBSRP program. The Antioch and Dumbarton Bridges are not
TBSRP bridges.
Both RM 1 and RM 2 required enabling legislation. AB 1175
transfers the responsibility for developing a program of
projects and placing a toll increase before the voters to
BATA. This provision and the authority to raise tolls for
seismic purposes essentially take the state out of being
responsible for funding the toll bridges and transfer the
responsibility to the Bay Area.
4. Highway system management . Beginning in the late 1980's
MTC, recognizing that state revenues were not keeping up
with the increase in auto travel, began exploring the
feasibility of traffic management strategies to obtain
additional capacity from the regional highway system. In
regard to the bridge component of the system, BATA assumed
responsibility from Caltrans for managing FasTrac, the
electronic toll collection system which is used on all of
the seven state-owned bridges. After BATA's acquisition of
FasTrac, the Golden Gate Bridge subscribed to the toll
collection technology. Recently, San Francisco
International Airport has installed FasTrac to collect
parking fees. Clearly, FasTrac has become the toll
collection standard for the Bay Area. BATA has also
installed the 511 transportation information program, which
can be accessed from cell phones and personal computers to
obtain real-time traffic conditions and transit schedules.
MTC's last two regional transportation plans include
transportation system management strategies as a way to
increase mobility throughout the region. The authorization
in AB 1175 to establish discount tolls for eligible
vehicles using FasTrac and the ability to price carpools
as they cross the toll plazas are additional highway system
management strategies to enhance the performance of the
approach lanes and access to the bridges.
Related legislation
AB 744 (Torrico) authorizes BATA to acquire, construct,
administer, and operate a value pricing for a high-occupancy
vehicle network within the geographic jurisdiction of MTC. This
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bill is on file for the July 7, 2009 hearing.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 49-29
Appr: 12-5
Trans: 9-2
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
July 1, 2009)
SUPPORT: Metropolitan Transportation Commission (sponsor)
OPPOSED: None received.