23 U.S.C. § 129 — Toll roads, bridges, tunnels, and ferries

(a) Basic program. (1) The federal government will help pay for toll projects the same way it pays for free highways. This covers: (A) building a brand new toll highway, bridge, or tunnel; (B) adding new lanes to a non-Interstate highway, bridge, or tunnel and turning it into a toll road, as long as the number of toll-free lanes doesn't go down; (C) adding new lanes to an Interstate highway and tolling it, as long as the number of toll-free non-HOV lanes doesn't go down; (D) rebuilding, resurfacing, or replacing an existing toll highway, bridge, or tunnel; (E) rebuilding a free bridge or tunnel and turning it into a toll facility; (F) rebuilding a free non-Interstate federal-aid highway and turning it into a toll facility; (G) rebuilding or restoring an Interstate highway, as long as the number of toll-free non-HOV lanes doesn't go down; (H) turning a carpool (HOV) lane into a toll lane; and (I) studying whether a toll facility is feasible. (2) Ownership. A toll facility built this way must be publicly owned. It can be privately owned only if the public authority in charge has a contract with private companies to design, finance, build, and run it, and the public authority still has to follow all the rules in this title. (3) Limits on toll revenue. (A) The public authority must use toll money only for: paying off project debt (including reserves and refinancing); giving a private investor a reasonable return; costs to properly improve, operate, and maintain the toll facility; payments owed to a private partner under a public-private partnership deal; and, if the authority certifies every year that it is properly maintaining the facility, any other purpose federal highway funds can be used for. (B) The public authority must have an independent auditor check the toll records every year to confirm proper maintenance and compliance, report the results to the Secretary, and let the Secretary audit its records on reasonable notice. (C) If the Secretary decides the authority broke these rules, the Secretary can make it stop collecting tolls until they agree on a fix. (4) Special funding rule. (A) If a toll facility is run by a public authority that isn't the state transportation department, that department can ask the Secretary to reimburse the authority for the federal share of construction costs, the same way the department itself would be reimbursed. (B) That money comes out of the state's regular federal-aid highway funds. (5) Federal share limit. The state decides the federal government's percentage share of project cost, but it cannot exceed 80 percent. (6) Modifications. If a public authority with an existing toll agreement (from before the 1991 transportation law took effect) asks to change it, the Secretary must let it keep charging tolls under the rule in paragraph (3), without having to repay federal money. (7) Loans. (A) A state can loan a public or private entity all or part of the federal share of building a toll facility or a non-toll facility that has its own dedicated revenue source, like an excise tax, sales tax, vehicle fee, property tax, or tax increment financing. (B) The borrower must agree to follow this title and other federal laws, including environmental laws. (C) The loan can be made junior to other debt on the project. (D) Loan repayments can only be spent on projects under this same loan program. (E) Repayment must start within 5 years after the facility opens to traffic. (F) A loan can last no more than 30 years. (G) Interest must be at or below market rates, set by the state, to make the project work. (H) Money states get back from repaid loans can be spent again on the same purposes, or used to buy insurance or build a reserve to improve credit access or lower interest rates. (I) The Secretary must write procedures and guidelines for these loans. (8) State law required. A state that doesn't already have a toll highway, bridge, or tunnel must pass a law allowing tolling before it can use this section. (9) Equal access for over-the-road buses. (A) Buses serving the public must get the same rates, terms, and conditions at a toll facility as public transit vehicles do. (B) A public authority running a toll facility must report to the Secretary, within 90 days, any way its rates or terms for transit vehicles differ from those for over-the-road buses, and must report any later changes within 30 days; the Secretary must post this information online. (C) The public authority must audit its records every year (or have an independent auditor do it) to check compliance, report results to the Secretary along with the audit from paragraph (3)(B), and let the Secretary inspect records on notice. If the Secretary finds noncompliance, it can require the authority to stop collecting tolls until it fixes the problem. (10) HOV use of certain toll facilities. For an Interstate toll facility built or converted after the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021 took effect, the public authority must let carpools, transit, and paratransit vehicles use it at a discount or for free — unless, after checking with the Secretary, it decides those vehicles are hurting the facility's travel-time reliability. (11) Definitions. (A) "High occupancy vehicle" or "HOV" means a vehicle with at least 2 people in it. (B) "Initial construction" means building a highway, bridge, tunnel, or facility before it opens to traffic; it does not include improvements made after it opens. (C) "Over-the-road bus" has the meaning given in the Americans with Disabilities Act. (D) "Public authority" means a state, a group of states acting together, or a public entity a state designates. (E) "Toll facility" means a toll highway, bridge, or tunnel (or its approach) built under this subsection. (b) Ferry approaches. Even though section 301 normally limits this, the Secretary can help pay for building the road approach to a ferry (toll or free) if that road is public and isn't on the Interstate System. The ferry can be publicly or privately run, but a state agency or official must control the operating authority and the fares. All revenue from a publicly owned or run ferry must go toward paying construction or purchase costs (including debt) and the actual costs of running, maintaining, repairing, and replacing it. (c) Ferry boats and terminals. Even though section 301 normally limits this, the Secretary can help pay for ferry boats, ferry terminals (including maintenance facilities), and transit vehicles used only as part of an intermodal ferry trip, if: (1) it isn't feasible to build a bridge or tunnel instead; (2) the ferry runs on a public road route not on the Interstate System, or on a public transit ferry route eligible under transit law — the boats can carry cars and passengers, or passengers only; (3) the ferry or terminal must be publicly owned or run, or majority-publicly owned if the Secretary finds it provides real public benefits, and federal money can never be used to help buy or build one for private ownership; (4) a state or public entity must control the operating authority and fares, and all revenue must go to operating, maintaining, repairing, and paying debt on the ferry, negotiated management fees, and — for a privately run toll ferry — a reasonable return; (5) the ferry can only run within a state (including Hawaii's islands or a U.S. territory's islands), between neighboring states, or between a state and Canada — except for specific listed routes (Hawaii, territories, Canada, and Alaska-Washington), no part of the route can pass through foreign or international waters; (6) the ferry service must be kept up under section 116; and (7) a ferry boat or terminal built with federal money can't be sold, leased, or disposed of except under federal surplus-property rules, and the federal share of any sale proceeds must go to other eligible purposes under this title. (d) Congestion Relief Program. (1) Definitions: an "eligible entity" is a state, or a metropolitan planning organization, city, or municipality, carrying out a project in an urban area of more than 1,000,000 people; an "integrated congestion management system" is a regional system combining things like traffic incident management, work zone management, signal timing, managed lanes, real-time traveler information, and active traffic management to get the most out of existing roads and transit; "program" means the congestion relief program created here. (2) The Secretary must create this program to give competitive grants to eligible entities for new, combined, multimodal ways to fight congestion in the most jammed metro areas. (3) The program's goals are to cut highway congestion and its economic and environmental costs (including emissions), and get more use out of existing highways and transit by: (A) better connecting highways with other modes and improving how highways run; (B) shifting highway users to off-peak times or to non-highway travel during peak times; and (C) pricing parking, road use (including in specific zones), or congestion itself. (4) Grant money can fund planning, design, and construction for things like: (A) running an integrated congestion management system; (B) running a system that charges HOV toll lanes, cordon pricing, parking pricing, or congestion pricing; (C) running mobility services like account-based payment systems, commuter buses or vans, express service, paratransit, and on-demand microtransit; and (D) incentive programs that encourage carpooling or off-peak/non-highway travel. (5) To apply, an eligible entity must submit an application the way the Secretary requires; the Secretary must prioritize projects in areas with high recurring congestion; the federal share can't exceed 80 percent of project cost; and a grant must be at least $10,000,000. (6) Use of tolling: (A) despite the usual limits in subsection (a)(1) and section 301, the Secretary must allow tolls on the Interstate System as part of a program-funded project, subject to (B) and (C); (B) the Secretary can only approve tolls if the entity has state (and local, if needed) legal authority to charge them, the highest toll for any vehicle class is no more than 5 times the toll for any other class, tolls don't vary by state residency, the Secretary decides tolling will meet the program's goals without seriously hurting safety or mobility in the area, and the toll revenue is used the way subsection (a)(3) requires; (C) the Secretary cannot approve Interstate tolling under this program in more than 10 urban areas. (7) A program project (A) must, if appropriate, study its possible effects on low-income drivers, and (B) may include ways to soften any bad financial effects on them.