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Your cash is no longer good on the President George Bush Turnpike. The North Texas Tollway Authority is converting the toll road to all-electronic beginning at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
Most frequent users already use TollTags, which affix to a windshield and automatically deduct tolls. Those who don't have TollTags are invited to just drive on through -- and a ZipCash bill generated by surveillance cameras will be sent in the mail to the vehicle's registered owner.
Honkin' Mad! is back after two weeks of R&R. As of today, the nonstop flow of news and entertainment you've come to expect is back in full force. Sorry that the content has been a little thin during my vacation -- but hey, this blog is basically a one-man show, and when the one man unplugs ...
A big thanks to the loyal readers who keep coming back to HM for their fix of traffic news from Dallas-Fort Worth and the rest of the world.
As for my vacation, it was remarkably unremarkable. I didn't do much of anything (which, by the way, I'd highly recommend). Mainly, I got reacquainted with my yard and spent lots of time with the wife and kids. Highlights:
-- Gordon.
Dallas-Fort Worth drivers are big meanies, according to this report.
Are you honkin' mad about traffic in DFW? Tell us about it in our poll.
Texans may quality for the 7-year-old AirCheck Texas voucher program, as well as a proposed federal law to pay people cash for clunkers.
Basswood Boulevard is one of the main east-west roads through Park Glen in far north Fort Worth. But on Sunday, motorists will have to find another way to scoot between Fort Worth, Keller and Watauga. Basswood will be closed for much of Sunday so the Union Pacific Railroad can upgrade its tracks. Detours will be posted.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott just told the Star-Telegram that the Texas Department of Transportation "is trying to get around the constitution" by refusing to change contract language for the North Tarrant Express project.
North Tarrant Express includes the expansion of Loop 820, Texas 121/183 and eventually Interstate 35W. But in a phone interview a few minutes ago, Abbott said the conduct of transportation department lawyers is "clearly putting the contract in danger."
The key problem is, the transportation department is refusing to insert language in a 52-year agreement with the private developer that makes it clear state funds are subject to appropriation every two years by the Legislature.
The developer is NTE Mobility Partners, a team led by the U.S. arm of Madrid-based Cintra.
The same dispute between the AG and transportation department likely will come up when it comes time to review the LBJ Managed Lanes project in Dallas.
In Tarrant County, the North Tarrant Express is a whopping project totaling nearly $2 billion. It represents freeway work that has been needed for two decades, but that the transportation department alone could not afford.
So, after a lengthy bidding process that ended in January, Cintra and the other members of NTE Mobility Partners agreed to put up $300 million in equity and $1.1 billion in debt (including federal and bank loans and private activity bonds), in return for the right to build the North Tarrant Express project and collect tolls on proposed new express lanes for 52 years.
In return, the transportation department would contribute $570 million in public funds to the project.
But the Texas Constitution doesn't allow the transportation department to make that commitment, Abbott said. While some of those dollars are in hand, the bulk of that money would have to come in future years, based upon appropriations from future legislators, he said.
"We have told TxDot what they had to do in these contracts in order to get them to comply with the Texas Constitution," Abbott said. "For about a month now, TxDot lawyers have repeatedly come back to our office with angles and attempts to get around the constitution. At first we thought they didn't understand the constitution. Then we thought they were trying to play games. Now we can't understand what they're doing. Their conduct is clearly putting the contract in danger. Their conduct has been inappropriate."
The delays could lead to yet another postponement of the proposed expansion of Northeast Loop 820 in North Richland Hills and Haltom City, Texas 121/183 in Bedford and Hurst and eventually I-35W in north Fort Worth. Or, at the very least, it could lead to financial penalties that cost Tarrant County some of its highway funds. When the transportation department and developer reached a conditional agreement in late January, they predicted the attorney general's review would take 60 days.
Instead, nearly 150 days later, the two sides have had to extend the agreement to avoid having financial penalties kick in.
Transportation department officials declined to elaborate on the status of the agreement, except to say that they're making progress. Maribel Chavez, the department's Fort Worth district engineer, disputed the assertion that the project is being "held up."
"The Attorney General is required to do a thorough review and thorough analysis," she said. "It won't be concluded until we address whatever questions they have."
Business leaders along the I-35W corridor are flabbergasted that the long-awaited project is enduring yet another delay.
"Where has everybody been the last six years? For it to get all the way to the goal line, and the attorneys for all parties to not resolve this, is shocking," said Mike Berry, president of Hillwood Properties. The company is developing the Alliance Airport-area, and considers I-35W its backbone and main transportation connection to the outside world. "It's a fundamental premise of a business deal. They've been talking about it for six years, yet went ahead and awarded a concession and executed a contract and now they're saying they don't have language the parties can live with and the attorney general can bless?"
-- Gordon Dickson
A dispute between the Texas Department of Transportation and state attorney general's office threatens to once again delay the North Tarrant Express project, which includes the widening of Loop 820 in Northeast Tarrant County.
The dispute also could delay expansion of LBJ Freeway in Dallas.
The Regional Transportation Council has just voted during a meeting in Arlington to send a letter to AG Greg Abbott, asking his office to cease any delays on the North Tarrant Express.
The project includes construction of new toll and nontoll lanes between Interstate 35W and North East Mall, plus expansion of Texas 121/183 in Bedford and Hurst. The project is to be managed by a group of private developers known as NTE Mobility Partners, which is headed by the U.S. arm of Spanish firm Cintra. However, state law enacted two years ago requires that the AG's office review agreements between the state transportation department and private developers before any work can begin.
The AG's office objects to the wording in the agreement between the transportation department and NTE Mobility Partners, according to a May 28 AG letter to transportation department executive director Amadeo Saenz Jr. The AG is concerned that the project commits the transportation department to spend public money over a longer period of time than the agency is allowed under state law.
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley is livid, noting that if the dispute causes further delays to North Tarrant Express, the Fort Worth area could lose some of its highway funding, under financial penalties spelled out in a preliminary agreement signed in January. Under that agreement, the project was expected to clear this hurdle with the AG's office by April.
High water has been reported on the Trinity Railway Express, the commuter line from downtown Fort Worth to Dallas. Riders are asked to be patient, as delays are possible this afternoon while workers carefully check the tracks.
Right now, the high water is between CentrePort and Medical/Market Center stations, according to officials at Dallas Area Rapid Transit. DART co-owns the TRE with the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (the T).
About 10,000 riders per day use TRE, including many Tarrant County residents who work or go to school in Dallas. DART also operates an electrified light-rail system that has been experiencing delays today because of power outages, so be patient there, too.
-- Gordon.
