The rival plans offer two radically different ways of doing business. Cintra has invested billions in major road projects across the globe and, increasingly, throughout the U.S. It promises to bring nearly $800 million in private equity to the 121 project, and it says a vote for Cintra will help North Texas lure more private money to reduce the backlog of badly needed road projects for which no public money is available.

It was an argument that found success in March, when the Texas Transportation Commission voted to give the 121 contract to Cintra over two other private firms. But the idea of awarding a 50-year lease to a foreign firm to run what will be one of North Texas' most important roads quickly drew opposition in the Legislature.

Under pressure from lawmakers, the transportation council was asked to invite the NTTA to make a rival bid.

Cintra said awarding the contract to a public tolling agency after already selecting a private bidder could make future investors skittish.

"If, at the end, the powers that be decide to choose NTTA, they're sending a very strong signal to the market," said José López, Cintra's U.S. director. "The market will not read it well."

Still, the NTTA's bid has been hard to ignore. It promises to pay about $400 million more up front for the right to build and maintain the road, and an additional $133 million in total yearly payments over the life of the deal.

"We have put forward a financially superior plan that will benefit citizens of our region for years to come," said Paul Wageman, chairman of the NTTA board.

Predicting returns

Thanks to the heavy traffic forecast for the new road, the profits for whoever collects the tolls could be high. Mr. López said that over the 50-year lifetime of the deal, his firm expects it would see an average annual return of 12.5 percent on the equity invested. The NTTA predicts it would earn $1.3 billion in profit, even after paying the interest for the bonds it would have to sell to finance its involvement.

Mr. López said the road's profits will help entice future partners from the private sector – something that he said the Dallas area, like congested regions everywhere, will increasingly need as transportation needs outstrip available public resources.

NTTA's money, he said, should be used to finance other toll projects for which there is no private-sector interest. By working together, he said, the private and public sectors will get more roads built in the long run.

That's not so, said Mr. Wageman. Profits generated by the project will be put to better use if kept in the region, rather than returned to shareholders eager for a dividend, he said.

The NTTA would reinvest the profits in building more North Texas roads, he said.

"We're going to be more aggressive going forward in building more roads, sooner," Mr. Wageman said. "And the revenues from this contract will greatly expand our ability to borrow the money we need to build more projects. It will add billions to our debt capacity."

Weighing each side's numbers and their impact on future road projects is critical, Mr. Morris said.

On Monday, Gov. Rick Perry signed a new transportation law that, among other things, says NTTA should be given the contract if its proposal is of equal or greater "financial value" to the region.

The council has spent $200,000 to hire accounting powerhouse Price Waterhouse Coopers to evaluate the proposals with that in mind, Mr. Morris said.

A bedeviling detail may well be how "financial value" is defined. Mr. Morris, for instance, insists that the law means the council should consider more than just the dollar figures attached to the rival bids. If Cintra is correct in arguing that NTTA's victory would mean either higher toll rates in the future or fewer roads being built down the road, the council should consider that, too, he said.

Mr. Wageman said neither of Cintra's claims is true. In any case, he argues, the language of the law should be read on its face – that the contract should go to NTTA if its offer for the 121 project is better than its private-sector rival's.

Also making a short presentation today will be the review team from the Texas Department of Transportation that selected Cintra for the project initially.

That puts NTTA in an odd predicament, Mr. Wageman said. The Transportation Department, which has already awarded the contract to Cintra once, will make a recommendation to the regional council. And the Transportation Department reports to the Texas Transportation Commission, which will make the final decision on the project.

"Obviously, there has been a lot of stuff going on that has given us pause," Mr. Wageman said. "I have a lot of concern about the objectivity of the selection process."

Still, he said, he trusts the word of state transportation commissioners.

Ric Williamson, chairman of the governor-appointed commission, repeatedly has said that state leaders will almost certainly defer to the Regional Transportation Council's decision.

"We just believe that if you have a strategy that says empower local and regional government ... you stay out of it, other than making sure the law is followed and making sure good engineering practices are used," Mr. Williamson said this year.

Tollway authority leaders contend they were muscled out of the 121 bidding process last year by state officials fixated on awarding the deal to a private bidder. Critics of the NTTA, meanwhile, say the agency hasn't been aggressive enough in meeting the region's transportation needs, particularly in Denton and Tarrant counties. They also point out that the tollway authority has passed on previous chances to build the 121 toll road since first exploring the project in 1999.

Mr. Wageman concedes that the authority has been perceived as too cautious in the past. But he said that's no longer the case. With construction costs rising so quickly, the NTTA is determined to build as many roads as quickly as it can. The revenues from the 121 project will help accomplish that, he said.

Even if today's meeting is all about the numbers and financial models, other considerations between now and Monday will have the greatest influence, suggested Mr. Heiman, the council member from Mesquite.

"In the end, make no mistake, it's all going to come down to politics," he said.

FAIR USE NOTICE. This document may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. CorridorWatch.org is making this article available for academic research purposes in our non-commercial, non-profit, effort to advance the understanding of government accountability, civil liberties, citizen rights, social and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. CorridorWatch.org does not express or imply that CorridorWatch.org holds any claim of copyright on such material as may appear on this page.