Here are some of
the projects that could receive funding
under a proposal for the county and state to
share toll road money:
• Freeway widening and other
improvements:
U.S. 59 from Grand Parkway to Kendleton
U.S. 290 from
Loop 610 to Texas 6
FM 517 from Alvin to the Gulf Freeway
FM 2234 from Texas 288 to near Missouri City.
• Toll roads
Converting
Hempstead Highway to toll lanes from Loop 610 to
Texas 6
Constructing northern half of Grand Parkway
(Texas 99) from Katy Freeway to Texas 146.
Constructing mainlanes in northeast segment
of the Sam Houston Tollway from Eastex Freeway
to U.S. 90.
Tolls paid by local drivers would pay for new
area freeways as well as toll projects under an arrangement
state and county officials are negotiating.
The plan, subject to approval by Commissioners Court and
the Texas Transportation Commission, would break an impasse
that has stalled three projects the Harris County Toll Road
Authority wants to build promptly.
It could also reduce the
likelihood that future toll roads in the area will be
developed by private companies that might ship most of the
toll revenue elsewhere, said Art
Storey, the county's infrastructure director.
Gary Trietsch, district engineer for the Texas Department
of Transportation, presented the proposal recently to
elected officials on the Houston-Galveston Area Council's
Transportation Policy Committee.
A 56-project list
Trietsch listed 36 toll
projects and 20 non-toll projects planned through 2035. He
said these could probably be built, using toll funding,
within 30 years and possibly as little as 12 years.
"I don't look at it as a wish list," he said. "I think we
can implement it in a reasonable amount of time."
Storey and Trietsch said
they roughed out the concept for sharing toll money at the
urging of newly appointed Texas
Transportation Commission member Ned Holmes of Houston.
He asked them to resolve a stalemate between the Toll Road
Authority and TxDOT that began last year.
Ending free rides
After decades of allowing the
county to build toll roads on state right of way for free,
TxDOT told the Toll Road Authority in May that it would have
to pay $1 billion up front, plus some share of its future
toll revenue, to use state land for toll projects on the
Grand Parkway, Beltway 8 and Hempstead Highway.
The new proposal would waive up-front payment to
TxDOT, but calls for the county to spend a share of its toll
funds on various TxDOT projects now classified as "unfunded"
in the region's mobility plan.
The share of the 56 projects' cost that the
county would pay remains to be negotiated. Storey said the
authority's annual revenue is about $400 million, which is
only about 2 percent of the $22 billion total price tag.
That revenue will increase, however, as more toll
roads are built, and the cost would be leveraged by bonds
supported with toll revenue. Also, other counties in the
Houston area are invited to join in similar agreements,
Trietsch said.
Instead of viewing the concept as a way to siphon
county toll revenue for state projects, Storey said he sees
it as expanding the Toll Road Authority's role. If the
county does not participate, TxDOT has said it will build
and operate new toll roads itself or seek bids from private
firms to build and run them for profit.
Priority for toll projects
Although the sequence in which the
projects are built has not been worked out,
Storey said toll projects on the list
will likely get priority so they can begin generating
revenue for the non-tolled ones.
Janelle Gbur, TxDOT spokeswoman, said the department
still plans to build other projects over the years using
federal dollars from fuel taxes.
"But we are looking for a way to fund all the needed
projects, and federal funding is woefully inadequate to
being these forward fast enough," she said.
Storey and Precinct 3
Commissioner Steve Radack — both of whom were indignant when
TxDOT said it would require payment for use of its right of
way — praised the new proposal.
"This gives HCTRA the
ability to analyze and build things that will bring in
revenue, and it doesn't allow that income to go to the
private sector," Radack said.
Storey described the idea as "visionary" and called it
"the biggest single concept I've worked on in the 50 years
I've been in this business."
rad.sallee@chron.com
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