By reading the various posts below....it seems TX DOT has quite a few expensive projects on hand....new stacks, expanded roads...how do they pay for it all?
Any special programs to get extra road $$ besides tolls and taxes?
Texas has a booming population, thus a booming tax base. Also, land is cheap, and they seem to plan ahead by constructing freeways before everything is solid urban. I'm not sure how important the oil industry still is these days.
TxDOT actually has big money problems and has not let a really large contract to construction in the past couple of years. Most of the big projects you hear about are being carried out by regional toll agencies like NTTA, Regional Mobility Authorities like CTRMA, or by private companies under Comprehensive Development Agreements with TxDOT. Most of the CDAs incorporate a variant of PPP with companies seeking selection for the CDA being required to submit conceptual plans of the ultimate improvement and financing plans which typically rely on some mixture of tolls (NTE, LBJ widening, etc.) and subvention from the state (SS 601 in El Paso, which uses shadow tolling).
In other words, a lot of these projects are going forward on the basis that motorists will have to pay a great deal more in tolls in order to avoid congestion, or by dedicating TxDOT's future revenue streams. Texas actually needs an increase in the gasoline tax (desperately) but the authority to form RMAs and to form CDAs is what has been substituted since 2000. What I really dislike about these developments is that they make design-build construction procurement almost impossible to avoid, and there is no way to get as-built construction plans short of doing the grand tour of TxDOT district offices.
I see that all new construction in either the DFW, Austin or Houston areas are all toll roads. When was the last tax-financed freeway opened in Texas? Gotta be a while ago, especially in the major metropolitan areas...
I don't like toll roads that much, traffic volumes tend to be at least 50% lower, and they solve fewer problems, and taxes don't go down either. Many people will use older toll-free freeways or major arterials instead of toll roads, even though the tolls are not really that high.
http://www.keepitmovingdallas.com/SH161/FAQ/ (http://www.keepitmovingdallas.com/SH161/FAQ/)
QuoteThe Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex is faced with a critical financial shortfall of $55 billion in transportation needs.
55 BILLION? Shouldn't that be 5.5 billion?
In Texas tolls are quite high--several times the per-mile cost of using a traditional 1950's rural turnpike administered by a public turnpike authority, for instance. They are cheap only when compared to European levels.
TxDOT is continuing to engage in taxpayer-funded freeway construction, but you have to look long and hard for the projects in question now. The Marsha Sharp Freeway in Lubbock is being built eastward toward an interchange with I-27, with at least one major contract being advertised in the last three months. There are also widenings and interchange renovations as well (IH 30 and Loop 12 in the Dallas area, I-45 in Montgomery County north of Houston, etc.).
Regarding the $55 billion figure, it depends on the time period under consideration. When I started following TxDOT lettings in 2002, the annual letting budget was on the order of $3.3 billion. When Katy Freeway construction was heating up, it climbed up beyond $6 billion for a couple of years. Over 25 years those figures are around $80 billion to $150 billion. Assuming that the DFW area is responsible for 1/3 of the TxDOT budget and builds just 1/3 of what it needs to, $55 billion is not an implausible figure.