Turnpike chief says many toll opportunities remain in Texas - interview with Phil Russell

Texas DOT Turnpike division chief Phil Russell says that the Trans Texas Corridor 69 (TTC69) will offer opportunities for both public authority style tolling and private lease concessions. He says the decision announced last week to look first at upgrading existing routes is "no different" from the approach taken on TTC35. The difference of the second TTC, he says, is only in the nature of development along the route.

Not rejecting but not accepting at this point

The recently released first stage (Tier I) Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for TTC69 identified a Recommended Preferred Alternative Corridor that is almost entirely at a distance from existing highways. However the new Texas secretary of transportation Amadeo Saenz in an unusual move has not accepted the first stage recommended corridor. He says in the second stage of the DEIS instead of refining the Recommended Preferred route, the state will look first to make use of the existing surface arterials. The recommended/preferred route is not completely rejected, just held in reserve for where the use of existing roads turns out to be infeasible or locally unacceptable.

At about six points the recommended/preferred route crosses existing parallel routes and in some quite long stretches is located only several miles distant. That makes it practical to have TTC69 a mix of new and upgrade. In some stretches it may be new construction in the recommended/preferred alignment and in other stretches upgrade of existing roads.

TTC35 may also be a mix

Phil Russell notes that the first TTC to be studied in its San Antonio-Austin-Dallas segment is unusual. The existing route I-35 can and is being steadily widened to 2x3 travel lanes, but the forecasts show six lanes won't be enough.

It is extremely difficult and expensive, he points out, to widen I-35 beyond about 6 lanes. Beads on the I-35 string, the settlements along I-35 from Georgetown north through Temple, Waco, Hillboro and Waxahachie have grown as strip development - tightly built up on either side of the interstate.

A quite extensive study comparing new parallel construction with widening I-35 found the widening conisderably more expensive north of San Antonio.

By contrast a lot of TTC69 goes through open country and the settlements along the way are generally much smaller - although Houston will have to be bypassed in quite a long stretch of new highway. The existing routes - US59, US281, SH44 and US77 can more easily be widened and upgraded than I-35.

Russell said it's quite likely TTC35 south of Antonio - to Laredo - will be an upgrade of the existing I-35 rather than a new corridor. That's because traffic volumes are much lower and widening is easier to do than from San Antonio north which has got all the attention to date.

No tolling existing or tax committed capacity

TxDOT policy is not to toll existing capacity or capacity which has already been promised toll-free. 5th and 6th lanes on I-35 will be tax funded. Similarly 3rd and 4th laning already in train in the TTC69 corridor will be tax funded roads, not tolled.

Six interstate routes (I-35, I-37, I-10, I-45, I-20 and I-30) cross the path of TTC69 but no full expressway links Corpus Christi with Laredo or McAllen/Brownsville, or Corpus Christi with Victoria, Houston or Houston with Shreveport and Texarkana.

The existing TTC69 corridor's existing road is a mixture of 2+2 lanes divided and just 2 lanes - all just surface arterial. To create a modern expressway along this route is the role of TTC69.

Grade separated roadways likely to be tolled

Russell says it is likely any new grade separated highspeed lanes would be tolled here while existing surface arterial levels of service would be provided on frontage road lanes.

There are three approaches to private sector involvement on TTC as the Turnpike Division chief sees it:

1. project development - supporting some of the remaining alternatives analyses, route selection, and permitting, doing financial analysis on priorities, preliminary engineering, and design.

A procurement for the project development contract is under way with two contenders: Cintrta and Zachry/ACS (ACS Spain not ACS Dallas).

2. private toll concessions from the Rio Grande to the San Antonio River just short of Victoria

3. TxDOT or local public tolling of any extra capacity from Victoria to west of Houston by Nacogdoches, and north while the moratorium on private tolling lasts.

A Tier I draft environmental impact statement has defined a "recommended preferred alternative" corridor that is almost all new. (see the full map here) However the PR out of TxDOT accompanying the release of the report says first consideration will be given to use of existing facilities.

Upgrades of existing roads will now be studied in detail in the second DEIS phase, with the recommended new route held as a fallback. Along with TxDOT's study of the feasibility and financing of the upgrade existing versus new routing, local communities will have to decide which they want.

The study area for TTC69 is 36% forest (or what passes for forest in Texas), 33% agricultural, 25% rangleland (grazing), 2% water, and only 5% built up (of which about 3% points is residential). However the use of existing roads will encroach much more heavily on builtup land, since development has clustered around the surface arterials with their frontage access.

SH161 and NTTA

SH161, a north south route between Dallas and Fort Worth is a difficult negotiation with NTTA, Russell acknowledges. But for the state DOT it is just one of 87 toll projects up for valuation with local authorities as provided for in last summer's SB792. If agreement can't be reached he says, he's sure a way will be found to pay for it. A 2010 Superbowl commitment at a new Cowboys Stadium makes SH161 a locally urgent project. Meanwhile scores of other projects are being put on valuation tracvk with local authorities.

Under the new law if the two can't agree no toll financing goes forward.

TTC35 Tier II DEIS

Next year, Russell says, the second tier of TTC35 should be completed. This will formally establish SH130 as the route - virtually a forgone conclusion - and establish the route north of Georgetown and around Dallas to the Oklahoma border, and from Seguin south to Laredo. Completion of environmental review will allow Cintra to begin construction of segments 5 and 6 of SH130 (I-10 at Seguin north to Austin airport). It will also allow private toll concessions to be finalized for work north of Georgetown to Dallas and around the east of the Dallas area.

Still considering all modes

Russell says that the permitting and planning looks to provide eventually for the whole array of modes envisaged in the TTC vision of 2002 - separate heavy truckways, rail and utilities - even where existing highways are upgraded and where some of the modes are to be staged in later.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-11-25