Groundbreakings on three projects - Manor Exwy Austin TX, Miami I-595 and Dallas DFW connector

They call them 'groundbreaking ceremonies' - ridiculous rituals whereby besuited bigwigs don hardhats and stand in a line behind some already finely dug soil holding glossy shovels for press photographers. It is the PR theatrics to officially mark the beginning of construction of a new road.  This spring there's a rash of toll groundbreakings - in Miami on I-595, in Dallas for the DFW Connector, in Austin TX the US290E Manor Expressway.

Wednesday morning March 10 there is what a Media Alert from the Central Texas toll authority (RMA) calls a "shovel ceremony and remarks (with) Mobility Authority Board members and staff, Texas Transportation Commission Chair Deirdre Delisi, FHWA Texas Division Administrator Janice Brown and local dignitaries."

They are breaking ground on the first phase of their second toll project in the Austin metro area - the Manor Expressway (US290E), a major radial arterial heading east out of downtown Austin. It is being built into a typical modern Texan highway - four roadways, the two central roadways with grade separations expressway-style and tolled straddled by two untolled frontage roadways that meet cross streets at grade with signals.

Phase 1 of the project will consist of a direct connect flyover interchange at US 183 and US290 and a 2.3km (1.4-mile) stretch of three toll express lanes in each direction between US183 and Chimney Hill Boulevard.

Existing two lane frontage roads will be improved but remain non-tolled.

This Phase 1 is expected to open to traffic in 2012.

In a future phase or phases Manor Expressway will be built out to a 10km (6.2-mile) tolled expressway between US183 and Parmer Lane just west of the city of Manor. It will be constructed in an expanded median of the existing US290 East and will be 12 lanes total - 2x3 toll express lanes and 2x3 non-tolled lanes in each direction, as well as a bike and pedestrian trail.

The Manor Expressway will have a major expressway to expressway interchange  with TxDOT's SH130 toll road. This will provide a new highspeed route between Williamson County and central Austin.

Toll collection will be all-electronic using ISO 18000 6B sticker tag windshield mounted  transponders of the kind used throughout Texas plus toll-in-the-mail from license plate reading cameras. Toll rates will initially be fixed but the logic of a firm 'build-out' capacity of 6 expressway lanes suggests variable pricing may be used in the future to manage congestion.

http://www.manorexpressway.com/

FL/I-595 Express

A couple of weeks back - spring comes early in Florida - Governor Charlie Crist, Federal Highway administrator Victor Mendez and local officials did the pose-gab-&-shovel act to mark the start of construction on the I-595 Express project. This is an approx $1b upgrade of 17km (10.5 miles) of I-595, the major east-west route in Broward County north of Miami.

The route ties together I-95 not fat from Port Everglades with Florida's Turnpike, I-75 and Sawgrass Expressway.

It is presently 2x3 lanes untolled expressway. This is being upgraded into a 3/3/3 lanes roadway configuration. The project will double capacity to 6 lanes total in the peak commute direction.

The toll express segment of 3 new lanes in the center will be reversed in direction daily, operating eastbound in the morning, westbound in the evening - to fit the commuting patterns of traffic.

The I-595 Express upgrade uses tax and debt based grants, no toll revenue bonds. So it cannot be called toll-financed.

The project involves a longterm 35 year design-build-operate contract but tolls collected electronically at highway-speed gantries will set by Florida's Turnpike and be their property, not the private operator's.

Tolls will be set to manage traffic for free flow with variable rates. The toll revenue isn't expected to help service the capital cost but will provide a useful revenue stream for maintenance and operations expenses.

see http://www.i-595.com/default.aspx

DFW Connector

The DFW Connector project which broke ground a couple of weeks back was originally supposed to use some serious toll revenue financing but instead it has attracted a huge US 'stimulus' or 'recovery' grant, the largest single grant for any road project in the US.

As on the FL/I-595 project tolls will be used to manage traffic and pay operations and maintenance costs.

DFW Connector is a complex of merging and diverging expressways on the northwest side of Dallas Fort Worth Airport (hence DFW) in an area called Grapevine (we doubt there are many grapevines there these days.)

TX114 and TX121 which merge and diverge and two major interchanges will be heavily rebuilt and lanes added.

The project covers some 13km or 8 miles of expressway.

Four years is allowed for construction much of which will be done at night to reduce traffic impacts. The contract provides heavy penalties for closing of lanes outside prescribed hours.

see http://www.dfwconnector.com

TOLLROADSnews 2010-03-09