Officials call off I-10 tollway transfer plan
County to fund other projects in lieu of giving lanes to TxDOT
Harris County and state transportation officials have called off a planned transfer of control of the Katy Managed Lanes along Interstate 10, nearly four years after announcing the deal.
Rather than cede control of the lanes to settle a cascade of agreements related to various transportation projects around the region, the Harris County Toll Road Authority instead will build a number of projects related to connecting other tollways to freeways, or generally improve mobility on or near its own toll roads.
“In some ways, this is better,” Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said. “We’re improving some connections that otherwise would have waited.”
Still, Emmett acknowledged the four-year process was a difficult one that he blamed on inertia at times and then complications that became insurmountable.
“We just couldn’t do what we wanted to,” he said.
As a result, officials will do some other projects. The agreement “will ultimately be followed be a formal agreement with terms and conditions which identify the actual projects to move forward on to satisfy the $200 million obligation,” said Raquelle Lewis, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation in Houston.
The county Commissioners Court, acting as the toll road authority, approved the agreement on March 27. TxDOT officials do not need approval from state transportation commissioners, Lewis said.
The revised agreement does not affect direct day-to-day operations of the lanes or how drivers use them. However, the new agreement creates an operating committee, which will be formed in the coming months, to oversee operation of the lanes. That committee will have “the power to manage and enforce managed lane operations,” including the setting of toll rates.
Tolls on the lanes vary based on time of day. Traveling the entire 12 miles during peak commuting periods costs $7.
The agreement would have shifted control of the managed lanes from the toll road authority to TxDOT. The deal was scuttled for legal reasons, officials said. The toll road authority’s financing is related to the revenues it collects from toll-paying drivers, making it impossible under the terms of its current bonds to simply give up the lanes.
Officials worked to make the swap happen for nearly four years, since it was announced in mid-2014, to resolve a dispute with the construction of U.S. 290. The county and state transportation officials in 2012 celebrated a $400 million commitment from the toll road authority to add reversible HOT lanes along U.S. 290, accelerating the $2.4 billion widening work set to finish later this year.
The U.S. 290 project now will include only one reversible HOT lane, instead of the three planned.
When differences in the design of the reversible lanes arose between HCTRA and TxDOT, the county agreed to reduce its commitment to $200 million and give the state control of the Katy lanes. The swap was first scheduled for Jan. 1, 2015, then delayed four separate times.
As of August 2017, Emmett said lawyers still were haggling over how to write the agreement, but he was confident the transfer would occur.
Instead of the swap, “HCTRA has agreed to contribute $200 million in funds, via working with TxDOT, to regional projects that would benefit area residents,” according to the new agreement.
The new agreement specifically lists new ramps connecting the Hardy Toll Road and Sam Houston Tollway, both HCTRA facilities; extending the Katy lanes to Fort Bend County; a new interchange at Texas 225 and the Sam Houston Tollway and ramps connecting the Tomball Tollway along Texas 249 and the Grand Parkway.
The planned projects using toll revenue come at a divisive time for state and local officials. As Texas lawmakers have increased their spending on highway projects, they also have increased scrutiny of projects that mix tolls and taxpayer dollars. That has delayed a handful of projects in Dallas and Austin, and led to a Houston-area project — the ramps at the Tomball Tollway and Grand Parkway —being left out of a list of TxDOT-approved upcoming projects.
Emmett said while the toll debate is a consideration, the projects HCTRA is planning often connect toll roads with other payto-use lanes. In many cases, the toll road contribution will fully fund the work, meaning no tax dollars are being used for constuction.
“That ought to take care of it,” Emmett said of the controversy mixing highway and toll money. “At least I hope it does.”