Senate Transportation Committee passes legislation to address traffic congestion across the state

Legislation to modernize Tennessee’s infrastructure and address traffic congestion, prolonged project delivery timelines, and the deteriorating revenue stream for road funding advanced in the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee this week. Senate Bill 273, dubbed the Transportation Modernization Act of 2023, is one of Governor Lee’s key legislative proposals this year, and seeks to address a $26 billion backlog of congestion-related needs.

Transportation and mobility in Tennessee, are important. We live in a state with so much going and it’s a direct result of our sound economic policies, high quality of life, and ranking as one of the lowest taxed states in the country. While this yields economic opportunity, it also presents challenges in our ability to move people, goods, and services more seamlessly across our state. Our position as a critical artery of commerce necessitates our focus to ensure freight, visitors and citizens get where they need to be on time. The Transportation Modernization Act addresses these needs while maintaining Tennessee’s fiscally responsible management of state funds. This major legislation issues no new taxes, no road debt and ensures that funds are proportionally allocated to urban and rural areas of the state. Tennessee is a pay-as-you-go state, meaning we don’t borrow money to build our roads across the state.

Choice Lanes

The legislation would allow the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) to form partnerships with private entities to create choice lanes to address congestion. Choice Lanes allow drivers to decide whether to use the existing free lanes or pay an additional user fee to enter the new lanes for a guaranteed minimum speed. No fee would be charged to use the general purpose lanes and the number of general purpose lanes would not be reduced. Choice lanes provide additional capacity in heavily congested corridors, benefiting those who use the choice lanes as well as those who decide to remain in the general purpose lanes. In the free, general purpose lanes, data has shown in other states their traffic is reduced by about 30%.

Alternative Delivery Model

The legislation expands TDOT’s ability to use alternative delivery contracting, which has been proven to save time and money when used for the right projects. The move would put TDOT in a strong position to optimize the delivery of increasingly complex infrastructure solutions. TDOT’s alternative delivery program has saved $22 million in costs and resulted in 70% faster delivery compared to the traditional delivery model.

Electric Vehicle Parity

Additionally, the legislation addresses the eroding effect that the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid vehicles will have on the state’s gas tax collection as their adoption increases. It establishes parity between what the drivers of combustible engine vehicles and their EV and hybrid counterparts pay in gas taxes by increasing the registration fee for EVs to $200 for the first three years following passage and $274 by 2026. For hybrid vehicles, a $100 fee would be set immediately following passage.

Transportation

Modernization Fund

This bill establishes the Transportation Modernization Fund and invests $3.3 billion to fund critical infrastructure projects in rural and urban areas of TN. Each of TDOT’s four regions would receive $750,000,000, while the State Aid Program, which provides funds to counties for local transportation projects, would receive $300 million. At the current rate of investment of $29 million per year, it would take 15 years to allocate $300 million to the State Aid Program. It is estimated that our congestion costs Tennessee road users $800 million in lost productivity each year.

Contact Senator Hensley at

425 5th Avenue North, Suite 746

Nashville TN 37243

615-741-3100

Toll Free 1-800-449-8366

ext. 13100

Fax 615-253-0231

855 Summertown Highway

Hohenwald TN 38462

Phone 931-796-2018

Cell Phone 931-212-8823

E-mail:

[email protected]