Honkin' Mad

Finally, a deal for 161 that may stick

By GORDON DICKSON gdickson@star-telegram.com
The Texas Department of Transportation and North Texas Tollway Authority have reached a deal for Texas 161 in Grand Prairie, ending a tense week of negotiations and greatly improving the odds the toll road will be partly open for the Dallas’ Cowboys’ planned 2009 move to Arlington.
The tollway authority will pay $458 million above the cost of construction and keep the road as part of its Dallas-area toll system. The North Texas region will use the money for other road work. After 52 years, the tollway authority will split any surpluses from tolls collected on the road with the region 50-50.
The tollway authority is expected to call an emergency board meeting this weekend to ratify the deal, which was hashed out Friday afternoon in a bargaining session. Several key state lawmakers, including state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, served as mediators.
Now that the agreement has been reached, Metroplex officials are reasonably certain they can get the toll road at least partly complete between Texas 183 and Interstate 20 by late summer 2009, when the Dallas Cowboys are scheduled to move into their new Arlington stadium. Texas 161 will serve as a southwestern extension of the tollway authority’s President George Bush Turnpike and will be a crucial gateway to the Arlington entertainment district. It’ll also be a crucial cog in the region’s plan for moving people in and out of the 2011 Super Bowl and its many parties and other satellite events that likely will be held in cities across Dallas-Fort Worth. And, on any given workday, the toll road also will be a crucial reliever route for Texas 360 in Arlington, which runs parallel to Texas 161 about two miles to the west.
“We’re very pleased the project is moving forward,” transportation department spokesman Christopher Lippincott said. Transportation department officials would have preferred that private developers lease the toll project but bent to the region’s wishes, he said. “We heard the region tell us they wanted to build it now, build it as a toll road. We heard the region say, ‘We prefer that the NTTA build it, even if it means leaving money on the table.’ We’ve honored those three requests.”
Friday’s agreement ended a tense week of negotiations over how much the road was worth, and whether the deal should be a 52 lease or a permanent transfer of the road from the state highway system to the tollway authority. The road is one of precious few "cash positive" toll projects in the North Texas region, meaning that the road is capable of generating enough toll revenue to pay for other, less lucrative road work in the area.
Work crews with contractor Williams Brothers of Houston have been in town all week and were scheduled to get the project underway on Wednesday. But then the negotiations broke down, and the dirt-turning was put on hold. State officials expect the contractor to get formal permission to begin work on Monday, or by mid-week. It may take a day or two for workers and their machinery to be working at full speed along the 11-mile corridor. “We’re good with it. We felt it was a good deal,” said Regional Transportation Council chairman Oscar Trevino, who sat in on the Friday meeting. “It meets the extended deadline and gets 161 in as a toll road.”
GORDON DICKSON, 817-685-3816

E-mails from the 161 standoff

An exchange of e-mails sent Wednesday night between North Texas Tollway Authority executive director Jorge Figueredo and Texas Department of Transportation executive director Amadeo Saenz, with e-mail addresses and cc's redacted at the request of the person who provided them to me:

Amadeo, Thank you for your e-mail. As we spoke previously, the ntta proposal which included three alternatives expires tonight at midnight. The ntta proposal alternative #2 was adopted by the rtc yesterday and communicated to txdot as the preferred alternative of the region. Ntta strongly requests that txdot accept the rtc recommendation and alternative #2 prior to tonight's transportation commission deadline. Thank you for your consideration. Jorge.

Jorge As we discussed we have requested our contractor to not begin work until Monday so as to all time for consideration of the offer outlined in my letter of today. I realize this is still a short time frame but it is imperative that the project work begin in order to meet the commitments made by the region concerning this project.TxDot letter TxDot proposal

Sent: 4/16/2008 6:45:17 PM Subject: Response to Amadeo Saenz Letter of 4-16-08 regarding SH 161 NTTA proposals Amadeo: Attached is an URGENT response from the NTTA regarding your letter received at approximately 5:30 p.m. today regarding the MOU and Transmittal letter for the SH 161 project. A hard copy will follow. Thanks Jorge Figueredo NTTA response

Updated version of 161 saga

BY GORDON DICKSON

gdickson@star-telegram.com

Just when it seemed progress was being made on Texas 161, the long-awaited toll road project in Grand Prairie hit another snag Wednesday night.

Work was supposed to begin Thursday on the road between Texas 183 and Interstate 20, in hopes of getting it ready in time for the opening of the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington by 2009.

But that dirt-turning was postponed until Monday at the earliest after officials from the Texas Department of Transportation and North Texas Tollway Authority again failed to reach an agreement.

"If either party is hurting the ability to get this project to construction, or ensuring the project is a toll road, we would have a concern," Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said Wednesday night.

Morris was not involved in the negotiations Wednesday. But on Tuesday, the Regional Transportation Council that Morris oversees narrowly endorsed the Plano-based tollway authority's proposal to set the value of Texas 161 at $548 million -- above the actual cost of construction. That money would be borrowed from bond sales and given to the North Texas region for use on other projects, provided that the Texas Department of Transportation allowed the tollway authority to keep the road in perpetuity and make it a part of the region's tollway system.

But the Texas Department of Transportation on Wednesday evening balked at the prospect of accepting the tollway authority's terms, and instead sent a counter-proposal that limited the agreement to 52 years.

The tollway authority promptly rejected the change.

Both agencies had been working under a midnight deadline to set a value for the toll road. The transportation department initially said that if their deadline wasn't met the road would become a gas-tax supported road, not a toll road, which would cost the North Texas region hundreds of millions of dollars. But Wednesday night, agency spokesman Christopher Lippincott said the agency would be willing to extend the deadline to Monday to give the parties time to talk.

But tollway officials insisted their offer would expire.

If the tollway authority doesn't take the project, the transportation department could lease the road to private developers for up to 52 years. And, TxDot's Dallas district engineer, Bill Hale, has said those developers have promised to pay up to $1.5 billion to the region to take over Texas 161, which is considered a crucial north-south connection in the spine of the Metroplex and an alternate route to congested Texas 360.

But a private developer would be required to use the tollway authority's TollTag electronic toll collection system, which would require more negotiations between the agencies whose leaders appear to be growing increasingly distrustful of each other.

The setback for the proposed 11-mile road raises questions about whether work can be complete in time for the 2009 football season and, even more importantly, the 2011 Super Bowl.

"Our offer expires at midnight," tollway executive director Jorge Figueredo said. "I was very hopeful and I thought the region had spoken and we were going forward with this project. I was very disappointed that TxDot didn't follow the lead of the region. I still want to deliver the project."

But TxDot's Lippincott said there is still time to negotiate. "We had an agreement that includes business terms of 52 years. If they can do it in 52 years we've got a deal. We feel like that reflects the previous discussion. We've got significant pressure not only from the community but from the RTC. We've heard the region's wishes. We want to give it to the NTTA even if it means we don't get the maximum amount, even if they basically get a discount."

Gordon Dickson, 817-685-3816

161 Clear As Mud ... Last minute snag over toll road

Just when it seemed progress was being made on Texas 161, the long-awaited toll road project hit another snag this evening.

The Texas Department of Transportation and North Texas Tollway Authority were expected to agree today on the value of the road, a step that assures it gets built as a toll road -- not a gas-tax supported road -- and is at least partially open by the time the Dallas Cowboys move into their new Arlington stadium in late summer 2009.

But then officials from the two agencies, who it's fair to say have lost no love while negotiating this project during the past year, fired off last-minute proposals at each other that appeared to be meant to delay the progress.

Read TxDot's proposal here and here.

Read NTTA's proposal here and here.

The Texas Transportation Commission originally said that if the two sides hadn't agreed on a value for Texas 161 by midnight tonight the road would be built as a tax road ... and Metroplex commuters would lose out on potentially hundreds of millions of dollars that both sides agree the road can generate for other road work in the region.

NTTA says it's final offer is a $548 value for the road, over and above the cost of construction between Texas 183 in Irving and Interstate 20 in Grand Prairie. NTTA also wants the road taken off the highway system and turned over to the tollway's system, which includes the President George Bush Turnpike and Dallas North Tollway, in perpetuity (forever, in other words).

TxDot would rather have private firms lease the road for 52 years. TxDot's Dallas district engineer, Bill Hale, says private companies were offering to pay up to $1.5 billion for the project, give or take a few mil, before NTTA stepped in. Plus, after the 52-year period, the state would get the road back and could re-lease it for more mulah.

DFW leaders endorse giving highway 161 to tollway authority

The toll road in Grand Prairie would generate $548 million for other area road work.READ MORE ABOUT IT HERE.

NTTA's 121 deal not complete

The North Texas Tollway Authority is still trying to complete its financing of Texas 121 toll road in Denton/Collin. The success of that deal is crucial to future toll projects, including Texas 161 in Grand Prairie and Southwest Parkway in Fort Worth.READ MORE HERE

NTTA spokeswoman Sherita Coffelt wanted to clarify that the agency's decision to sell only $2.3 billion to 2.4 billion in bonds for 121 and other needs was a calculation on their part because of bond market conditions ... and despite what some critics are saying it's not true that NTTA tried but failed to sell the whole $5.2 bb.

"We only went to sale on $2.3 billion of the bonds," she wrote in an e-mail. "We did not come up short. We actually did better. We had orders totaling $16 billion, but did not have enough product to meet the demand."

161 frontage roads to open

Changes are comin' to Texas 161. The 161 frontage road lanes will open sometime in the next week between I-30 and Carrier Parkway, Grand Prairie officials said in an e-mail.

Afterward, NW 19th Street will close. The 161 frontage roads will be narrow and not suitable for truck traffic. Alternate truck routes: