Madrid-based Cintra is the main partner in a team of private developers that today was awarded a contract to build two toll lanes in each direction on NE Loop 820 and Airport Freeway in Northeast Tarrant County. Cintra is heading up a team called NTE Mobililty Partners.
The losing team, OHL Infrastructure Inc., also from Madrid, was disqualified from the bidding for failing to post the necessary security (i.e. a bond, deposit or form of insurance, if you will ...).
... Although the contract with Cintra was approved today by the Texas Transportation Commission, it will take about 61 days for the deal to be finalized.
Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in late 2010 and be completed in 2015.
Existing lanes will remain toll-free, but motorists will have the option of jumping on the tolls lanes to escape congestion. Tolls for a one-way trip on the 13-mile stretch of road will range from $1.20 to $6.50. That's the from the 820/I-35W interchange in north Fort Worth to the Texas 121/183 split in Bedford, according to the proposal.
Cintra was also the company that master planned the I-35 corridor reliever route of the Trans-Texas Corridor. State officials recently announced that they were discontinuing the Trans-Texas Corridor in its current form because of statewide opposition.
More later.
-- Gordon.
Cintra huh. Gee, the suspense was killing me.
Posted by: Jamie | January 29, 2009 at 01:50 PM
Texas Transportation comm. should be fired from there job. As many people that are out of work and we are giving the contract to a spanish company. How smart is that? This should be stopped immediately. There are lots of construction firms in the united states that would be more than happy to do this job. Write the governor and put a stop to the crazies in Austin and washington.
Posted by: arch anderson | January 29, 2009 at 01:52 PM
Texas Transportation comm. should be fired from there job. As many people that are out of work and we are giving the contract to a spanish company. How smart is that? This should be stopped immediately. There are lots of construction firms in the united states that would be more than happy to do this job. Write the governor and put a stop to the crazies in Austin and washington.
Posted by: arch anderson | January 29, 2009 at 01:53 PM
Our Tax dollars going oversea again, but on a brighter note maybe they will do a better job then TXDOT ever did
Posted by: ken | January 29, 2009 at 02:00 PM
The Texas Transportation Commission should be ashamed of themselves. Why in the world would you send our tax dollars overseas when they could go to a US company and be reinvested here in the US to create more jobs. Any organization, whether governmental or private, that causes job loses by using offshore companies should be restricted from receiving federal funds.
Posted by: Kendall Kinnear | January 29, 2009 at 03:21 PM