[Diddle E. Squat]

The first article is well-done, the 2nd is typical journalism, where the author is either too lazy to comprehend what he is writing about and get the facts straight or dishonest in pursuing his agenda. For example:

"Fully Directional" interchanges will set taxpayers back more than $49 million each.

They won't cost taxpayers a single penny, since the toll company would pay 100% of the construction costs plus pay more than $2 billion to the state upfront for rights fees. $2.3 billion that can be used on other roads instead of spending taxpayer money.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

If I recall correctly, a loan from the Federal Government will be used to pay for part of the construction costs. If Cintra-Zachry defaults on this loan, taxpayers from coast to coast will be on the hook for parts of the fully-directional interchanges, bridges, pavement, and so on.

[TexanToTheCore]

"$2.3 billion that can be used on other roads instead of spending taxpayer money."


That amounts to about 3 1/2 months of revenue for TXDOT. They got it cheap.