Cintra-Zachry seals deal on the remainder of Texas 130
Details on private turnpike emerge
Transportation commission expected to approve 50-year agreement on Texas 130 today.
June 29, 2006
By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
The Texas Transportation Commission today is likely to give a Spanish-American partnership a 50-year contract to build and operate the southern 40 miles of the Texas 130 toll road.
Wednesday, commission Chairman Ric Williamson and agency staff members filled in details about how this partnership will work. The deal marks the first time the state has handed over construction and operation of a state highway to a private company.
The cost to the private builder, Cintra-Zachry, will be about $1.35 billion for design, right-of-way purchase (although the state would have title to the land) and construction of the divided four-lane road from Mustang Ridge to Seguin.
Officials also said Wednesday that the new road would open in about 2012 and that tolls will start at about 12 cents a mile.
The project would complete a loop around Central Texas' Interstate 35 congestion, which begins at Georgetown.
The upper 49 miles of Texas 130 are being built by another company, Lone Star Infrastructure, which at the state's option may maintain the road for several years after it opens in segments late this year and in 2007. But the state Transportation Department and the commission would be fully in charge on that section.
Not so with the southern 40 miles. Cintra-Zachry, which under a separate contract signed last year may end up building a turnpike paralleling I-35 from Oklahoma to Laredo, would run the toll operations and set the toll rates. But there will be a ceiling to those tolls.
When the road opens, tolls should be comparable to those on the northern 49 miles, about 12 cents a mile for cars and light trucks and up to 50 cents a mile for 18-wheelers. The rate could be raised annually, but under the agreement (to be released today after the commission vote, officials said) that percentage increase would be tied to inflation.
Cintra-Zachry, could, if it wants, charge tolls lower than that ceiling. The agency will get an as-yet-undisclosed percentage of those tolls from day one, increasing in two steps based on total revenue to a 50-50 split of revenue.
The agency estimates that over 50 years it will get about $1.6 billion from the revenue sharing.
The state Transportation Department will get a $25 million payment as soon as the project has environmental clearance, probably late this year. Amadeo Saenz, the agen- cy's engineering director, said that under state law that money must go to areas of the state adjacent to the road and that it would be used by the Austin and San Antonio districts of the Transportation Department.
Saenz said that the agreement will spell out road condition standards that Cintra-Zachry will be required to maintain over the five decades it controls the road. The agreement, Saenz said, will not require that the road be constructed of concrete (like the northern 40 miles), which is more durable than asphalt.
What if the road has unexpectedly low traffic and the project goes bankrupt?
James Bass, the Transportation Department's chief financial officer, said the state would have the option to take over the road for 80 percent of the debt still owed or fair market value, whichever is lower, and continue to operate it as a toll road.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com
Transportation commission expected to approve 50-year agreement on Texas 130 today.
June 29, 2006
By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
The Texas Transportation Commission today is likely to give a Spanish-American partnership a 50-year contract to build and operate the southern 40 miles of the Texas 130 toll road.
Wednesday, commission Chairman Ric Williamson and agency staff members filled in details about how this partnership will work. The deal marks the first time the state has handed over construction and operation of a state highway to a private company.
The cost to the private builder, Cintra-Zachry, will be about $1.35 billion for design, right-of-way purchase (although the state would have title to the land) and construction of the divided four-lane road from Mustang Ridge to Seguin.
Officials also said Wednesday that the new road would open in about 2012 and that tolls will start at about 12 cents a mile.
The project would complete a loop around Central Texas' Interstate 35 congestion, which begins at Georgetown.
The upper 49 miles of Texas 130 are being built by another company, Lone Star Infrastructure, which at the state's option may maintain the road for several years after it opens in segments late this year and in 2007. But the state Transportation Department and the commission would be fully in charge on that section.
Not so with the southern 40 miles. Cintra-Zachry, which under a separate contract signed last year may end up building a turnpike paralleling I-35 from Oklahoma to Laredo, would run the toll operations and set the toll rates. But there will be a ceiling to those tolls.
When the road opens, tolls should be comparable to those on the northern 49 miles, about 12 cents a mile for cars and light trucks and up to 50 cents a mile for 18-wheelers. The rate could be raised annually, but under the agreement (to be released today after the commission vote, officials said) that percentage increase would be tied to inflation.
Cintra-Zachry, could, if it wants, charge tolls lower than that ceiling. The agency will get an as-yet-undisclosed percentage of those tolls from day one, increasing in two steps based on total revenue to a 50-50 split of revenue.
The agency estimates that over 50 years it will get about $1.6 billion from the revenue sharing.
The state Transportation Department will get a $25 million payment as soon as the project has environmental clearance, probably late this year. Amadeo Saenz, the agen- cy's engineering director, said that under state law that money must go to areas of the state adjacent to the road and that it would be used by the Austin and San Antonio districts of the Transportation Department.
Saenz said that the agreement will spell out road condition standards that Cintra-Zachry will be required to maintain over the five decades it controls the road. The agreement, Saenz said, will not require that the road be constructed of concrete (like the northern 40 miles), which is more durable than asphalt.
What if the road has unexpectedly low traffic and the project goes bankrupt?
James Bass, the Transportation Department's chief financial officer, said the state would have the option to take over the road for 80 percent of the debt still owed or fair market value, whichever is lower, and continue to operate it as a toll road.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Thursday, June 29, 2006
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