First section of TX161 toll lanes opening Aug 1

NTTA and TxDOT are opening the first segment of the State Highway 161 (SH161 or TX161) main toll lanes August 1. The new tollroad built by TxDOT will be operated by North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), the regional public toll authority in the Dallas Fort Worth metro area.

SH161 already has discontinuous service or frontage road lanes which are untolled over part of its length. They have at-grade intersections with crossing streets and will provide access to and egress from the grade separated main toll lanes via standard Texan slip ramps.

Opening this Saturday is a 8km (5 mile) stretch of 2x2 toll lanes called Phase 2 from SH183 south to Egyptian Way just short of I-30 (red in nearby map.)

"Just in time for the ballgame"

NTTA in a pitch to sports fans say the new pike is being opened "just in time" for them to get to Texas Rangers or Dallas Cowboys games.

There is a new Cowboys stadium in the vicinity.

A 4-level interchange at Tx183 and untolled frontage or service roads between I-30 and I-20 (called Phase 1) is substantially complete and opened to traffic.

Phase 3 due for opening Dec 2010 will add a third lane each direction from SH183 to north of I-30, and extra entrance and exit ramps plus remaining frontage roads.

Phase 4  taking the main toll lanes on from I-20 south to I-23 and including a bridge over a Union pacific railroad track is in procurement by NTTA as a design-build contract.

The total SH161 Toll project is 19km (11.5 miles).

NTTA executive director Allen Clemson is quoted as saying the project will "add tremendous mobility between North Dallas, Plano, Frisco, McKinney and the cities of Arlington and Grand Prairie.”

No cash tolls - all electronic

Toll collection by the NTTA will be all-electronic tolling (AET) with motorists paying by transponder brandnamed TollTag or being billed in the mail after a gantry-mounted camera has recorded their passage - video tolling brandnamed ZipCash.

Northbound and southbound TollTag transponder rates for Conflans Road will be 22c cents, videotoll ZipCash 42c.

The rate at a temporary entrance/exit toll point at Egyptian Way will be 78c with a TollTag transponder and $1.17 ZipCash video toll.

Phase 2’s all-electronic toll (AET) gantry construction was NTTA’s first contract.

Electronic toll systems for NTTA are by Electronic Transaction Consultants (ETC) corporation.

Costs

Project cost of Phases 2, 3 and 4 are estimated to have a project cost of $670m. There are 94 lane-km of expressway lanes (58 lane-miles) plus frontage roads for a cost per main lane km of $7.1m ($11.6m/lane-mile of mainlanes).

Major spectacular structures is the five level direct connector interchange where Tx161 crosses I-30 at about the middle of the project.

see nearby diagram:

Origins

The total SH161 Toll project is 19km (11.5 miles) and was initiated by TxDOT way back in May 1969 as a tax-supported freeway but never got really launched until toll financing was adopted.

Under state law that then encouraged private investors AECOM made an unsolicited bid for a toll concession in August 2005. This triggered a competitive procurement May 2006 that produced concession teams:

- Acciona, Omega

- ACS, Zachry

- Babcock Brown, Transurban, Fluor

- Balfour Beatty, Brisa

- Macquarie

- OHL

- FCC, SNC Lavalin

- Bilfinger Berger, ABN AMRO

- Skanska, Deutsche Bank

By November 2006 there was a short list but NTTA and opponents of investor toll concessions gained the upper hand in Texas.  In July 2007 the procurement was "suspended" and the project turned over to the local governments' NTTA.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-07-28 ADDITIONS 2009-07-29 15:40