While conserving fuel may be good for the environment, burning less gasoline also means the state gets less revenue from the gas tax — and must look for new ways to fund road and bridge construction.

Among the options is replacing the per-gallon tax with what amounts to a user fee. Motorists would be charged “for the miles you use, how many miles you put on the road,” says Kevin Thibault, assistant secretary for engineering and operations for the Florida Department of Transportation.

Later this year, possibly in Orlando or Miami, FDOT may test the approach; it’s deciding whether to develop its own version of a pilot program pioneered by transportation officials in Oregon. There, an off-the-shelf device was installed in some motorists’ vehicles to track the number of miles they drove. At a gas station, a special pump reads the device. “You traveled 200 miles at so many cents a mile,” Thibault says. “Boom, here’s your tax.”

Though Thibault says the Oregon pilot “worked very well,” it could be problematic to accurately track a large number of drivers and collect the fee. One possibility: An odometer radio tag that would count total miles traveled between refueling, then wirelessly download the mileage information at gas stations, where the user fee would be automatically calculated and added to the fuel bill.

Regardless of the pilot program’s fate, the funding issue will persist, says Thibault. “The way we collect revenue through the motor vehicle fuel tax is just not the way it’s going to need to work in the future. We’re still going to have transportation needs, so there’s going to be another method to determine how we fund transportation.”

Motor Fuel Consumption
Year	% Growth
1996-97	1.64%
1997-98	2.60
1998-99	3.82
1999-2000	2.73
2000-01	1.90
2001-02	2.52
2002-03	2.67
2003-04	3.96
2004-05	3.47
2005-06	0.40
2006-07	0.06
Source: Florida Department of Transportation

Top East Coast Ports (Based on the number of 20-foot containers that pass through the port)
Port	Containers
New York/New Jersey	5,092,806
Savannah, Ga.	2,160,113
Hampton Roads, Va.	2,046,285
Charleston, S.C.	1,968,474
Miami	976,514
Port Everglades	864,030
Jacksonville	768,239
Baltimore	627,947
Wilmington, Del.	262,856
Philadelphia	247,211
Source: American Association of Port Authorities

Watching and Waiting

When U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers failed to protect the environment by approving limestone mining in the Lake Belt, three of Florida’s major rock companies had to shut down their Lake Belt operations, raising concerns about finding enough aggregate supplies for road projects. Expected shortages and price increases have yet to materialize, but transportation officials continue to monitor the situation.

ROAD IMPROVEMENTS: Sally Patrenos says the state’s environmental program is a national model. [Photo: Ray Stanyard]

Going Green

A tough regulatory environment is forcing transportation officials to consider green aspects of their projects. According to Sally Patrenos, executive director of the Florida Transportation Commission, the state’s Efficient Transportation Decision Making program is viewed as the model at the national level for protecting air quality, water and wildlife. When building a road, for example, the FDOT has to obtain permits from several agencies to lessen the environmental impact. If it removes trees, it has to plant more elsewhere. If a project impacts wetlands, the department has to compensate by creating additional wetlands.

The Trends

? More public/private partnerships, as traditional funding sources for facilities construction become less certain

? Increased use of mass transit and more transit-oriented developments, any kind of commercial or residential development related to a transit stop, including trains, rail and buses

? Possible increase in price of construction materials because of a building boom in China and the widening of the Panama Canal

? New infrastructure projects related to international trade, like the new Mitsui O.S.K. Lines terminal at Dames Point in Jacksonville, which is scheduled to open in December.