The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Oct. 31 that the state can proceed with plans to begin tolling in February on two existing tunnels between Norfolk and Portsmouth in order to pay for construction of a third.
Currently, the two tunnels under the Elizabeth River that lead to the Port of Virginia are free.
The court decision reverses a May ruling in a lower court in favor of toll-opponent Danny Meeks and other residents in the area. The judge in that case, Portsmouth Circuit Judge James Cales Jr., said the General Assembly “exceeded its power by ceding the setting of toll rates and taxes” to the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Virginia’s 1995 public-private partnership law, which allows the DOT to partner with private investors who are building toll-financed projects, was at the center of the case. Elizabeth River Crossing is the private investment group in the case.
The state Supreme Court said that in approving the public-private partnerships, lawmakers “properly delegated to VDOT the legislative power to impose and set the rates of user fees, and this legislative power was not impermissibly delegated to ERC under the Act.”
Under the law, the DOT does not have to go back to the legislators to seek approval each time the state wants to enter into a public-private partnership, the court said.
