"The way [the new highway] is going to be built, we could be riding on it in a little over 3 years. Normally it takes 3 years for environmental planning for a new road." -- Governor Bob Riley
Some interesting excerpts (the bold emphasis is ours) from the article "North Texas Tollway Authority Raising Rates on All Three Roads," by Michael A. Lindenberger, Dallas Morning News, 8/15/09:
". . . North Texas Tollway Authority board members voted 8-1 to support the toll increase, which staff had insisted was necessary to satisfy agreements NTTA struck with creditors who have lent the agency about $6 billion.
'This organization lives off of borrowed money,' said board member Gary Base of Collin County, who leads the finance committee and supported the increase. 'This is not money that we have. And we as a board have fiduciary responsibility to these debt holders.'
. . . NTTA guaranteed that rates will continue to rise, approving a measure that would trigger automatic 6 percent rate increases every two years -- without the need for another board vote.
So why the sudden rush to raise rates again, and by so much? NTTA officials at first billed the increase as a necessary response to keep lenders happy. NTTA owes some $6 billion, and its bond covenants require its revenues be at least 1.5 times the agency's soaring debt payments. Without a rate increase, NTTA's revenues would fall below that level soon.That's because traffic has not lived up to projections on its newest road, Rayburn Tollway (State Highway 121), and because traffic elsewhere is also lagging expectations. In addition, NTTA is having trouble collecting tolls owed on its all-electronic toll roads, and fewer customers are signing up for TollTags than NTTA had hoped."
The Alabama Department of Transportation today released results from a U.S. 280 motorists survey done last March.
The origin and destination study was done in conjunction with ALDOT's plans to build elevated lanes over the corridor from Double Oak Mountain to Interstate 459.
The following is the study summary of drivers on 280 from I-459 to Eagle Point Parkway: ¶
-- 94 percent of all vehicles in corridor are passenger cars
-- 60 percent of all passenger cars use corridor primarily to travel to/from work
-- 92 percent of all commercial vehicles primarily use the corridor for company business
-- 67 percent of all passenger vehicles use the corridor four time per week while only 45 percent of commercial vehicles use the corridor four times per week
-- 79 percent of all vehicles in the corridor contain only one person
-- 95 percent of all vehicles in the corridor contain one to two persons
-- Approximately 90 percent of all the vehicles containing only one person are traveling to/from work
-- 30 percent of all passenger cars using the corridor also use I-459 on the same trip
-- 41 percent of all passenger cars using the corridor reside in the 35242 ZIP code, North Shelby County along 280.
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http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/02/not_many_us_280_commuters_carp.html
