Senate Bill No. 663
(By Senators Bowman and Yost)
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[Introduced March 23, 2009; referred to the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §17-17-14, relating
to authorizing the Commissioner of Highways to operate the
Market Street Bridge in Brooke County that spans the Ohio
River as a toll bridge.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §17-17-14, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 17. TOLL BRIDGES.
§17-17-14. Market Street Bridge toll fees authorized;
expenditures; annual report.
The Commissioner of Highways of West Virginia is hereby
authorized to construct and operate a toll collection facility located at the interchange of West Virginia State Route 2 and the
Market Street Bridge in Brooke County that spans the Ohio River and
connects State Route 2 to Steubenville, Ohio, subject to the
following:
(1) The toll fee charged and collected by the Commissioner of
Highways at its toll facility located at or near the interchange of
West Virginia State Route 2 and the Market Street Bridge shall be
$0.50 per vehicle. The toll will begin as of September 1, 2009;
(2) The tolls collected by the Commissioner of Highways will
be used to pay for the costs of the design and construction of the
toll facility located at the interchange of West Virginia State
Route 2 and the Market Street Bridge. After those costs have been
paid, the tolls collected shall be used in the following manner:
(1) Fifty percent of the tolls collected shall be used for the
maintenance and upkeep of the Market Street Bridge and the toll
facility; and (2) fifty percent of the tolls collected shall be
distributed to the Business Development Corporation of Brooke and
Hancock counties.
(3) In addition to any other annual report required by this
article, the Commissioner of Highways will prepare and deliver to
the Governor, the Speaker of the House of Delegates and the
President of the Senate a separate annual report of toll revenues
collected from the Market Street Bridge toll facility. The report
shall include, but not be limited to, disclosing separately the expenditure of said toll revenues generated from the Market Street
Bridge toll facility, including a description of the purposes for
which such toll revenues are expended.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the
Commissioner of Highways to construct and operate a toll facility
at or near the intersection of West Virginia Sate Route 2 and the
Market Street Bridge. The bill also sets a toll of $0.50 for each
vehicle crossing the bridge and provides that, after the costs of
toll facility have been paid, fifty percent of toll revenues will
be provided for the maintenance of the bridge and fifty percent to
the Business Development Corporation of Brooke and Hancock
counties.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.