Published: May 29, 2008 10:44 pm      

Transportation panel adopts guidelines for state toll roads

The Texas Transportation Commission adopted a set of guiding principals and policies Thursday which will govern the development, construction and operation of all toll road projects on the state highway system and the Trans-Texas Corridor.

According to Bob Colwell, Texas Department of Transportation public information officer for the Bryan district, the adoption of the guidelines does not reflect the final approval of Interstate-69 or the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The guidelines were adopted to reaffirm the state laws in place regarding current and future toll road projects.

“These adopted guidelines are just principals and guidelines we are to follow on all toll road projects on the state highway system,” Colwell said. “This release does not mean we will or will not build the Trans-Texas Corridor.

“Rather, if the Trans-Texas Corridor were to go through, these would be the guidelines followed during its development, construction and operation. Those same guidelines will now be followed for the construction and operation of all toll road projects on the state highway system.”

The Texas Transportation Commission, a five-member board appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to oversee TxDOT, adopted the guidelines in order to reaffirm the policies and requirements of state law regarding toll projects.

“The commission’s action reflects the comments we have received from Texas driver, legislators and members of our citizen advisory committees,” said Deirdre Delisi, the commission chair appointed by Perry on April 30. “Texans deserve a clear, straightforward explanation of what we are doing to solve our transportation challenges and how we are doing it.”

The commission’s adoption of the guidelines reaffirmed its commitment to meet or exceed the requirements of state law on five key issues.

“These principles will help guide TxDOT as we work to improve our state’s traffic congestion and air quality problems,” Delisi said. “The Texas legislature shares our commitment to improving highway safety and creating economic opportunity, and they expect us to meet these goals in keeping with our state’s tradition of protecting the rights of property owners.”

The five key issues adopted state:

• “All state highway facilities, including the Trans-Texas Corridor, will be completely owned by the state of Texas at all times;”

• “All Comprehensive Development Agreements will include provisions that allow TxDOT to purchase or ‘buy back’ the interest of a private developer in a CDA at any time if buying back the project would be in the best financial interest of the state;”

• “The Texas Transportation Commission shall approve, in a public meeting, the initial toll rates charged for the used of a toll project on the state highway system and the methodology for increasing the amount of tolls. All rate-setting actions will come after consultation with appropriate local metropolitan planning organizations;”

• “Only new lanes added to an existing highway will be tolled, and there will be no reduction in the number of non-tolled lanes that exist today;” and

• “Comprehensive Development Agreements will not include ‘non-compete’ clauses that would prohibit improvements to existing roadways. The department and any governmental entity can construct, reconstruct, expand, rehabilitate or maintain any roadway that is near or intersects with any roadway under the CDA.”

“As we work to develop important projects like a parallel corridor to Interstate 35 and the long-awaited I-69, we will work toward meeting our goals with these important principles in mind,” Delisi said.

According to TxDOT deputy executive director Steve Simmons, input for the principles included comments from members of the Corridor Advisory Committees and more than 27,000 comments received during the public involvement process for the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor.

Colwell said TxDOT is still in the process of reviewing those same comments before making any further decisions about the construction of the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor.

“They’re reviewing those comments in Austin, and we don’t know how long that’s going to take, because we’ve received over 14,000 comments just regarding the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor,” Colwell said. “Anyone who couldn’t get their comments in during the public involvement process was encouraged to send them in, and we actually extended the deadline for submitting those comments to April 18.

“We were committed to public awareness and involvement during the public involvement process, so we’ll be in the reviewing process with those comments for as long as it takes.”