Dec 11, 2014 | News Publication
The Delaware River Port Authority has put off a regularly scheduled bridge toll increase for another two years, meaning drivers traveling back and forth from New Jersey to Pennsylvania will still "enjoy" the current $5 roundtrip fee until at least 2017.
In a meeting Wednesday morning in Philadelphia, the DRPA board of commissioners, in addition to approving capital and operating budgets for their bridges and PATCO rail line, passed a resolution deferring a 25-cent toll increase at the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross and Commodore Barry bridges.
Beginning in January 2013, the DRPA had planned to raise bridge tolls every two years based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the Philadelphia region. However, DRPA officials have reported that "sufficient revenues" are available to fund the next three to four years of the authority's capital plan without toll increases.
"It is, therefore, both proper and prudent to defer the effective date for the scheduled biennial CPI-based toll increase from Jan. 1, 2015, to Jan. 1, 2017," read the resolution approved by the board Wednesday.
The DRPA board also approved its operating and capital budgets for 2015.
The 2015 budget for all DRPA operations totals $89 million, representing an increase of nearly $2.9 million over the cost of the 2014 operating budgets.
Included in that amount is approximately $900,000 for legal expenses associated with a grand jury probe into the DRPA — specifically the hundreds of millions of dollars spent in previous years on non-transportation projects. Federal prosecutors in December of last year reportedly issued subpoenas to several DRPA board members, including Jeffrey Nash, William Sasso and Richard Sweeney, the brother of Senate President Steve Sweeney.
The Philadelphia Inquirer on Wednesday reported it has received invoices, gained through a right-to-know request, that show approximately $72,000 was paid to law firms owned by Sasso and Nash, after the two board members decided they wanted their own firms to represent them in the ongoing federal investigation. According to the report, $70,000 was paid to Sasso's firm, Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, while Nash's firm, Cozen O'Connor, received $2,400.
The DRPA expects its revenue in 2015 to total approximately $302 million, including tolls and interest income.
The DRPA's capital budget for 2015 calls for spending an estimated $146,407,000 on projects at all four bridges, as well as the PATCO high-speed line and the ferry.
According to the authority, the three largest projects are the rehabilitation of the PATCO train cars, a 5-year $163 million effort that will see $50 million spent by the DRPA in 2015; the replacement of the PATCO tracks across the Ben Franklin Bridge, totaling $36.5 million for 2015 and 2016; and the repainting of the Commodore Barry Bridge, which will cost a total of $100 million over the next five years.
Related to Commodore Barry Bridge repainting, the DRPA board on Wednesday approved a $19.7 million contract with Corcon Inc., based in Lowellville, Ohio, for the first phase of the project, which will include removing the existing lead and painting the bridge from the New Jersey approach spans and the US-130 overpass.
The board also approved a 2015 PATCO operating budget of $52,260,293, a 9.8-percent increase over the rail line's 2014 operating budget.
By Jason Laday | South Jersey Times