One idea is finally getting some attention, but not the kind state leaders had hoped for.

ODOT had hailed its plan to allow developers to turn 59 rest areas along state and U.S. routes into full-scale service plaza as a way to save money. In May, ODOT chief of staff Greg Murphy talked about that idea as part of a larger proposal to raise money through sponsorship and naming rights for interstate rest areas, bridges and other facilities and infrastructure.

“We expect to generate millions of dollars in this area.”

It was also hoped the money could go toward pushing forward construction projects delayed by the huge hole in ODOT’s budget. But ODOT director Jerry Wray noted last month when five rest areas in southeast Ohio were offered up to developers, it didn’t go over well.

“Well, the first thing we did was put out a request for qualifications and we had a considerable amount of interest. But then when we actually opened the request – or we tried to open the request – we didn’t get any.”

And that’s just fine with those who are opposed to the plan.

“That’s what we’re hoping – that it will disappear.”

Ron Milburn is the vice president of the Associated Food and Petroleum Dealers in Ohio. He speaks for owners of independent gas stations and convenience stores, many of which are along the state routes near the rest areas.

“No consideration is being given whatsoever the harm that will bring to them financially by putting the rest areas, upgrading the rest area facilities,” Milburn says.

Milburn says if the non-interstate rest areas are eventually turned into service plazas by developers, he wants ODOT to set up a fund to help the owners of nearby retail establishments that would lose business to them.

Bob Valentine is a member of the city council in Ashland, and he worries a big developer could take business away from local business owners. And he says drivers would pay for the convenience of stopping at a service plaza instead of a rest area.

“When you stop at a rest area, the rest area is clean, it’s secure, you’re comfortable going in there, you don’t have to buy anything. But you start privatizing, you know you feel like you should buy something because you’re going to go in and use their restroom.”

Valentine is also an ODOT bridge inspector, and a member of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association. And Valentine says he’s concerned that the state would never get back control over rest areas if it allows developers to privatize them, and he says the deals would bring in only one-time money.

But ODOT has said it could save up to $50 million a year on the costs of maintaining the rest areas if they are turned over to developers. And an organization that lobbies for drivers likes the plan. Kimberly Schwind speaks for AAA Ohio.

“We feel that funding is scarce for our roadways around Ohio, and anything that we can do to really expand the services of highway users without increasing taxes really only makes our roads safer and easier to use for all motorists,” says AAA spokeswoman Kimberly Schwind.

ODOT director Jerry Wray says the agency is going back to the marketplace to find out what went wrong with the proposal and will likely tinker with it – for instance, allowing companies to take just one or two rest areas instead of requiring them to take all of the ones up for development.

Since then, ODOT has been trimming staff, changing policies, asking for cost-savings on projects and trying to find new revenue from privatization of rest areas and naming rights for bridges to plug that huge hole.

ODOT’s assistant director Greg Murphy says so far, the changes have added up to $200 million dollars that will be put into ODOT’s construction program next year, and $90 million in each of the next four years.

“That enables us to move Tier 1 projects from construction from anywhere from one year earlier to seven years earlier.

“But as you will see as you look at the list, we still have a problem. We still have a huge gap. Some projects are still delayed out into 2031,” Murphy said.

Tier 1 projects are the big highway demolitions and rebuilds, relocations and widenings, and new interchanges and bypasses. Many of these – such as the innerbelt bridge project in Cleveland, the upgrade of I-75 in Dayton and Cincinnati, and the work on I-70 and I-71 and on I-270 around Route 315 and Route 23 in Columbus – are huge multi-year projects.

In the January draft list, some projects were pushed out till 2036.

ODOT director Jerry Wray says moving them forward by up to seven years is good news, but he knows it’s not enough for some.

“I think it’s an improvement. We’re making progress in trying to close the gap. But expectations are higher than what we were able to announce today.”

Communities have been protesting the delays, saying they’re counting on these big projects to spur economic development, to improve safety and to relieve traffic congestion. And Wray says while the wait on some of these projects is shortened, he knows it may not be short enough for some.

But he says the goal is to be honest about the financial pothole ODOT is peering into.

“What we stated in January was factual, and it was a snapshot of how things were at that point. And what we’ve done today is factual and how things are at this point.

“It’s better than it was in January but not as good as we’d like it to be.”

With so many high-profile projects still delayed, it may come as a surprise that ODOT will start accepting applications for new projects next month.

But ODOT’s Jennifer Townley says the members of the panel that approves projects is going to hold project backers to high standards and to prove that their projects “demonstrate significant impacts to jobs in Ohio as well as a statewide economic impact.”

And director Wray says he’s going to want to see some money attached as well.

“That’s what we’re looking for. So come to us with great projects but also with ideas of how we can leverage private money, local money, whatever loans or whatever so we can get things done.”

A total of 35 projects – some of which are phases of larger projects – were approved for funding. ODOT says it’s still working on forging public-private partnerships to build bypasses around Portsmouth and Chesapeake in southern Ohio.

And the project list could be affected by leasing, selling or whatever the state plans to do with the Ohio Turnpike and whether other toll roads could be created.

You can find a complete list of updated projects from the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Web site.

At a press conference in Columbus, with a fuel efficient Toyota Prius as a backdrop, Dan Van Voorhis of the group Environment Ohio said that President Obama’s proposed 54.5 miles-per-gallon standard is obtainable.

“We have the Prius here that gets an average of 45 miles a gallon,” Van Voorhis said. “The standards are right there and the technology is already there.”

The group says cutting oil consumption has a host of benefits including the reduction of global warming pollution.

But there is a downside at least for the time-being. The financially troubled Ohio Department of Transportation – ODOT – has seen a reduction in revenue as vehicles become more efficient. Gene Krebs is a senior director at the Greater Ohio Policy Center.

“Ohio’s Department of Transportation is funded almost entirely at the state level through a gasoline tax which is dependent upon the volume of gasoline used, not the price of it,” Krebs says. “What that means is that as your consumption goes down, the amount of dollars received by ODOT goes down.”

Department of Transportation director Jerry Wray gave a sobering assessment of his agency’s financial difficulties on Tuesday. Wray had said earlier this year that ODOT faces more than $1.5 billion budget shortfall.

Greater Ohio’s Gene Krebs says the easy solutions have been implemented. Now it’s time for tougher measures.

“All the solutions that are left are very difficult; and frankly very ugly,” Krebs says. But at least now, because Director Wray has admitted they have a problem, we can start having that discussion.”

Billions of dollars in construction projects have been delayed or postponed because of ODOT’s budget difficulties.

They outlined those steps in a first-of-its-kind presentation on Tuesday.

It’s not news that the Ohio Department of Transportation is in financial trouble. But when ODOT director Jerry Wray goes over the numbers, they can be surprising.

“There is a $1.6 billion funding shortfall for construction projects – those are projects that have been vetted through the process, ready to go to construction, and we don’t have enough money to build them. Plus, there’s another $10 billion worth of projects, future projects that are in the development process for which there is no money,” Wray says.

And Wray says that means some of these projects will be delayed years or decades if the situation doesn’t change. Wray continues to blame an economic decline combined with more fuel efficient vehicles that use less gas, along with inflation and a stalemate over long-term national transportation funding plan for ODOT’s fiscal crisis.

But he says several steps have been taken to try to close the gap and push up those now-delayed construction projects.

ODOT chief of staff Greg Murphy says the agency is evaluating operations at all levels – for instance, stopping the policy of carrying over money from one budget year to another.

The agency has also trimmed its payroll by 400 employees through attrition, saving $34 million a year. And it’s wringing out more savings by evaluating whether aging heavy construction equipment needs to be replaced, finding efficiencies in existing projects, and reducing ODOT’s vehicle fleet by 40 percent.

And Murphy also talked up other plans to raise money – such as creating sponsored service plazas or naming rights for bridges, interchanges and the state’s 104 rest areas.

“Interstate rest areas could be sponsored by Pepsi, or Coca-Cola, or whatnot,” Murphy said.

“We could receive not only the revenue – receive revenue, but not only we could receive the money to offset the cleaning and maintenance of those programs. We expect to generate millions of dollars in this area.”

But there was no mention of an increase in any taxes related to transportation in the state of ODOT speech. Director Wray has repeatedly said that raising taxes isn’t an option.

But it is something some of the lawmakers in the audience for the speech would consider. Sen. Eric Kearney is a Democrat from Cincinnati, which has big projects on the potentially delayed list.

“Well, I think it deserves further study. I’m not opposed to it on its face. We’ve got to look at all those things because we’re in a crucial period.

“We’ve got to balance what these projects that are going forward – the economic benefit, the creation of jobs, the expansion of our community and our state, with some of the economic realities, one being gas prices are far too high or higher than we want them to be, and the economic reality that people don’t have a lot of disposable income in their wallets.”

And agreeing with him is Rep. Rex Damschroder, a Republican from Fremont.

“I want good highways to drive my car on. So yeah – I’m probably a Republican who would actually raise the gas tax if that was necessary to have a better highway, because I want a better highway.

Reporter: But the director has said there is no real appetite for any sort of tax increase.

Damschroder: “Oh, I think he’s absolutely correct. There’s no appetite for real tax increase, but still – this is more a user fee. You don’t have to drive a car. You can do whatever you want. You don’t have to use this. But if you want good roads to drive on in the state of Ohio, somebody has to pay for it.”

But that’s not going to happen, says Wray.

“No. Not at all,” Wray says abruptly when asked about the possibility. “It’s not something we’re considering. We’re looking at taking care of business at home and making sure that we’re providing as many and as positive results as we can with the resources we have.”

The panel that makes the decisions on ODOT’s construction projects and when they will be built meets for a final vote next week.

ODOT Director Jerry Wray announced the Division of Innovative Delivery yesterday. Last week Wray said ODOT was exploring the idea of highway sponsorships, which are now allowed on federally-operated roads.

The agency is considering other cost reductions, including privatizing rest stops and the Ohio Turnpike.

The list was released last month and approved by the state panel that oversees funding for high-cost transportation projects. The recommendations led to some backlash from local officials unhappy about potentially delayed projects, such as a portion of work on Interstate 90 in Cleveland.

Department of Transportation Director Jerry Wray now says public safety and other criteria will be added to the factors considered in deciding the rollout order for projects, and that means the Cleveland bridge or others might move higher on the list.

Wray warned that bumping up some projects could push back others.

Now, the discussion moves to how to fix the problem. More specifically: where to find more money.

“People don’t like orange barrels, but they get mad when they don’t get them,” says ODOT director Jerry Wray about the sense he’s getting in the wake of his announcement that the departmetn is running on empty financially, and will have to delay some major construction projects, including pushing back some of the biggest ones for as long as two decades.

The crisis comes from falling gas tax revenue, rising construction costs, and the numbers of so-called mega projects costing over $100 million. Wray says no current projects have been cancelled, even though the department is overcommitted by billions of dollars to projects already in process.

“That is not a priority list, that’s not a list where we’re picking one project over another. It’s a funding list. And by that I mean – we look at the development of the project and the controlling factor is when would we have enough money based on our current revenue to sell it and pay for it.”

This news wasn’t any surprise to a think tank that studies transportation issues in Ohio.

“We’ve been talking about this since October of 2005,” says Gene Krebs, a former state representative who now heads Greater Ohio. He estimates a nearly $4 billion deficit for ODOT by 2017.

The department is funded by state and federal gas taxes. By his math, factoring in standards for more efficient cars and inflation, ODOT will lose seven percent of its purchasing power every year.

So, Krebs says, ifthe solution were to hike the gas tax, it would have to go up two cents every year.

“By the way that’s two pennies a year forever. If you want to go ahead and start fixing all of our crumbling bridges and the backlog, that’s nine pennies a year for the very long foreseeable future. So we’re not going to be able to tax our way out of this.”

Wray admits there isn’t much of an appetite to raise the gas tax — U.S. Senator George Voinovich talked about that his way out of office in 2010, and was criticized for it.

Wray says that means other solutions – including privatization.

“We’re interested in privatizing some of our rest areas – that way we can turn something that is currently costing us money perhaps into revenue. Obviously we’re considering what we might be able to do to leverage the turnpike.”

And Wray says ODOT will be “aggressive in investigating public-private partnerships.”

Krebs says he’s confident the state won’t rush into a turnpike deal just to deal with the current financial crisis, but he’s pleased to hear the discussion on what to do start now. Otherwise, he says, the future is bleak.

“It’s only going to get worse. As bad as you think this is now – and we’ve been saying this also since 2005 – as people trade in Hummers for Hondas, it’s going to simply accelerate.”

And Krebs notes advances touted by the auto industry and embraced by drivers – such as all-electric vehicles and those which run on compressed natural gas – also chip away at the financial solvency of the agency that fixes and builds the roads those cars run on.