North Texas Transportation Funding Takes a Toll
April 6, 2015 4:40 PM
With traditional transportation funds running short, the North Texas Tollway Authority has become the de facto highway builder in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The flagship Dallas North Tollway is the spine of a system that extends into five counties. With about $6.3 billion of first-tier debt, NTTA carries ratings of A-minus from Standard & Poor's and A2 from Moody's Investors Service. About $1 billion of second-tier debt is rated a notch lower. Maintaining those ratings while managing explosive growth remains a constant challenge for the system.
NTTA plans to widen approximately 26 miles of the President George Bush Turnpike that arcs across the northern suburbs of Dallas to four lanes in each direction within the existing right of way and median in two phases. Construction of Phase 1 is anticipated to begin second quarter of this year and is expected to last 18 months. Phase 2 will begin in 2016. Image: NTTA.
The town of Prosper in the far northern rim of the Dallas suburbs is where the Dallas North Tollway currently ends. With Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones planning a major residential and commercial development in the town, transportation needs are expected to grow dramatically. The North Texas Tollway Authority is drawing up plans for a 17.6 mile extension of the 30-mile tollway through Grayson County, though no funding has been identified.
North Texas Tollway Authority chief financial officer Horatio Porter represents the growing influence of Fort Worth on the agency that once served only Dallas and its northern suburbs. Porter joined the NTTA in May 2013 after directing Fort Worth's annual operating budget of more than $1.4 billion and managing the city's $1.8 billion debt portfolio. Former Fort Worth mayor Kenneth Barr was appointed to the NTTA board of directors in May 2008 and now serves as chairman. NTTA's first tollway in Fort Worth, the Chisholm Trail Parkway, opened May 11, 2014. Image: TCU.
The Chisholm Trail Parkway in Fort Worth became the first road built in the city by the North Texas Tollway Authority when it opened May 11, 2014. The tollway extends into Johnson County south of Fort Worth and Tarrant County and connects to the NTTA system to the north. The NTTA created a Special Projects indenture for the $1 billion project in 2011 to protect its credit rating on the existing system. Image: NTTA.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike in this 1950s photo is the model for many of the current toll opponents in Texas. The 30-mile highway operated as a toll road from 1957-1977. After the turnpike debt was paid off, the toll booths came down and it became the Interstate 30 freeway connecting Dallas and Fort Worth, with the Mid-Cities boomtown of Arlington between them. The Texas Turnpike Authority that operated the toll road evolved into the North Texas Tollway Authority. Image: NTTA.
This chart shows growth in toll-road mileage from 2003 to 2013, according to federal data. Since the federal gas tax was last raised, the tax has lost about a third of its value, according to the Federal Highway Administration. FHWA projects that the amount of driving done by each American is unlikely to grow in the years to come. That finding followed 61 straight forecasts that overestimated the actual increase in driving.
State Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, tells an anti-toll rally in Austin on March 23 that opposition to tolling was the reason he defeated fellow Republican Sen. John Carona in 2014. Carona, a 24-year legislator who had chaired the Senate Transportation Committee, lost in what may have been the most expensive state Senate primary in Texas history with more than $6.3 million spent. "It's because of you that I was able to beat Carona and bring a new day to Austin," Huffines told the toll opponents.
A controversial proposed $1.5 billion toll road along the banks of the Trinity River through downtown Dallas is depicted in this rendering. Sold to the voters as a "parkway" through an ecologically redeveloped Trinity, the throughway is instead being planned as a major highway. The North Texas Tollway Authority has taken no responsibility for the project, which is in the hands of the city of Dallas. Some question whether the tollway will ever be built, given the regulatory hurdles, public opposition and lack of funding.
Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, has introduced legislation banning the use of state transportation funds for any development of a toll road along the banks of the Trinity River. Anchia said his constituents in south Dallas are strongly opposed to the project. Anchia has joined with Republican legislators from the wealthy suburbs north of Dallas to oppose any more toll road construction in North Texas. Some of the 75 bills in the Texas Legislature require that toll roads become free roads once their debt is paid.
