Texas House debates TxDOT overhaul, toll roads

From News 8 Austin, May 8, 2009...

House lawmakers are wrangling over a Sunset Bill to make top-to-bottom changes in the way theTexas Department of Transportation operates.

The issue of toll roads is a significant part.

State Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, added two of the more than 160 suggested amendments to the bill. One regards uniform signage.

"You've got to show clearly that it's a toll road you're getting on, you've got to clearly show if there's a payment restriction, like 'Toll Tag only' and you've got to tell people what they're paying for their tolls," Hochberg said.

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Area's latest tollway is no cash cow

From statesman, April 27, 2009...

How times have changed: There's a 7.4-mile-long toll road opening in greater Austin in three days, weather permitting, and you don't know about it.

Well, now you do. After a ribbon-cutting Thursday afternoon, Texas 45 Southeast will run from a point on Interstate 35 a few miles north of Buda to U.S. 183 near Mustang Ridge, flowing seamlessly into the south end of the Texas 130 toll road. After a promotional period of one to two months (depending on whether you have an electronic toll tag or not), passenger vehicles with tags will pay $1 to drive it, and everyone else will be billed $1.33 by mail. Truckers will pay about four times that.

The new road will make it easier for cross-country travelers to evade Austin traffic by taking Texas 45 Southeast and Texas 130 around the east fringe of the metro edge.

It might save Lockhart commuters a few minutes. And getting from San Marcos to Bastrop or Elgin will take less time

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Tollway 183A profits in high gear

From KXAN, March 27, 2009...

The new 183A toll road is more profitable than officials dreamed it would be, bringing in $5 million more than anticipated in 2008, according to new numbers released Friday by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.

The 4.5-mile stretch of toll road brought in $15.5 million last year, a full 50 percent more than the $10 million authorities were expecting.

And it's stacking up to be a good year for the authority in 2009 as well.

Revenue from 183A for this past January alone almost $3 million, with the Pay-By-Mail late fees bringing in more than $48, 000.

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Federal stimulus money could go to build Texas toll roads

From KEYE, March 3, 2009...

The federal stimulus plan includes billions of dollars to improve Texas roads and bridges – but not everyone agrees with how the Texas Department of Transportation plans to spend its share of the money.

That’s because it includes hundreds of millions of dollars for toll roads.

The plan also includes a lot of money for non-toll projects – such as one at the intersection of Highway 290 and Highway 183 in East Austin. Right now to change from one highway to the other, drivers have to exit and wait at a light. TxDOT proposes building a direct connection between the roads.

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Texas 45 SE tollway to open in April

From statesman, January 31, 2009...

The Texas 45 Southeast tollway, which will complete a 56-mile bypass around the metro area's east side, will open in April, officials said Friday. That would be about three months earlier than an estimate made just a couple of months ago.

However, the 7.4-mile connecting road from the Texas 130 tollway to Interstate 35 south of Austin probably will open without one of its three flyover bridges to I-35, the one that would take people driving north on the interstate to the eastbound tollway lanes. Tim Weight, director of construction for the Texas Department of Transportation's Austin office, said that final bridge probably will open about a month later.

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Toll 45 SW on track for 2011 construction

From Impact News, January 30, 2009...

The construction of Toll 45 SW, a short stretch of highway that would serve as one of the final pieces in a partial loop around the capital area, is on schedule after facing several delays due to funding problems and negative feedback from environmental groups.

Hays and Travis counties purchased the necessary right-of-way for Toll 45 SW in the late ’90s, but setbacks left many who would use the road confused about when, or if, it would be coming.

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Central Texas tollway traffic slows to near-idle

From statesman, December 20, 2008...

The combination of sky-high gas prices this summer and then a plunging economy this fall has caused toll road use in Central Texas to stagnate, tollway officials say, and many tollways across the country have seen falling traffic. The sluggish traffic raises questions about whether some roads will be able to pay the decades of debt remaining without tapping tax money.

In the Austin area, although traffic on all four tollways (three run by the state, one by a local authority) is at or above levels of a year ago, two of the toll roads are bringing in less revenue than was projected when money was borrowed to build them. Revenue on Loop 1 for September through November was about 2 percent less than for the same period of 2007.

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County prosecutor to pursue toll scofflaws

From Community Impact Newspaper, December 12, 2008...

Drivers who fail to pay the piper for using Toll 183A will soon have to face the music. Starting in January, the Williamson County Prosecutor will begin legal proceedings against drivers who have repeatedly ignored requests for payment.

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CAMPO approves financing plan for Manor Expwy

From Austin Business Journal, December 3, 2008...

The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization approved the creation of a financing plan that allows toll revenue from U.S. Highway 183A to help pay for a planned tolled portion of U.S. 290 East. The plan would provide that U.S. 183A effectively be a co-signer or financial backstop for the financing of the new toll road.

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Toll booth workers losing out on cashless conversion

From News 8 Austin, October 28, 2008...

Cash customers on the U.S. Highway 183-A toll road will soon be cruising through with no stops.
On Dec. 1, the toll booths in Cedar Park will be closing, and customers who normally pay cash will be billed by mail.

The toll booths closing are affecting more than the drivers.

Erin Gibbs has been collecting cash from customers since the Cedar Park toll plaza opened just about two years ago.

Gibbs, along with 14 other toll booth employees, soon will be without a job.

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North Austin tolls may pay for Manor project

From KXAN, October 10, 2008...

Exploding development and increased traffic continues to take a toll on Central Texas roadways.

The region's next toll road -- financed in the new volatile bond market -- is revving up controversy. The Manor Expressway -- actually the widening and expansion of US 290 East towards Houston -- will cost $623 million to build.

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Rail vs. Roads

From Austin Chronicle, September 12, 2008...

There's an ironic subtext to Capital Metro's Green Line report: Rail transit is being held to a higher standard of investment scrutiny than are roads, which are also wildly expensive. By comparison to the proposed Green Line, there's a $500 million price tag on design and construction for the Texas Department of Transportation's new 6.2-mile Manor Expressway, a toll road in the median of Highway 290 from U.S. 183 to Parmer Lane, scheduled to start construction next year. That's about $80.6 million per mile. At the upper estimate of $192 million, the Green Line would come in at $6.8 million per mile. No submittal of ridership projections was required for that toll road expenditure; annualized costs per passenger mile were not calculated. But it's a safer bet that tolls can pay back construction costs (if not ancillary and opportunity costs) in a way the transit fare-box never will.

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Texas GOP Leaders Want To Use Public Pension Funds To Build Corporate Toll Roads

from Eye on Williamson...

The AAS today has fleshed out their initial post from yesterday about the letter that Perry, Dewhurst, and Craddick sent to TxDOT head Deirdre Delisi, Sweeping policy changes to jump-start renewed construction of roads proposed. While ending the diversion of road money away from TxDOT, and more debt are important, the key change in policy is the serious thought they're giving to risking public pensions on corporate toll road privatization schemes. EOW posted on this back in April, Sen. Ogden Wants To Gamble With Your Money, when state Sen. Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) first floated this latest plan of the "something for nothing conservatives".

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Williamson County commissioners study corridor expansion options from Georgetown to Burnet county line

From Community Impact, August 15, 2008...

Williamson County commissioners Valerie Covey, precinct three, and Cynthia Long, precinct two, are studying ways to expand Hwy. 29 from D.B. Wood Drive to the Burnet/Williamson county line.

Many residents of neighborhoods adjacent to the road, most wearing red shirts in opposition to an expansion, attended an open house in Liberty Hill Aug. 4. Questions were shouted at the commissioners, including "Will this be a toll road?" The answer was "We don't know."

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CAMPO looking for feedback on short-range transportation plan

From Austin Business Journal, August 19, 2008...

The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization is seeking public input about changes to its short-range Transportation Improvement Plan.

The TIP is a list of regional transportation projects planned for the next four years and include toll road or managed lane projects at U.S. Highway 183, State Highway 71, U.S. Highway 290, and MoPac Expressway.

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How are tolls on roads doing? So far, so good

From statesman.com, June 27, 2008...

The Texas Department of Transportation's three Austin toll roads have collectively brought in 35 percent more money over the past nine months than was projected before construction began in 2003, based on figures released Thursday by the Texas Department of Transportation. The picture varies from road to road, however.

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Toll booths will be eliminated on 183A

From Austin Business Journal, June 25, 2008...

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority board has voted to eliminate cash collection on the toll road by the end of this year.

Roughly 80 percent of those who use 183A pay via TxTag, according to CTRMA. Consequently, it costs the authority nearly as much to operate the cash booths as it collects from those drivers.

Cashless toll collection on 183A is expected to take effect as early as November 2008. Once it begins, those drivers who do not have TxTags, Tolltags or EZ-Tags will still have to pay -- only later. CTRMA will implement a pay-by-mail program where cameras will take pictures of drivers' license plates and send them a bill in the mail for the toll.

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Toll Road Opponents Rally in Austin Against Trans-Texas Corridor

From KDBC.com April 5, 2008...

A crowd marched to the state Capitol today to protest Gov. Rick Perry's plan for 4,000 miles of toll roads across Texas.

The Trans-Texas Corridor, a proposed network of superhighway toll roads, rankles opponents who characterize it as the largest government grab of private property in the state's history and an unneeded and improper expansion of toll roads.

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Tollways May Or May Not Be Money Machine

From statesman.com February 11, 2008...

It was the first, and seemingly best, argument I heard for toll roads when I got this beat more than four years ago. Haven't heard it much lately, however.

Toll roads, Texas Department of Transportation officials said, would be an "economic engine" for highway financing as gas taxes grow increasingly scarce, generating excess cash that could be spent on other roads. Like in Houston, they'd say, where the Harris County Toll Road Authority has spun off cash for other nontoll projects and still has hundreds of millions of dollars stockpiled.

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Portion of 183A Could Be Video-Tolled

From the Austin Business Journal Januaary 30, 2008...

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority will change its tolling system to video tolls along U.S. 183A in order to cut down on cash users and inadvertent toll violators. The video tolls could be installed in March or early April.

Steve Pustelnyk, CTRMA spokesman, says with the video tolling, drivers who go through the tolls without paying would be mailed an invoice instead of a fine and given an opportunity to pay the toll, which would be 20 percent above the TxTag toll rate and include a $1 handling fee.

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