TEXAS TURNPIKE AUTHORITY WOT? NO TX TURNPIKE. LIVES ON IN NEW ROLE

TEXAS TURNPIKE AUTHORITY

Wot? No Tx Turnpike? Lives on in new role...

“Dere ain’t no Texas Turnpike Authority no more,” we led off a piece last issue (TR#20 Oct 97 p1). Oh gawd!!! Well, dere is a Texas Turnpike Authority. Kind of. No staff, no assets, no liabilities, no revenues, no offices, just Emily Braswell, a single smart woman on the payroll of the Texas Dept of Transp, looking after its affairs, pending appointment of a director and staff. It was correct as we reported that all the assets and staff of the old TTA, have been transferred to the newly constituted North Texas Tollway Authority. So when you think North Dallas Tollway, or the new Bush pike, think NTTA. But any rumors we may have spread about the death of the old Texas Turnpike Authority (TTA) are greatly exaggerated. It lives on! But not in Dallas. It is now in the capital, Austin, and Braswell tells us its charter is to look at toll road projects outside of Dallas-Fort Worth and the greater Houston area where the NTTA and Harris Co Toll Road Auth operate, and that it may act as a turnpike developer, helping finance and build turnpikes then handing them over to a regional authority. Texas law now provides also for investor-built toll roads. (Contact Emily Braswell 512 305 9564)