US Sec Transport Mary Peters has given provisional approval to TxDOT's application for tax-free status for $1,866m of bonds to be issued for construction and operation of TX121 tollroad north of Dallas TX. This is the first approval for Private Activity Bonds (PABs) which were part of last year's surface transport reauthorization and enable for-profit companies to get the same tax-free status for their borrowings that have always been available to state, local government and not-for-profit tollsters.

Concession selection under way

TxDOT is in process of accepting bids for for a 50+ year toll concession to complete and operate 37km (23mi) of a partially built tollroad along TX121.

The state will go back to the USDOT before the fall of 2007 with more details when the concessionaire is selected to get final approval. In this case the state will raise the funds and transfer the proceeds to the concessionaire.

Secretary Peters is quoted: "The best way to get commuters moving again is to give states more options to pay for and build vital transportation projects. This decision allows planners to tap into the billions of dollars in private capital available to invest in highway projects."

TIFIA also

TxDOT is also applying for $700m in TIFIA loans - these are highly subordinated, debt service deferrable, low interest loans provided by the US Government for approved projects.

12 lane tollroad

Called SH 121T, the TX121T (our style is to use the USPS state prefix in place of SH state highway, SR state route, etc) is 37km (23mi) of basically 12-lane tollroad (6 main toll lanes and 6 frontage road lanes in Collin and Denton counties north of Dallas.

The road trends northeast out of Dallas Fort Worth Airport, at first rather parallel to the recently opened stretches of the Pres Geo Bush Turnpike. It touches the northern end of the Dallas North Tollway in Plano and heads further northeast to cut US75, the Northeast Expressway in McKinney.

Partially built

The tollroad is partially built with frontage road lanes in use along most of the length and mainlanes open in some places also. The concessionaire will refund TxDOT and the counties for much of their expenditures to date, be responsible for completion of the project, for construction of major interchanges in place of frontage road junctions, and for improvements to some untolled connecting roads. Not all portions will be tolled.

Raytheon doing toll systems

Raytheon will do toll systems under its umbrella contract with TxDOT. These will be no-cash open road tolling using transponder and video toll. There are about 20 toll points with a couple of mainline gantries and the rest ramp gantries between the mainline and frontage roads.

Under an agreement with North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) NTTA will do back office toll collection services for the project for a minimum of five years. NTTA will be issuing the TransCore iGo Plus sticker tags. It will be NTTA's first esperience with video tolling, and the largest video tolling operation in the US so far.

Most places in the US video tolling is only unofficially used as a check on malfunctioning transponders as a preliminary step towards violation processing. It is also in use for rental cars under the PlatePass brand in the Houston area, and on a small TxDOT tollroad Loop 49 in Tyler, midway between Dallas and Shreveport LA.

Shortlisting

Four teams have been shortlisted for the concession by TxDOT:

-Skanska with Morgan Stanley, URS and Granite

-Transurban with Fluor and Parsons

-Macquarie with DMJM, Gilbert, Kiewit, Maunsell

-Cintra with Ferrrovial

The project is expected to be complete by 2011.

see http://www.texas121.org/ & http://www.keepitmovingdallas.com/SH+121/

TOLLROADSnews 2006-10-20