Ric Williamson, the feisty chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, has died, which well might end for a time the agency's recent push for toll roads across Texas.

Williamson's death this past Sunday of a heart attack at age 55 has silenced a passionate advocate for the state highway network and is a sad event for a state that needs an efficient highway network to do business.

But it is interesting to note that during Williamson's three-year tenure, toll roads surfaced for a brief time in 2006 in Amarillo as Texas Department of Transportation officials discussed openly ways to improve Loop 335.

The idea proved to be a non-starter in Amarillo and Canyon, but that doesn't mean that toll roads cannot work in regions downstate with higher traffic levels.

TxDOT officials have since backed away from the toll road notion here.

Now it falls on Gov. Rick Perry to find a replacement for Williamson.

Let's hope he finds someone with a more even-handed approach to highway planning - and someone without the combative streak that seemed to govern almost all that Ric Williamson did.

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