Cintra

This is a big personnel change we should have picked up months ago even though no one made any announcements. Jose Maria Lopez de Fuentes (Lopez) one of the major figures in PPP/private sector tolling in North America for over a decade quietly departed Cintra late last summer (August we think) and his offices in Austin Texas.

Good news from the North Tarrant Express (NTE) toll project in the Dallas TX area.

Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officials plan to announce Wednesday that, in response to citizen comments received during the environmental review of Trans-Texas Corridor-35, the department has recommended the No Action Alternative on the TTC-35 environmental study to the Federal Highway Administration

TxDOT closed on a 52 year toll concession today with a Cintra-led group on the North Tarrant Express project, a busy complex of expressways I-820 and SH183 on the northwest side of Dallas Fort Worth Airport.

Dallas Morning News' Michael Lindenberger got the story first that the recently signed 52 year concession contract between Cintra and partners and TxDOT for the North Tarrant Express project is being held up by the state Attorney General, Greg Abbott on the grounds that it is not "legally sufficient." He has been arguing that the contract is unconstitutional  and the News quotes him: "The Texas Constitution says that one Legislature cannot financ

Texas DOT is signing a toll concession with an international group led by Cintra to do about $1.6 billion worth of work rebuild some 20km (13 miles) of old freeway into frontage, free and toll lanes and get planning work and rights to negotiate up to several billion dollars more of the North Tarrant Express project. TxDOT got bids from the Cintra-led Group called NTE Mobility Partners (NTEMP) and from Spain based OHL.

Cintra the Spain based concessionaire with major investments in north American tollroads has put its Chilean pikes and car parks up for sale, according to European reports. Cintra's stock price has been heading steadily downward since a high of over E12 in March 2007 to under E6 recently. This probably reflects a downgrading of the company's toll revenue prospects in the next few years plus the general sell-off of stocks.

NTTA's pledge of system revenues for SH121 opens Dallas North and PGB commuters to higher toll rates, financial analysts point out. They say that the crucial distinction between the NTTA bid and Cintra/JPMorgan is that Cintra/JPM will put no lien on the existing tollroads in north Dallas. NTTA's proposal is for a system financing, they say.

North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) are getting into the concession business. They say they can improve substantially on Cintra's proposal for SH121 north of Dallas in Denton and Collin counties. Today they put out a press release, an executive summary and a powerpoint on their bid for SH121 - the first time in the US that a public toll authority has made a bid in competition with investor groups for a toll concession.

Posted speed limits are a major financial issue in the terms of the toll concession for Texas State Highway 130 Segments 5 and 6 (TX130-S for South). The fine print of the concession agreement now available on the TxDOT website shows that posted speed limits are seen as a key to attracting large volumes of traffic from free-competitor I-35.

Exhibit 7 (Ex7) titled Compensation Terms provides that the concessionaire will pay TxDOT three radically different amounts of money depending on the legally enacted speed limits for the new tollroad (TR).

Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is about to sign its first toll concession agreement - for a Cintra-Zachry joint venture to build an additional 65km (40mi) of TX130 between southeast Austin and I-10 at Seguin at a cost of $1.3b. The draft concession agreed between TxDOT and Cintra-Zachry goes to the Texas Transportation Commission tomorrow (June 29) for formal approval. The text is not publicly available now but should be by Friday, a TxDOT official told us.