The banner story in today’s Oregonian is “Detour looms on how we pay for roads“. Writer James Mayer catalogs the decline in gas tax buying power and an accompanying chart shows three potential toll roads: Newberg-Dundee bypass, a new lane on I-205 from Tualatin to Oregon City and the Sunrise Corridor in Clackamas County.

More detailed stories on page A8 (apparently not online) discuss Macquarie Infrastructure Group, the Australian company in discussion with ODOT about these projects. They’re the company that acquired a 99-year lease on the Chicago Skyway to operate it as a toll road.

Tolls ranging from $0.50 to $3.50 for various alternatives on these projects are discussed. One issue raised is whether you need to toll parallel routes to make the program effective. For example, would you need to toll Highway 99 to make the Newberg-Dundee bypass work?

Portland Transport contributors Robert Liberty and Rob Zako are quoted in the pieces.