concession

Ireland's National Roads Authority has awarded a $147m (E113m@$1.3) contract to a Sanef(80%)-CS(20%) subsidiary BetEire to install and operate 2x3 lanes of no-cash highway speed electronic tolling on the M50 beltway around Dublin.

The Austin Statesman newspaper got an amazing scoop this morning (Mar 29). A week ago at the very height of the gathering political storm over toll concessions in the state legislature, and just as veto-proof majorities were being registered for moratorium bills, Texas DOT (TxDOT) quietly signed the final concession agreement document for SH130/5&6 with Cintra Zachry.

Newsworthy? You better believe it.

But out of TxDOT, no press release, no statement, nothing.

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.