Tolling Pre-Submittal Assessment (PSA)
PSA is a performance-based, local sponsor driven process to evaluate and assess future toll candidates under North Carolina’s new toll policy.

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  • Tolling Pre-Submittal Assessment (PSA)

    In 2017, the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) urged the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to better define its process for examining future candidate highway and bridge improvements for potential toll financing.  In response, NCDOT and a group of external stakeholders developed a policy to define and govern a process of eligibility requirements, local partner coordination, and standardized toll candidate project assessment.  As a result, the NC Toll Project Development Policy or NC Toll Policy was adopted by the NC Board of Transportation in February 2018. 

    The NC Toll Policy directs NCDOT to establish a transparent, data driven process to evaluate and assess the performance and financial feasibility of eligible toll candidates early in the long-range planning process.  NCDOT worked closely with a workgroup of stakeholders to implement the NC Toll Policy through the creation of a Toll Project Development Policy Handbook (or Handbook).  The Handbook outlines a six step Pre-Submittal Assessment (PSA) process conducted in close coordination with NCDOT, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), and Rural Planning Organizations (RPOs).  MPOs and RPOs act as Project Sponsors who formally submit toll candidates (through the PSA Process Form)  to evaluate and determine if the toll candidate should advance for further study and submission to NCDOT's Strategic Prioritization Process.  Candidates are assessed through project level data, demand modeling and a new Financial Feasibility Screening Tool (FFST) which gauges the capability of toll candidates to cover maintenance and operating costs.

    The development of the Handbook and PSA process will be updated biennially to adapt to industry changes and toll planning best practice.  Their impact is expected to expand the consideration and basis of toll financing as an integral and important strategy to deliver critical, time-sensitive transportation solutions.  ​



  • Financial Feasibility Screening Tool (FFST)

    ​The Financial Feasibility Screening Tool (FFST) is a Microsoft Excel-based spreadsheet. The purpose of FFST is to generate order of magnitude forecasts of toll revenues’ ability to cover operating and maintenance costs as well gauge the ability to contribute upfront funding towards construction costs. The FFST provides the flexibility to assess new facilities or the conversion or upgrade of existing infrastructure to tolled facilities. The tool allows users to assess four types of transportation improvements:

    1. New alignment highways with full-access control;
    2. Improvement of existing full-access control highways by the addition of priced-managed lanes;
    3. Conversion of other highways to tolled, full-access control highways; and
    4. High-volume bridges over bodies of water

    The tool was developed using Excel 365 and may not be compatible with older versions.​

PSA Documents

  • Rules of Engagement

    This website provides access to PSA guidance materials, a submission form, and the FFST to support the assessment of toll candidate projects by NC’s MPOs and RPOs. The FFST is a preliminary, high-level screening of toll candidate financial viability and is not intended to replace a formal traffic and revenue level of toll analysis. Furthermore, the FFST is intended to be used by MPOs and RPOs (or local communities who coordinate closely with these organizations) who are considering toll candidates as part of their comprehensive or metropolitan transportation planning process. Users may make modifications to the FFST inputs as part of conducting sensitivity analysis; however, modifications made after candidates are formally submitted to NCDOT for evaluation must be disclosed and reviewed by NCDOT for acceptability.

    The PSA process starts when a Project Sponsor submits one or more toll candidates through the PSA Process Form. This Form captures key project information in order to initiate and supply technical support and assessment through NCDOT’s Intra-Departmental Project Evaluation Team (IDPET). The IDPET oversees subsequent PSA steps outlined in the Handbook. A script file (included in the downloadable PSA package of files) populates input entries to the PSA Process Form within the FFST. This script is an executable file (name.exe) which helps to streamline and simplify data entry. Users can follow these steps if they choose to leverage the script file:

    1. Open, populate, save, and close the pdf version of the PSA Process Form
    2. Click on the executable file and select run (the Excel-based FFST in the directory will automatically be updated and saved)
    3. Open the FFST and continue to populate information required to perform the financial analysis
    4. The user should not change the file names of either the pdf-based PSA Process Form or the Excel-based FFST, or relocate these files to different locations, since the script file references these files as it runs.

    By downloading the PSA package and FFST you acknowledge the use of these files for toll candidate consideration and not for unlawful or purposes prohibited by the NC Toll Policy and its requirements.

    You also acknowledge “version 1.0 – December 2019” as the master version of the current files and NCDOT exclusively retains the right to modify and update the master for official PSA evaluation purposes. NCDOT will communicate and post updated files through this website.

    By clicking the “I accept” button you acknowledge receipt and acceptance of these terms and understand the PSA process acts as the official, jointly agreed upon evaluate steps to communicate toll candidate assessment results between NCDOT and NC Project Sponsors.​

      I Accept​  

    For additional questions or to submit a tolling candidate into the formal pre-submittal Process please contact the Tolling PSA Manager at tollingpsa​@ncdot.gov​


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