Transportation

Tolls fund bridge maintenance, upgrades for drivers, transit riders

Bay Bridge
Credit
Mark Jones

The Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) is responsible for keeping the Bay Area’s seven state-owned toll bridges structurally sound and in a state of good repair. Bridge toll dollars from the more than 342,000 paid trips each day fund bridge maintenance and the Bay Area’s overall transportation system.

As of Jan. 1, 2025, regular tolls are now $8 on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the Antioch Bridge, the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, the Carquinez Bridge, the Dumbarton Bridge, the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. A $1 increase went into effect in January, the third dollar of a $3 increase approved by voters in 2018 as part of Regional Measure 3

Bridge tolls have increased incrementally over time, the result of voter-approved Regional Measure 1, Regional Measure 2 and Regional Measure 3, as well as investment in the seismic safety of the bridges. In fiscal 2024-25, tolls will contribute almost $900 million for bridge, highway and transportation projects all around the Bay Area.

Through regional measures, voters authorized toll increases to allow toll dollars to fund specific non-bridge projects and programs. Bridge tolls are managed as a single system that collectively sustains:

  • Toll bridge operations and maintenance: includes toll facilities, tolling equipment and software, FasTrak operations and customer service.
  • Administration and debt service: includes repayment of bonds for Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program and projects approved by voters through Regional Measures; transit operations support; staff salaries and benefits; financing and banking fees; business insurance and BART Inspector General.
  • Toll Bridge Rehabilitation Program: includes decks, towers and superstructures; electrical and mechanical systems; concrete elements; and protective fenders.
  • Reserves: includes funds for two years of operations and maintenance; two years of bridge rehabilitation; emergency reserves; interest rate risk reserves; and self-insurance reserves.
  • Regional Measure 2 investments
  • Regional Measure 3 investments

Seismic retrofit work on the Bay Area’s seven state-owned bridges, under the supervision of the Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program (established in 1996) was completed in 2013.

Regional Measure 1 projects included a new westbound Carquinez Bridge; a new northbound Benicia-Martinez Bridge; improvements on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and southbound Benicia-Martinez Bridge; as well as upgrades to the Richmond Parkway, State Route 84-Bayfront Expressway and Interstate 880/State Route 92 interchange.

Regional Measure 2 projects included upgrades for drivers (the Caldecott Tunnel Fourth Bore and improvements to the Interstate 80/Interstate 680 interchange and State Route 4) as well as investments and improvements to the transit network (the Salesforce Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, BART Transbay Tube seismic retrofit, BART-Oakland Airport connector, the e-BART extension to Pittsburg and Antioch, BART Fremont-to-Warm Springs extension, and investments in the San Francisco Muni Central Subway).

Regional Measure 2 also provides ongoing operating funds for certain Muni, AC Transit, BART, San Francisco Bay Ferry, Golden Gate Transit and Napa VINE projects.

Regional Measure 3 projects benefit both drivers and transit users. These include interchange improvements in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties; an expanded Express Lane network; a direct freeway connector from northbound U.S. 101 in Marin County to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge; upgrades to relieve congestion in the Dumbarton Bridge corridor; and improvements to state Route 37.

Transit riders today benefit from tolls that paid for new BART cars, an expanded Muni fleet, expanded ferry service and express bus service; and can look forward to the extension of BART’s Silicon Valley service to Santa Clara, Caltrain to downtown San Francisco, and SMART rail to Windsor and Healdsburg.
 

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