TRANSPORTATiON ImPROvEmENT PROGRAm - Houston ...

ATTACHMENT #3
CTC comments to Draft 2013-2016 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) March 2012
Toll roads should require an investment grade study and a discussion of contract terms and
investment risk should be made public and available for comment as part of the transparency
process before final commitments are entered into. How do we quantify the toll financing costs
that are shifted to other tolled projects or that the taxpayers must bear if the road toll covenants
are not met and the road owner must rely on the full faith and credit of the state or county?
Any toll road that is to be financed with a public private partnership has especial disclosure and
public comment requirements of pending contract, financing structures, default, and risk
management provisions. These contracts are not “Confidential” as to their general structure.
Any member of the public can look at a go-by, say in the case of PPP toll roads that have gone
bankrupt.
FM 1093/Westpark Tollway
For cross-jurisdiction purposes and the question of which authorities get what percentage of
dollars, a prime HGAC concern, how do we quantify how much more we are spending on other
added road capacity projects because of driving that is induced by, or which supports, our
regional transportation policies? To put this in terms of an example, local roads like Kirby and
Shepherd receive capital funding through the City of Houston CIP. Yet a portion of their traffic
volume is generated by the Westpark Tollway.
A resident of Simonton can access a job on Kirby through the Westpark Tollway and FM 1093.
He pays a user fee to HCTRA for use of the tollway, but none of his property taxes or tolls raise
revenue for the City of Houston. There is no assurance that he spends money and generates sales
taxes for Houston. He burns gasoline, which generates revenue for the Federal Highway Trust
Fund and the Texas Fund 6, but no direct benefit accrues to the City of Houston.
Is it a public benefit to provide infrastructure for a long commute between Simonton and central
Houston? We look forward to having a discussion about whether transportation projects are
beneficial. But let's not pretend that roads pay for themselves just because HCTRA can show a
profit on a handful of tollroads.
Hardy Toll Road And IH 45 S (NHHIP)
Comments about the Hardy Toll Road are made jointly with comments regarding IH 45,
taken together as the North Houston Highway Improvement Program (NHHIP).
CTC adheres to a fix it first policy regarding the interchanges v the linear features of IH-45
and the Hardy Toll Road.
Without further statistics, anecdotally it appears to CTC that choke points in the NHHIP are at
the interchanges and downtown. We ask that TxDOT give serious consideration to breaking out
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