Replies

Here's a conversion to toll roads on I-10 in Houston [Katy Frwy].... Doesn't quite meet up with your facts does it? Pay if you want or use the free lanes...

Katy Freeway expansion gets the green light

Reconstruction and expansion of the Katy Freeway (I-10) at Houston – at a total cost of $1.1 billion – began in June.

Gary Trietsch, TxDOT Houston district engineer, said the groundbreaking was held on a Saturday and work began the next day. Work on that seven-mile portion from Mason Road to Park Ten will go 24/7 for the next 35 months.

Bids were opened July 1 on two other projects – three miles from Katy to Grand Parkway, the I-10/I-610 interchange, and 2.6 miles of I-610 south to Post Oak Boulevard. Trietsch expected work on both would start in October.

Before the project is over in 2009, said Trietsch, TxDOT will reconstruct 23 miles of interstate freeway, while under traffic, and reconstruct two freeway-freeway interchanges and 27 grade-separated intersections. The existing highway has 11 lanes; the reconstructed highway will have 18 to 20 lanes, including four-lane mainlanes in each direction, three-lane frontage roads and one or two managed lanes. Most notable are the four toll lanes in the middle.

Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade and Douglas, Inc. is the general engineering consultant, with nine subconsultants. There are 10 section design consultants, 30 subconsultants, and seven construction contractors.

The story of how tolls were added to I-10 and the financial involvement of a local partner is the forerunner of how expensive major facilities likely will be built in the 21st century.

John Mack, FHWA district engineer for South and East Texas, said that the federal Value Pricing Program enacted in 1991 allowed Texas to permit fewer than two persons in its High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes on the Katy.

Trietsch said drivers without passengers can use the HOV lanes if they buy toll tags that record the vehicle identity when it uses the lanes. The concept has not been heavily used in the first several years – about 200 a day, said Trietsch.

TEA 21 okayed tolls on existing interstates on a pilot basis.

The Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) came up with an offer of $250 million to jump start the project, to be repaid from tolls on the four middle lanes, all collected electronically. HCTRA agreed to go with value pricing and the funding agreement between TxDOT, FHWA and HCTRA was signed March 14.

A local group, Katy Corridor Coalition, filed a lawsuit last September opposing the design. It asserted the need for more detailed studies, wanted sections of the mainlanes to be depressed, and expressed concern about preserving right of way for future transit alternatives.

"Here's a conversion to toll roads on I-10 in Houston [Katy Frwy].... Doesn't quite meet up with your facts does it? Pay if you want or use the free lanes... "

This pre-dates Perry's plan. I was at a hearing on this, and spoke on camera, and that was in the 1999 to 2000 time frame. So, maybe this helped Perry get the idea of the conversions to toll roads - but it happened while Bush was governor.

By the way, if you want to see how much of a disaster this type of scheme is, take a look at the California SH 91 toll lanes (an identical concept). They now charge over 50 cents per mile at peak times.

If others want the government telling them when to drive, and then punishing them big-time for their employers' working hours, more power to them - but not me.