new tollroads

Tollroads are much in the news in India - good news and bad news. The big bad news story is the first chaotic week of the new mostly 8-lane toll expressway southwest out of Delhi to Gurgaon, a developing edge city not far from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. 28km (17mi) long, the tollroad also becomes part of National Highway 8 between Delhi and Mumbai, formerly Bombay.

Toll supporters won a major political victory Monday evening (2007-10-08) in Austin TX when the Capital Area Metro Plan Organization (CAMPO) voted 15/4, 14/5 and 14/4 in favor of five toll projects. They will cost an estimated $1.5b, and cover 34km (21 miles).

The projects are:

- US290 East between US183 and TX130

- US183 Springfield Rd to TX71E

The North Carolina Turnpike Authority's (NCTA) big plans for toll projects are stalled by the failure of the lower house to provide revenue to cover what the Turnpike calls "gap financing" - the difference between the estimated cost and the bonds the Turnpike estimates it can float.

Just days after Gov Rick Perry signed SB792 imposing a limited moratorium on new concessions Texas DOT has released a list of 87 proposed tollroads in the state it is moving immediately to be advanced under the new law. They have an estimated aggregate cost of about $56 billion.