Here’s an idea: take the gas tax money currently diverted to the DPS (around $700M/yr, IIRC), and use THAT to build the parkway for free.
“Here’s an idea: take the gas tax money currently diverted to the DPS (around $700M/yr, IIRC), and use THAT to build the parkway for free.”
That’s what really sucks. The land owners were going to give the right of way to the state to build the GP as a Freeway. But once the state decided to make it a ‘revenue engine’ (toll road talk), the owners told them to take a hike and PAY for it.
$700M is a lot of money and likely could have built the entire project, if the land was free and it was a freeway. And the $700M you mention was just one year’s budget.
So, as it is, we end up with getting screwed (again) with a white elephant (if we’re lucky), but most likely, once Cintra does the math, nothing at all.