down home wrote:
In Tn we have no toll roads. It is going to stay that way if I can help it.
Indiana and other places sold their toll roads or leased them to Foreign Investors. Taxpayers pay for their construction.
They had meetings(not the right word) in Spain and elsewhere on investing or buying US Toll roads etc. Thirty years ago.
Don't know the situation in Texas but it is not good for the Citizens. I hope a move is made again in a friendlier Congress to stop all Tolling of roads in the US. From what I've seen, in Indiana and some other places they are the worse roads around, after a few years with little repair because profits come before upkeep just like slumlords everywhere.
The new toll roads are paid for in a very shady way in my opinion. The contracts are issued to consortium's, usually consisting of a US company and a foreign partner. Here in Texas, the main partners on TX 130 are Zachary Construction from the US and Cintra from Spain.
The contracts usually run for something like 30 years and the consortium builds the roads and collects the tolls. The initial construction is funded via bonds and the consortium is guaranteed a fixed return.
There are usually stipulations that the governments that have jurisdiction over the area, federal, state and local, cannot build competing roads and sometimes have to actually add impediments (stop lights) to traffic on roads that already exist and might compete with the toll road.
TX 130 has not generated the revenue forecast by about 60% despite incentives like the 85 mph speed limit and discount rates for 18-wheelers. Here's an excerpt from the Department of Transportation concerning the project:
"Toll revenues generated on SH 130 Segments 5-6 since it opened in October 2012 have fallen well short of expectations, with revenue levels more than 60 percent below the original forecast for the highway. As a result, the concessionaire has fully drawn down the bank liquidity facility, and ratings on the outstanding debt for the project (including the bank debt and the TIFIA loan) have been downgraded to Caa3 by Moody’s. The concession company negotiated with its senior bank lenders to largely postpone its June 2014 interest payment to January 2016, avoiding a legal default; however, it appears likely that financial restructuring of the project will ultimately be required. - See more at: https://www.transportation.gov/policy-initiatives/build-america/sh-130-segments-5-6-austin-tx#sthash.mwZlQZ25.dpuf"
The contract refers to the partners that built and run the toll road "concessionaires". The term "financial restructuring" is troubling. What it really means is that taxpayers are going to have to make up the shortfall to the consortium.
