Our view: Waiting takes a toll

It’s been called by different names, such as the I-10 connector and the Dothan bypass, but the reality of a road project pursued by local visionaries and promised by politicians suggests the initiative be more appropriately called “smoke.” Perhaps no more.

A new plan is shaping up and, if all goes as planned, the long-awaited roadway could come to fruition in the foreseeable future. Officials in Dale, Geneva and Houston counties are moving to approve a joint venture with a private organization to construct the highway, which will be operated as a toll road.

Similar groundwork is being undertaken by local government bodies south of the Alabama- Florida line. Following this tack is perhaps the most efficient strategy to develop a highway, particularly considering the dearth of federal and state highway funding. A private-public partnership would allow the developers to collect tolls until the project is paid for, estimated to be as long as 20 years.

Then the developers could either keep the road and continue to collect tolls and maintain the roadway, sell the project to another private company, or turn the roadway over to the local governments. From one perspective, the idea of paying to use a roadway doesn’t quite sit well. After all, taxpayers expect the money they sacrifice for the operation of government to be used for infrastructure such as highways.

The failure, in this case, is the government’s. For years, area residents have heard endless chatter about a road that would connect the Wiregrass area to Interstate 10 in the Florida panhandle. If we continue to wait on state and federal highway funding, we’ll likely still be waiting when the cost of fuel has made highways less necessary. We applaud the toll road concept, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit that inspired the project.