"Past studies suggest a 50-cent charge to get on a toll ramp."
Meetings set on tolls for 1604
6/27/2006
Patrick Driscoll
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2006
State officials this week will cart out their maps, charts and microphones for the latest round of public meetings on toll roads — these for lanes to be added to Loop 1604.
The meetings, from 6 to 10 p.m., will be held tonight at Live Oak Civic Center and Wednesday at the University of Texas at San Antonio's Convocation Center.
Plans call for a 36-mile tollway on North Loop 1604, with six toll lanes from Texas 151 to Bandera Road and four from Bandera to Interstate 10 near Randolph AFB.
Drivers could pay about 14 to 16 cents a mile, Texas Department of Transportation officials say, though a TxDOT survey last year tested attitudes about paying as much as double that, depending on times of day and whether people were sharing rides.
Ramps would also be added to upgrade Loop 1604 interchanges with the freeways it crosses.
Past studies suggest a 50-cent charge to get on a toll ramp.
By tolling new lanes and ramps, construction could be funded a decade or more sooner. Existing lanes and ramps will remain free.
"The purpose is to improve mobility and safety in this corridor in a timely manner," said David Casteel, who heads TxDOT's San Antonio office.
Critics say congestion relief will be available only to those who can afford to pay tolls and that everybody else will be stuck in gridlock.
"Toll lanes aren't what we want," said Terri Hall of San Antonio Toll Party.
The public meetings are part of an environmental assessment TxDOT expects to finish next spring. If federal officials find no significant impacts, construction could start next year — otherwise a full impact study would be launched.
Two private consortiums — one led by Cintra of Spain and the other by Macquarie of Australia — are competing to build and operate the Loop 1604 toll system as well as take over a proposed tollway on U.S. 281 north of the loop.
The groups might submit their plans by the end of the year, and TxDOT could choose a winner by next summer.
More than 70 miles of toll roads are planned on the North Side, including new lanes on Interstate 35 and Bandera Road as well as a Wurzbach Parkway interchange with U.S. 281.
pdriscoll@express-news.net
© 2006 San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com
6/27/2006
Patrick Driscoll
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2006
State officials this week will cart out their maps, charts and microphones for the latest round of public meetings on toll roads — these for lanes to be added to Loop 1604.
The meetings, from 6 to 10 p.m., will be held tonight at Live Oak Civic Center and Wednesday at the University of Texas at San Antonio's Convocation Center.
Plans call for a 36-mile tollway on North Loop 1604, with six toll lanes from Texas 151 to Bandera Road and four from Bandera to Interstate 10 near Randolph AFB.
Drivers could pay about 14 to 16 cents a mile, Texas Department of Transportation officials say, though a TxDOT survey last year tested attitudes about paying as much as double that, depending on times of day and whether people were sharing rides.
Ramps would also be added to upgrade Loop 1604 interchanges with the freeways it crosses.
Past studies suggest a 50-cent charge to get on a toll ramp.
By tolling new lanes and ramps, construction could be funded a decade or more sooner. Existing lanes and ramps will remain free.
"The purpose is to improve mobility and safety in this corridor in a timely manner," said David Casteel, who heads TxDOT's San Antonio office.
Critics say congestion relief will be available only to those who can afford to pay tolls and that everybody else will be stuck in gridlock.
"Toll lanes aren't what we want," said Terri Hall of San Antonio Toll Party.
The public meetings are part of an environmental assessment TxDOT expects to finish next spring. If federal officials find no significant impacts, construction could start next year — otherwise a full impact study would be launched.
Two private consortiums — one led by Cintra of Spain and the other by Macquarie of Australia — are competing to build and operate the Loop 1604 toll system as well as take over a proposed tollway on U.S. 281 north of the loop.
The groups might submit their plans by the end of the year, and TxDOT could choose a winner by next summer.
More than 70 miles of toll roads are planned on the North Side, including new lanes on Interstate 35 and Bandera Road as well as a Wurzbach Parkway interchange with U.S. 281.
pdriscoll@express-news.net
© 2006 San Antonio Express-News:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Tuesday, June 27, 2006
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