Dallas: SH 183 plan now phased, focused on toll lanes

[MaxConcrete]

http://dot.state.tx.us/news/035-2012.htm
http://dot.state.tx.us/project_information/projects/dallas/sh183/rfq.htm
http://sh183rid.corridorprogram.com/index.php?u=&pathext=RID/RFQ/

Freeway: SH 183 in northwest Dallas County from IH 35E to SH 161(near DFW Airport)

The plan developed since around 2000 is to take the existing 6-lane freeway (3-3) and make it a 4-2T-2T-4 facility. Now TxDOT is soliciting proposals for a new, three-phase plan which will add toll lanes first and not add the new free lanes until phase 3. Of course, there is no assurance phase 3 will ever be built. If it is built, it could be in the distant future. So TxDOT has once again used the addition of free lanes to gain support, and then proceeds with the toll lanes and indefinitely delays the new free lanes. (My understanding is that the same thing is happening on IH-35W north of Fort Worth)

The only good news is that a new multi-level interchange at SH 183 and Loop 12 is included in phase 1.

Phase 1 (1+1 Managed Lanes): Delivery of the following along the Middle Segment, Diamond
Interchange Managed Lanes Segment, East Segment and IH35E Tie-in Segment:
* Construct one managed lane in each direction plus at-grade (slip ramp) access points at
locations shown in the Reference Information Documents.
* Reconstruct west bound general purpose lanes and 3.7 miles of east bound general purpose
lanes, as shown in the Reference Information Documents.
* Construct eastbound and westbound frontage roads as shown in the Reference Information
Documents.
* Construct connection ramps between Loop 12 and SH 183 general purpose lanes.
* Construct direct connectors between SH 114 managed lanes and SH 183 managed lanes.

Phase 2 (2+2 Managed Lanes): Delivery of the following along the Middle Segment, Diamond
Interchange Managed Lanes Segment, East Segment and IH35E Tie-in Segment:
* Construct one additional managed lane in each direction and at-grade (slip ramp) access points
at locations shown in the Reference Information Documents.
* Reconstruct remaining eastbound general purpose lanes not reconstructed in Phase 1 as shown
in the Reference Information Documents.
* Reconstruct remaining frontage road lanes not reconstructed in Phase 1 as shown in the
Reference Information Documents.

Phase 3 (Construction of Ultimate Project Configuration): Delivery of the following along the
Middle Segment, Diamond Interchange Managed Lanes Segment, East Segment and IH35E Tie-in
Segment:
* Construct one additional managed lane in each direction between SH 114 and IH-35E/Trinity
Parkway.
* Construct additional westbound and eastbound general purpose lanes.
* Construct frontage road bridges across Trinity Elm Fork.
* Construct grade-separated accesses between managed lanes and frontage roads as shown in the
Reference Information Documents.
* Construct the remaining elements of the project to comply with the 2035 Metropolitan
Transportation Plan.
* Construct remaining connection ramps for SH 114, Loop 12 and Spur 482.

[austrini]

about what you'd expect nowadays...

[J N Winkler]

I would mind the retreat from taxpayer-funded, pay-as-you-go provision less if it did not result in flavors of design-build procurement tending to keep the finished construction plans away from public view.  I don't expect this problem to be solved unless TxDOT decides to position itself as a clearinghouse for released-for-construction plans or to provide access to its as-builts library over the public Web.

This said, I will look forward to a release of the historical as-builts when the current RFQ phase is over, and the procurement progresses to a RFP.

[austrini]

I've never had any trouble receiving finished construction plans on any projects in this state. In fact, not once have I failed to get them.

I just don't like more tolled roads.

[J N Winkler]

I've never had any trouble receiving finished construction plans on any projects in this state. In fact, not once have I failed to get them.

Can you obtain them without having to ask someone for them?  This is what I prefer to avoid and for the most part I can do it with design-bid-build contracts, but not design-builds.

I have been collecting TxDOT construction plans for 10 years and I do have one failure:  the High Five plans set.  I approached TxDOT in the first instance and was told No because of the bridge plans.  For reasons of goodwill, I chose not to pursue the issue any further.  Eventually I obtained a complete plans set from a source other than TxDOT.

I just don't like more tolled roads.

I prefer a tax-supported, pay-as-you-go model myself, but for the time being that seems to be outside the realm of practical possibility in Texas.  There is this great urgency to front-load the benefits (which I suspect has less to do with traffic need and more to do with keeping the road-related interests in business in the absence of a gas tax high enough to fund an adequate volume of construction).  After a decade of controversy that has seen the landowners' battle over the too-wide TTC cross-section, the "Swiss cheese" moratorium which failed to result in a ban on expatriation of toll road profits, and the regional toll authority model all but going underwater in favor of RMAs statewide and county toll road authorities in the DFW and Houston areas, toll finance still stands without serious challenge as the dominant method for providing new capacity.

[Scott5114]

Why are there county toll authorities in Texas, anyway? Wouldn't it be cheaper to combine them all into one Texas Toll Authority?

[J N Winkler]

Short answer:  counties have the ability to form their own toll authorities because if they want new freeways, and have enough of a population base to finance them through tolls, that gets them out of TxDOT's hair.  A similar philosophy underlies regional mobility authorities, which can be formed out of heterogeneous groupings of local agencies.

It is actually the regional toll authorities which are the true anomalies.  There is just one in Texas that I am aware of--the North Texas Toll Authority (NTTA)--and I am not even sure whether it is a sui generis institution or simply the first to be created under general enabling statutes.  There is also a Texas Turnpike Authority which is a division of TxDOT and does not itself actually own or directly operate any toll roads except in the vicinity of Austin, but has been responsible for concession agreements in relation to major new-location or expansion projects (such as the SH 121 freeway, LBJ expansion, etc.) which were originally developed by TxDOT to be paid for out of the gas tax but were later turned into toll projects.

There has been a lot of interest in creating county toll authorities in the DFW region because the counties are engaged in a tug of war among TxDOT and the NTTA.  TxDOT has been getting out of the business of providing new capacity through the gas tax, and that has resulted in a lot of proposed improvements being dumped onto any entity that can successfully bid for them--which can be another governmental agency or a private concessionaire.  A few years ago NTTA did not want private concessionaires coming into the DFW area (expatriation of profits was one of the main issues), so it loaded itself up with crippling amounts of debt to buy TxDOT projects such as the SH 121 freeway north of Dallas (currently under construction as a NTTA toll road).  Now, because NTTA's debt load limits what it can do in any given funding cycle, Collin County (north of Dallas) feels that its needs are being neglected in favor of the SH 121 Southwest Parkway south of Fort Worth, and that is why Collin now has its own toll authority that operates in competition with NTTA.  Meanwhile, because neither NTTA nor any of the counties in its operating region were able to swallow the North Tarrant Express and the LBJ Express, those are being developed by private concessionaires.

This is what the transportation funding landscape looks like in Texas now that the gas tax has cratered.  It is ugly.

[MaxConcrete]

That's a good overview of the situation by J N.

As he notes, as highway-building entities become maxed-out with debt and cannot take on more debt to move planned projects to construction, new entities must be found that can take on debt. TxDOT and NTTA are maxed-out and out of action for a while in terms of new debt. The Harris County Toll Road Authority may not be maxed-out but is limited in what it can do due to existing debt.  Private interests such as Spanish-based Cintra have capacity to take on debt. So do newly-created toll road authorities like the Collin County Toll Road Authority.


Here is my overview of the situation from the DFW Freeways book Chapter 2 (www.DFWFreeways.com)

In the 1990s and 2000s the most dominant and influential trend in North Texas planning has been the shift to toll-based financing of highway facilities. In 2012 nearly all planned projects scheduled for construction before 2035 are tolled facilities or include a combination of new regular (non-tolled) lanes and new tolled lanes. The shift toward toll-dominated highway financing is the result of insufficient and stagnant revenue from traditional sources of highway funding, mainly the gasoline tax, as inflation erodes the fixed-value fuel tax and the better gasoline mileage of new vehicles reduces gasoline consumption. As a general pattern, dwindling revenue from traditional sources is being used to maintain and rebuild existing free lanes, while most new capacity is being financed with tolls.

The shift toward reliance on tolls began in August 1991 when political leaders endorsed greater use of tolls and the regional planning council (NCTCOG) studied the conversion of 18 planned new freeway projects into toll road projects. In 1991 transportation planners also began to promote the idea of adding tolled express lanes to existing freeways, saying tolled lanes would likely be the only way to add new capacity to certain congested freeways. In 1992 Dallas County expressed its desire to take control of the two tolled facilities in North Texas from the Texas Turnpike Authority in order to ensure that the revenue generated from the facilities remained in Dallas County. In 1994 elected officials endorsed converting the largest freeway project awaiting funding, SH 190 (now the Bush Turnpike), into a toll road.

In 1996 the statewide Texas Turnpike Authority was still responsible for toll roads in North Texas, and political leaders began efforts to create a regional North Texas toll road authority to build and manage North Texas toll roads, and, most importantly, keep revenue and control in North Texas. On September 1, 1997, the North Texas Turnpike Authority (NTTA) was formed and began operation. The NTTA would take a greatly expanding role in North Texas highway construction. New state legislation in 2003 promoted private investment in toll roads, and Governor Rick Perry's appointees to the Texas Transportation Commission, particularly Ric Williamson from Weatherford, demanded increasing use of toll roads. North Texas long-term highway plans have steadily become more reliant on toll financing, and the latest version of the long-term North Texas highway plan, Mobility 2035 (approved in March 2011), continues the trend toward a toll-dominated highway network.

This is what the transportation funding landscape looks like in Texas now that the gas tax has cratered.  It is ugly.

Yes, I agree, very ugly.

[austrini]

@JN Winkler ... i've usually had to ask, but I dont see why that is a problem? I usually get CDs of schematics in DGN format to update maps with. I have a big stack of them

[J N Winkler]

@JN Winkler ... i've usually had to ask, but I dont see why that is a problem? I usually get CDs of schematics in DGN format to update maps with. I have a big stack of them

I don't have a problem with asking as long as it is just one or two projects once in a long while, but that approach doesn't scale.  I extract the sign panel detail sheets, so I have to wait until the actual construction plans are finished (at least 90% PSE) before I can start asking for them (schematics frequently don't include guide signing and even the ones that have it don't have sign panel detail sheets).  That means not just sending off open records requests to the appropriate public agencies, but also tracking progress on design-build projects so I don't wind up sending in a request before the traffic plans can reasonably be expected to be finished.

By latest count I have construction plans for 2682 TxDOT projects--a number which is really only possible through self-service.