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Texas Stimulus Road Projects

August 20th, 2009

When the stimulus money was first approved President Obama and Congress promised it would get people back to work. The transportation funding was intended to have an immediate impact because it would focus on shovel ready projects.

The Texas Department of Transportation decided three areas of Mopac were among those projects and approved spending more than $5 million in stimulus money on the heavily traveled highway.

The work won’t make the Mopac wider, but it should make it smoother. All three of those projects involve resurfacing the roadway.

The work was first approved in April and given the final green light in June. So where’s the work?

Of the 22 projects approved for the Austin area, none has started yet.

“I want to know why they haven’t started. We need to get people back to work,” said Austin resident Brandon Frye.

John Barton is the Assistant Executive Director of Engineering Operations at TX DOT.

“From the day we decide we’re going to go forward with the contract to the time we take bids on it to the time people start seeing dirt turn is about a 6 month process,” he said.

Barton said TX DOT streamlined the process and in some cases cut the time frame in half, but he said there’s still a process.

“We have to make sure the public has had a chance to review the process and the projects. Then we have to take bids on those projects and we are required to give bidders at least three week’s notice so they can prepare their bids,” Barton said.

How many projects completed statewide?

So far TX DOT has approved 179 stimulus projects across the state, four have been completed.

Those four are located in Fort Bend County, Galveston County, Mason County and Van Zandt County. TX DOT said all four of those projects were pretty small and like most of those approved—they involved resurfacing work.

Texas Congressman Michael McCaul voted against the stimulus package.

He provided KVUE with this statement:

“I voted against the stimulus because it was filled with pork and so little of it was devoted to job growth, particularly transportation projects that are shovel-ready.  With less than 10% of the money spent in six months it’s no surprise progress is slow.  If our economy is showing signs of rebounding it’s despite the stimulus, not because of it.”

Congressman Lloyd Doggett approved the stimulus funding package in February.

We asked what he thought about the fact that only four projects had been completed across the state.

“I’m disappointed,” he said.”I think had TX DOT picked different projects that met more immediate needs of people in our community these projects would be happening right now.”

Doggett’s disappointment centers around one big project in the Austin area that would create an interchange for a tollway at 183 and 290.

“I think that’s a bad investment of our money,” said Doggett. “There are many other more pressing projects and they are projects that could have gotten underway more quickly than this $90 million dollar entry to a new toll way to Manor.”

How does Texas compare?

So we wondered how Texas compares with other states.

Remember Texas has awarded 179 projects and completed 4. That’s a 2 percent completion rate.

Oklahoma has awarded 150 projects and completed 10 or 6 percent.

California has awarded 72 projects and completed 2 or 3 percent.

Nationally, 6,415 highway projects have been approved. The U.S. Department of Transportation told KVUE 186 have been completed nationwide. That’s also 3 percent, only slightly better than the Texas completion rate.

Source:  kvue.com

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Texas Temporary Vehicle Registration Permits

August 16th, 2009

The Texas Transportation Code allows the transportation department to issue 30-day temporary registration permits for vehicles through county tax offices. Such permits are in lieu of registration, and there is no limit to the number of renewals.

HOW TO GET THEM: Go to your local tax office with proof of insurance and pay the fee. In Dallas County, there are no forms to fill out.

COST: $25 for each 30-day period.

WHERE TO PUT THEM: The temporary tag must be displayed in the rear window of the vehicle so that it’s clearly visible from behind.

PURPOSE: There are various reasons for getting a temporary permit, but one of the most common is when you don’t have title to the vehicle. For example, if you buy a car from a dealership that goes out of business before your title paperwork is completed, you will need a temporary registration to drive the car.

SOURCES: Texas Transportation Code, Texas Department of Transportation, Dallas County tax office

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Kay Bailey Hutchison Speaks Out On Governor’s Transportation Policies

August 15th, 2009

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison called the transportation policies of Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Department of Transportation “arrogant” Friday, arguing they are not in the best interest of the state’s property owners or taxpayers.

Hutchison, who next week will formally announce her candidacy for governor, said she disagreed with the 1,500-mile Trans Texas Corridor proposal, once the centerpiece of Perry’s transportation vision.

“It is the biggest land grab that we have had since the beginning of our state,” she told participants at the Transportation & Infrastructure Summit in Irving.

The Trans Texas Corridor project was killed last year, but parts of it remain, and Hutchison’s campaign has used it as an example of Perry’s bad judgment.

“Using toll roads as a permanent tax raise is not good public policy,” she said. “A 50-year lease on a toll road is never meant to be a free road. That is Governor Perry’s transportation strategy, and I disagree with it.”

Hutchison added that development agreements with private companies for toll roads must protect “local sovereignty and state taxpayers.”

Earlier this week, the head of the Texas Transportation Commission, former Perry chief of staff Deirdre Delisi, gave the same group a forceful defense of the role of privatization in transportation policy. Delisi also challenged Hutchison to come up with a better idea. On Friday, the senator did not directly address the criticism.

But that didn’t stop the barbs from the Perry campaign.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said that the senator had been in Washington too long and that she didn’t fully understand the need to build more roads.

“It’s easy to be critical when you’re being driven around Washington,” Miner said. “What are her ideas? She’s been in Washington for 16 years and doesn’t have a full grasp of the state of transportation in Texas.”

Miner acknowledged that Perry also has aides to drive for him, but he said that the governor can feel commuters’ pain because he can see the state’s traffic problems firsthand.

Hutchison, the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, has been involved in numerous transportation-related issues from her Senate perch.

She told the group in Irving that she was pushing legislation that would allow Texas to keep 100 percent of the gas tax it collects here.

Currently Texas gets back 92 cents for every dollar Texans pay.

“It doesn’t make sense for Texas to be required to send money out of state at this rate,” she said.

For much of her speech, Hutchison contrasted her position on the development of toll roads with Perry.

She said, for instance, that she didn’t mind using private companies to build roads, as long as local sovereignty and taxpayers were protected.

She said a $3.6 million payment by the Regional Transportation Council to the Spanish firm Cintra to cover cost it incurred before ultimately losing a bid for the State Highway 121 toll project was not good business. The company had been given the project on a conditional basis, until Dallas-area leaders objected.

“I would call it a tax on arrogance,” Hutchison said of the episode.

Source: dallasnews.com

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Gas Prices Up 3 Cents Across Texas

August 15th, 2009

Retail gasoline prices across Texas rose an average 3 cents this week, reaching $2.53 a gallon.

AAA Texas on Friday reported the most expensive gasoline statewide was in El Paso, at $2.61 a gallon. Amarillo and Houston had the least costly gasoline, averaging $2.49 a gallon.

Nationally, gasoline was selling Friday for an average $2.64, up 2 cents from last week.

A statement from AAA Texas says the increasing costs for gasoline are following the same trends in the oil market.

Source: AP

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Irving Hopes To Steer Highway 183 Reconstruction

August 14th, 2009

The long-planned widening of State Highway 183 through Irving – estimated to cost more than half a billion dollars – still lacks most of its funding. The first construction project likely won’t start for another year, and changes to previous plans will require another round of federal approval.

Meanwhile, Irving residents who live around the major regional thoroughfare have begun to see nearby businesses move, close or be torn down. More are expected to follow as swaths of buildings lining the highway will have to be cleared to make room for added lanes.

The removal of the buildings will be followed by several years of construction aimed at a massive reconfiguration of the highway, its service roads and interchanges.

“In the short term, there will be a lot of aggravation and headaches,” said Mayor Herbert Gears.

Still, Irving leaders aren’t bemoaning their fate. Instead, they see the pending widening as a chance to remake a North Texas corridor known for persistent traffic jams and aging shopping centers.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for a city to address the look and feel of a major freeway,” said Doug Janeway, the city’s assistant real estate services director.

The Texas Department of Transportation’s plans call for adding a fourth lane in both directions of the main lanes. Two managed high-occupancy vehicle lanes in both directions in the center of the highway also will be added, and most of the access roads will have a third lane added in each direction.

Those changes mean that several parts of the future Highway 183 will run through what are now shopping centers and businesses. Affected businesses and buildings include restaurants, car dealerships, strip shopping centers and gas stations.

City officials estimate that the annual property and sales tax revenues lost from the affected businesses will be about $382,000 a year. But they also hope that new infrastructure and reconfigured space will spur redevelopment along the corridor and, in turn, help recoup those revenues.

“What you hope to have is a rebound effect,” Janeway said.

Officials with the city and the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce are working to help relocate as many of the businesses as possible within Irving to keep them in the city. Two banks have already moved south of the highway.

“Some of these businesses have a relationship and longevity with the city, so we want to make sure we do everything we can to give them some options to remain in the city,” said Beth Bowman, the chamber’s executive vice president.

The city also is developing an overlay district that will set design guidelines for businesses along the highway. That means whatever pops up after construction begins will have new aesthetic rules to follow.

“It is one of our most important corridors,” said Brenda McDonald, the city’s real estate and development director. “We want to ensure we maximize that asset for the community.”

Several businesses won’t have to move. But the widening will affect their parking lots and roadway signs. When the businesses replace their signs, they’ll have to comply with recently revised sign ordinances.

“You’ll see fewer pole signs; you’ll see fewer utility lines above ground,” Gears said.

One of most affected areas is along westbound frontage roads from Toler Lane to Carl Road. Almost all of the buildings in that area will have to go to make room for access roads. A sound wall will be built behind the adjacent homes on Holland Drive.

Sound walls are also expected between the eastbound access roads and homes on Yale Street and Plymouth and Puritan drives.

That area will be among one of the first phases of the project, with construction expected to begin next year. Funding will come from tolls collected on State Highway 121.

“We wanted to prepare the frontage roads and then install the sound walls before the main lane construction starts,” said TxDOT project manager Nasser Askari.

Gears said he’s not a big fan of a huge highway that cuts through the middle of town, but the plan gives Irving a rare chance to reshape a major corridor.

Source: dallasnews.com

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Texas Top Transportation Official Defends Private Toll Roads

August 12th, 2009

Texas’ top transportation official, the chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, forcefully defended the department’s pursuit of private toll roads in an unusually direct speech in Irving today.

Deirdre Delisi, picked by her former boss Gov. Rick Perry to lead the agency last year, said without private capital Texas and Washington both will soon stop building the roads Texas and America needs.

She cited success in Austin, where new toll roads have been built with tax dollars paying only a fraction of their costs, and in Houston and Dallas. North Texas, she said, is “the national laboratory for transportation solutions.”

In all, she said, Texas has the nation’s largest inventory of long-term toll concession agreements — the details that borrow heavily against future tolls to provide payments for highways. In all, she said, some 10 billion in highway have been built with only $3 billion in tax dollars.

The rest, of course, has come from private firms investing or borrowing billions — in return for the right to collect more and increasingly expensive tolls for 50 years or more.

Her comments come amid a quickening campaign for governor, in which U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign has repeatedly criticized Perry for his embrace of tolls.

Source: dallasnews.com

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Crack Down On HOV Cheats Along Central Expressway

August 10th, 2009

DART is using roving police patrols to crack down on HOV cheaters.

That includes along the bustling Central Expressway, where violations have been commonplace.

Enforcement was heavy today along Central north of Dallas, where about 75 citations were issued.

“People were driving by, cheering at all of us offenders,” said John Scully, a 35-year-old software developer from McKinney who was one of those ticketed.

Morgan Lyons, a spokesman for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, confirmed the stepped-up patrols along Central. DART is the agency that manages high-occupancy-vehicle lanes in the Dallas area.

“Most people are following the rules,” he said. “But sometimes you have to do stuff like this to remind people to follow the rules.”

An estimated one in eight HOV drivers on Central uses the lanes illegally at rush hour.

The lanes, which opened in late 2007, are supposed to be only for carpoolers, motorcycles and buses. But many solo drivers cheat and slip into the uncongested lanes, in part because of a widely held belief among commuters that violators are seldom pursued.

Monday’s enforcement effort coincided with the release of a state report saying that HOV lanes in the region have, at times, proven problematic, even as they’ve helped control air pollution and traffic.

On Central, enforcement of the HOV restrictions is difficult, the report said. And many motorists who aren’t allowed to use the lanes regard them as a nuisance. The narrow HOV lanes on Central were carved out of the existing roadway and are separated from other lanes by traffic barriers, which are frequently hit by cars.

Source: dallasnews.com

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Update: Gas Prices In Texas

August 7th, 2009

Retail gasoline prices across Texas are up a dime in the past week.

AAA Texas reports the average price per gallon Friday was $2.50.

El Paso had the most expensive gasoline at the consumer pump, at $2.58 a gallon. The Galveston-Texas City area had the least costly gas, at $2.46.

The association reports the cost of gasoline in Texas rose along with world oil prices.

Prices are still lower than last August.

AAA spokesman Dan Ronan (ROH’-nan) says last year at this time a gallon of gasoline in Texas was costing $3.75.

Source: AP

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Hutchison, Perry Finds Common Ground In Cash For Clunkers Program

August 5th, 2009

As Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison head toward an epic primary showdown in the race to be Texas governor, the two haven’t been able to agree on much lately.

But the two GOP powerhouses were able to find common ground in at least one area Wednesday: their opposition to the popular “Cash for Clunkers” federal stimulus program.

Hutchison’s Capitol office released a statement Wednesday saying she planned to vote against a $2 billion appropriation for the program. It allows consumers to get a federal subsidy for trading in their gas guzzling autos for greener cars.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner was quick to follow up with his own statement, saying, “Governor Rick Perry is opposed to the program.”

Source:  Associated Press

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Local Districts Update Safety System To Read New Texas Driver’s Licenses

August 5th, 2009

The new Texas driver’s license is causing some problems for local schools. The safety check system districts use to check a visitor’s sex offender status cannot process the new licenses.

The Eanes Independent School District was the first local district to use the Raptor System. The system checks the criminal database to figure out if that person is a registered sex offender.

But when the Department of Public Safety started issuing new Texas drivers licenses, districts started having problems because the critical information is in different places.

“In May, Raptorware, the company that has the safety check system that we use sent out a notice for a software update,” said AISD Police Department Lt. Eric Mendez.

It was the end of the school year and not every school got the notification. As any parent will tell you, safety is a high on the list of concerns when it comes to their kids. Campuses can have as many as 40 adults visiting each day.

“You don’t want those predators being in those schools,” said Kristina Rutherford.

Fortunately, schools caught on quickly, and the company has been able to issue an online fix with updated software. Round Rock ISD, Pflugerville ISD and Eanes ISD have already updated their systems. Lake Travis ISD is in the process, as is Austin ISD. On Wednesday, Lanier High School updated its system. A test run showed no problems.

“You have multiple people at multiple campuses everyday. But every person gets checked and if they don’t have a license — then we check them by name and date of birth, says Lt. Mendez.

“I think every body should have some kind of identification that they’ve checked in and somebody in the building knows who they are,” said Tonia Scaperlanda.

And parents won’t have to worry.

The software fix enables the system to read both the new and old licenses, as well as the Texas ID card. Every district KVUE spoke with today said it has either finished, or expects to finish, by the first day of school August 24.

Source:  kvue.com

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