Free Republic

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - The Harris County Toll Road Authority collected about $760 million in tolls the last fiscal year, yet it is improbable that any Harris County toll road will ever be “paid off,” Channel 2 Investigates has learned.   “Not with system financing, which allows us to borrow money at a favorable rate to build new projects,” said Patti Evans, the authority’s assistant director of communications.In other words, tolls collected today are not only used to pay down system-wide debt, but to construct more toll roads in the future.    “I think it is important to say —...

Landscaping most freeways part of Super Bowl plan It was just three words in a 2,500-word essay in The Economist magazine a couple of years ago, but to Charles McMahen they still sting: "Houston is ugly." Though the article about the city was largely positive, and the ugly reference was aimed broadly at Houston's sprawl, lack of zoning and other issues, McMahen cites the sentence when talking about an initiative to improve the city's gateways. "Clearly, 59 North, the Hardy Toll Road and 45 North are really in need of some work," said McMahen, chairman of the Quality of Life...

The Metropolitan Transit Authority will have space for a rail line in the middle of a widened Katy Freeway, officials involved in the $1 billion expansion project said Tuesday. But Metro President and CEO Shirley DeLibero said such a rail line depends on two very big ifs -- voter approval and federal dollars. To date, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, has blocked federal funding to Metro for rail. "Without federal funding, we can't build anything," DeLibero said. Under a tentative agreement by the agencies involved, Metro would pay the state $5 million for reinforcements to support future trains,...