In recent years Texas legislators have reversed the state’s embrace of tolling and long-term P3s that led to multi-billion-dollar express toll lane projects in the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston metro areas. Long lists of proposed P3s to expand formerly planned networks of express toll lanes in those two metro areas have been rejected by legislators. And most recently, the state has de-privatized the SH 288 express toll lanes P3 project, thanks to a poorly written termination-for-convenience clause in the long-term agreement.
Yet despite the actions of the Texas Transportation Commission, the Legislature, and TxDOT, two contradictions are visible on tolling in Texas. First, the legacy toll agencies and the newer regional mobility authorities continue to add tolled capacity in their metro areas. Also, TxDOT plans to keep variable tolling in place on the SH 288 express lanes, albeit at lower rates than the P3 company has been charging. And it continues to operate its own revenue-financed express toll lanes on I-35East in Dallas, rated BBB+ by Fitch.
