Dan Genz, The Examiner
2008-03-06 08:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., called on state lawmakers Wednesday to freeze rates on the Dulles Greenway toll road to prevent a state-approved plan to raise prices 60 percent through 2012.

Halting the toll increases on the 14-mile private highway should be combined with the debate over how to replace $300 million in taxes the state Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional Friday, Wolf told The Examiner.

“It’s beginning to drive people off the road into the neighborhoods,” he said. “We’re just trying to educate people so nobody can brush this under the table.”

Commuters who currently face $3 tolls on trips between Leesburg and Washington Dulles International Airport will see the maximum one-way toll jump to $4.80 in stages scheduled to begin Jan. 1.

About 60,000 vehicles use the Greenway each day.

Dulles Greenway representatives countered that the toll rate is required to meet the cost of building and operating the road.

Wolf wrote all 140 state lawmakers this week in a bid to kill the rate increase with an emergency measure. The State Corporation Commission approved the rate increase in September, ruling that Virginia law required the increase to deliver the road’s owners a profit.

“The current approved toll increases are required in order for Toll Road Investors Partnership to meet its debt obligations, as well as the rising costs of operations,” spokeswoman Ann Huggins-Lawler said.

Wolf asked lawmakers to rewrite the laws for private roads to give the State Corporation Commission more grounds to reject toll increases. He wants the freeze until larger changes can be enacted.

“It is unbelievable that the state’s regulatory authority does not have the ability to deny toll increases,” Wolf said. “This is a quality-of-life issue affecting thousands of my constituents.”

It is not clear how much traction Wolf’s plan will gain as lawmakers struggle with other transportation priorities and the state’s $1.4 billion deficit in the waning days of the annual General Assembly session.

dgenz@dcexaminer.com