Toll freeze unlikely to
scuttle Texas 130 deal
Contract negotiations
are well along, and even legislative critic of private
toll roads says Central Texas road might escape proposed
moratorium
By
Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/03/19/19texas130.html
Monday, March 19, 2007
A moratorium on
private toll road contracts with the state, an idea
gaining momentum in the Legislature, probably would not
scuttle a pending contract to extend Texas 130 from
Mustang Ridge to Seguin, officials say.
As of late last week, a veto-proof majority of both
houses of the Legislature had signed on as co-sponsors
of bills that would create a two-year ban on such
contracts. Language in the pending Texas 130 tollway
contract between the state and road developer
Cintra-Zachry prompted freshman Sen. Robert Nichols,
R-Jacksonville, a former Texas transportation
commissioner, to file the moratorium legislation.
The Cintra-Zachry road
would complete a 90-mile bypass, all with tolls, of the
congested Austin-San Antonio Interstate 35 corridor. The
first 49 miles, under construction by a different
company since 2003 and to be operated by the state, will
be complete by the end of the year. The northern 29
miles of that 49-mile section opened late in 2006.
The Legislature will finish its business May 28, and a
two-thirds vote in each house (and the governor's
signature) can make a law take effect immediately. So if
the legislation were to move quickly, even a
gubernatorial veto could be overcome before June.
However, it
appeared last week that quick passage of the moratorium
might not occur.
Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of
the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security
Committee, said he
is
in
negotiations with toll supporter state Rep. Mike Krusee,
R-Williamson County to create catchall legislation that
would include a private road freeze as well as other
policy changes suggested by toll critics like Carona.
That final legislation might not include the moratorium.
And even if it does, it could include an exception for
Texas 130, the only private tollway agreement so far
down the contract path.
The second such
deal, for the Texas 121 tollway in Collin County (again
involving Cintra, a Spanish toll road operator), was
announced just two weeks ago and would be much more
vulnerable to a legislative freeze.
"It's quite possible that
Cintra might not be the bidder that moves forward on
that project," Carona said of Texas 121. "But it's my
opinion that Texas 130 will continue as it has been
executed. I think they are too far down the line."
bwear@statesman.com;
445-3698 |
