Zachry, Perry weigh in on toll moratorium

March 7, 2007

by Peggy Fikac

A spokeswoman for San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corp. says maybe it is time for a breathing period to make sure everyone has good information about proposed toll projects.

The company is a leader of the Cintra Zachry LP consortium that under state contract developed a long-range plan for a toll-road to parallel Interstate 35.
Although Cintra Zachry developed that plan, the state still would put various projects that would make up the tollway up for bid. The state does have an agreement with Cintra Zachry to build two segments of State Highway 130 from Austin to Seguin.

Many state lawmakers have signed on to a proposed two-year moratorium on private companies buying or operating and collecting revenue from toll projects.

Citing a highly charged Senate committee meeting on tollways last week, Zachry spokeswoman Vicky Waddy said, "There is a lot of misinformation and confusion about toll projects in Texas, and a breathing period may be what we need to have, as some of the elected officials have said."

Waddy said the new legislation offers an opportunity for everyone involved to talk things out.

"It's very, very important to ally the fears of the driving public," she said. "We need to tell people exactly the procedure that will be used to set tolls. We need to explain to people how the financing will work. We need to tell people what the rate of return is for developers who bring the money to the table. We need to explain all that to people."

The toll concept, in which private developers put up money to build roads and recoup funds through tolls, came about when officials said there wasn't enough money through traditional means to pay for roads.

Gov. Rick Perry, champion of an ambitious plan to ease state highway congestion through means including tolls, "believes that the Legislature did the right thing in the last two sessions by giving local communities more tools and more control over building new infrastructure and he does not believe it's good public policy for the Legislature to try to take that control back," said Perry spokesman Robert Black.

"And secondly I will tell you the Legislature can't have it both ways. They can't tell local officials we're not going to give you the tools to build needed infrastructure while at the same time taking money out of transportation funds and spending it on other purposes," he said. "Either they need to give the local communities the tools they need to build roads or they need to step up and propose a gas tax increase or they need to keep their hands off the transportation fund and let that fund be used for building roads, which is what it should be used for."