Transportation commissioners highlight TGRTA meeting, offering challenge, optimism and commitment to Texas transportation
By Skip Schneider
Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson said that even though the Legislature last year gave the commission “an awful lot of entrepreneurial decision-making” authority, the commission will be back advocating for more changes next year.
Despite a lengthy good news-bad news scenario, Commissioner Robert Nichols said he has “never been more optimistic about the future of Texas transportation than I am now.”
New Commissioner Hope Andrade, advocating toll roads as the best way to move transportation in Texas forward, said she wanted to “do everything I can do to ensure that we leave him” – her four-year-old grandson Diego, described as “the love of my heart” – “and all Texas grandchildren a legacy of quality infrastructure.”
The enervating, hard-hitting presentations to the 72nd annual meeting of the Texas Good Roads/Transportation Association in Austin July 7-8 gave members a triple-barreled dose of accomplishment and continuing challenge, of opportunity and obligation to perform, of past results and future reality, of taking chances and thinking – not of a reason we can’t do something – but of another reason why we can.
Williamson: “You solve problems today by making hard choices”
“Because of our population growth,” said Williamson in a surprise, last-hour appearance, “we’re right on the edge of having the worst congestion and air quality there could ever be imagined in California or New York or Florida. We can either choose to make some choices right now about the kind of transportation corridors we lay out…or we can continue to do nothing, do the same things the same way, and we wake up in 20 years and be in worse shape than they ever imagined.”
“You solve it today,” he added, “by laying out the Trans Texas Corridor and saying this is where we’re going to build 20 years from now and move all our trucks, our cross-state traffic and our railroads away from our urban environments, get that traffic load off downtown highways – because we do have downtown traffic in Texas, they’re called interstates and they go right through the center of our cities.”
“You solve the problems by making the hard choices,” he concluded.
Williamson said the commission would advocate for changes in 2005, including some that could be “uncomfortable with industry and local officials.”
Saying that Texas citizens are paying five times as much for highway right of way, he said the commission would ask permission to lay out roadways and control development.
“We already have advanced right of way authority. But we will be asking the Legislature…to let us follow an engineering process that identifies probable transportation corridors and reserve those corridors in the county records, where people can’t build on top of them, and to follow certain guidelines before they can build next to them.”
The proposal would apply to expanding existing highways, not to new roads.
“On existing footpaths, you know with 99% accuracy where that footprint is going to be,” he added.
The new authority Gov. Perry and the Legislature gave the commission, Williamson noted, is “something they can take away from us if we don’t perform. So we feel intense pressure to make (it) work.”
Texas “should not be afraid to take chances,” he contended.
He noted that since passage of HR 3588, five regional mobility authorities have already been created or soon will be and seven pass-through toll projects are under consideration.
Nichols: “Never more optimistic about Texas transportation”
Nichols laid out the dismal news:
--For the first time, the cost to preserve and maintain our highways exceeds all revenues the state receives from the fuel tax.
-- Population will grow nine million in the next 20 years.
-- The funding gap over 20 years will be $78 billion.
-- Due to inflation, delays will cost another $4 billion each year.
-- The cost to preserve expansions can exceed the cost to build them.
Nichols then identified his reasons for optimism:
Community attitudes towards toll roads have changed from absolute shellshock a year ago to more support. The Fort Worth newspaper, for example, last year described toll ways as “a goofball idea from a goofball Transportation Commission.” The Austin American-Statesman recently concluded that “toll roads offer the fastest way to easing traffic” and recommended implementation of the $2 billion toll road plan for Central Texas.
“When the leadership of the community…thoroughly understands the alternatives, toll ways become a logical choice for major expansion,” he added.
“The reason is you generate the funds up front to build the project that will cover its own preservation cost over the years and develop a new revenue source for future transportation,” Nichols explained.
Deadline for regions to approve project jump-starts is Oct. 1, and Nichols predicted the results would be “absolutely amazing.” A year ago, Nichols said that within five years, routine expenditures for such projects would be $1 to $2 billion per year. Today, he expected the level to be approved this year at $17 billion, what he called “the largest jump-start in expansion in decades.”
Toll-focused expansions will “generate enough revenue over time in 20 years to pay for similar expansions again,” Nichols predicted.
A “problem I’m starting to see is the shifting of logistics to ramp up large projects in a short number of years and still find other resources to take care of needs where tolls won’t work,” he noted.
We have strong support, Nichols said, from Gov. Perry, the Legislature, a strong transportation industry, and Texas Good Roads, “all working together to build the finest transportation system in the country.”
In addition to regional councils in Dallas and Houston and regional mobility authorities in Central Texas and San Antonio, Nichols anticipated RMAs in Grayson County, Smith County, and probably one in the Rio Grande Valley.
Andrade: “We have to face reality head-on”
Andrade, the San Antonio businesswoman appointed to the commission by Gov. Perry this year, said of the work of the Texas Department of Transportation and the Transportation Commission, “it’s incredible all we do.”
But she added that “traditional funding is not enough anymore…we have to face reality head-on to continue to move transportation in Texas forward.”
Andrade said she is talking tolling “to audiences sometimes less than receptive.”
But she added that “the more people become exposed to information, the more palatable it becomes.”
“To understand the way, continue to talk about it in your communities,” she urged TGRTA members.
HR 3588 will result in more innovation and efficiency, foster creativity and focus on partnerships, she said. We should no longer be “stuck in a rut, thinking of a reason we can’t do something. Now we can just need one reason why we can.”
Welcome new partners, she suggested.
New transportation law will accelerate construction, says lieutenant governor
Reducing congestion is a “critical challenge” for Texas, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst told TGRTA members.
“We can’t ignore improving transportation,” he said, confident at HR 3588, the massive transportation bill passed and signed into law last year, will accelerate new construction and offer new, innovative financing.
Uppermost of Dewhurst’s priorities now is improving school financing. He is pushing to “get us into special session” on school reforms. “If we wait (until the 2005 session), it will be a lot harder, if not impossible,” he argued.
He wants to see the state pay 60% of school costs, rather than the current 37%. He also wants to end Robin Hood, the much-decried law that requires property-rich school districts to share their tax collections with poorer districts. ‘The best opportunity to do the most for our youngsters is today,” Dewhurst said.
Other priorities, he said, were lower workers compensation costs (now among the highest in the U.S.) and making health care more accessible and affordable.
Governor’s aide says the new law is working
Probably more was done to help transportation in the last legislative session than in the previous 10 to 15 to 20 sessions combined, Gov. Perry’s transportation policy director said in a legislative roundup.
Kris Heckman said moving the point of collection for fuel taxes from the distributor to the terminal, strongly advocated by Perry, has increased receipts by $15 million per month, of which $10 million goes into transportation. For the long haul, the change should bring a sustained 5% increase.
Under the governor’s initiative for the Trans Texas Corridor – multi-modal facilities that would stretch parallel to I-35 from Sherman and Denison to the Rio Grande Valley – TxDOT is reviewing three proposals. Once TxDOT recommends the best proposer, the Transportation Commission will negotiate specific contracts.
Looking ahead, Heckman said the governor would look for ways to provide more money for the Texas Mobility Fund.
Perry is “working hard,” said Heckman, to make certain that Texas gets its fair share of federal transportation funds. “We’ve been getting the short end of the stick for many years,” Heckman added.
Lieutenant governor tackling more transportation needs
Stacy Gunkel, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s policy analyst, said he believes we “can’t ignore the need for new and better roads in order to sustain economic growth and support our population.”
Dewhurst gave the Senate five transportation charges for interim study before the next session. They included:
-- Monitoring the implementation of HR 3588 to “make sure things are working,”
-- Recommending streamlining and expediting permitting changes to make certain the environment is protected,
-- Assisting regions with transportation funding,
-- Exploring funding options for the Trans Texas Corridor, and
-- Studying federal reauthorization of the transportation bill “so that we can receive the funding we deserve."
Gunkel identified four issues that Dewhurst will pursue next year:
-- Building and improving the infrastructure,
-- Improving safety, including possibly restricting trucks to specific lanes,
-- Investigating road design, looking at cost-benefit analyses to see whether or not materials designed to stand wear and tear of trucks and increasing traffic would be more beneficial than continuing to spend to patch roadways, and
-- Providing more opportunities for local input.
Dewhurst has not taken a final position of the local-input issue, she said, but is gathering information and welcomes ideas from TGRTA members.
House speaker wants to limit fuel-tax diversion to other purposes
Stephen Raines, policy analyst to House Speaker Tom Craddick, said Craddick believes diversion of fuel-tax revenues to nontransportation purposes should be kept to a minimum. Raines expects the Legislature to look at a constitutional amendment to designate fuel-tax revenues for highways alone.
Craddick’s interim charges to his colleagues include:
Looking at TxDOT practices to better spend tax money, and studying the border corridor to stimulate not just road construction, but consider agreements with Mexico that would bring more jobs.
Federal transportation bill unlikely before next year
Reauthorization of the federal transportation law, stymied in Congress by concerns about deficit perceptions and the presidential election, appeared unlikely before 2005, TxDOT’s federal policy analyst Tonia Ramirez told TGRTA members as they convened in July.
“I predict they will have to punt,” she said. The fourth extension of the six-year law was set to expire July 31, it was unlikely the conferees could agree to a new bill before the August recess, and Congress would have to extend the old law another year.
“We are plowing new ground,” said Federal Highway Regional Administrator Dan Reagan. The last time, in 1998, the law took effect nine months late.
The big problem, said Ramirez, was that the conferees could not even get agreement on the total dollars, to say nothing of other policy issues.
The Bush Administration SAFETEA bill called for $256 billion. The Senate version, S 1072, provided $318 billion. The House bill, HR 3550, was $284 billion. And President Bush threatened to veto any bill that cost more than his own SAFETEA.
Chief among TxDOT concerns was the return of federal funds. Although TEA 21 proscribed a 90.5% return, it actually was only 86% because of discretionary funds that shorted Texas. TxDOT advocated the minimum guarantee, which would step up the return to 95% by 2009. TxDOT does not like the so-called “equity bonus” because there would be an increase to 95% only in the sixth year, Ramirez explained.
On other policy issues, Ramirez said TxDOT wanted more flexibility to give the states more authority to proceed without specific FHWA consent.
Reagan said safety remains one of his major concerns. Crashes in Texas kill 3,700 persons a year, half on rural roads. “In Texas, we have a lot,” he pointed out.
One-third happen on inadequate highways, which may be narrow or poorly signed.
“We could do a lot more and make gains,” Reagan asserted.
The FHWA official said “each of us can do something” for safety. He asked his audience to re-examine their driving habits, eliminating no-nos like talking on a phone while driving, eating a sandwich, putting on makeup, daydreaming, reading, running a red light, speeding or ignoring signs.
Reagan likes camera enforcement as one way to address our safety problems. In France, he said, camera enforcement – taking photos of violators – cut fatalities by 28%. The United Kingdom decreased traffic deaths by 40% at camera sites. Seventy percent said camera enforcement was a good thing.
While some drivers would resent cameras intruding into their driving, Reagan said, “I think my life is worth more than somebody’s right to privacy.”
Texas has 22 of the 100 most bottled up roads in the U. S. One-third of the crashes occurred because of congestion. Reducing congestion, he said, would save lives, time and economic loss.
Regional mobility authorities get running, more in the works
The Bexar County Regional Mobility Authority has named three toll projects as the first in its efforts to improve mobility and reduce congestion.
Tom Greibel, one day into his new position as the RMA’s first executive director, identified the projects as:
-- Loop 1604 from FM 471 to I-35 NE (two interchanges),
-- Highway 281 north to the county line, and
-- I-35 from downtown San Antonio to Loop 1604.
Earlier, Highway 151 from US 90 to Loop 1604 was put forward, only to have it mired in controversy. The project was already constructed, built with tax dollars, and citizens opposed paying tolls. The Commissioner’s Court ruled that tolls be considered only for new locations or when capacity is added to existing highways.
The 151 project, said Greibel, “would have been an instant cash cow” that could have been used to jump-start the RMA.
Bexar County will loan the RMA $500,000 a year to start the program. Greibel hopes that the first tolls are collected by 2008.
In another panel discussion on metropolitan mobility, TxDOT District Engineer David Casteel said his district is “putting aggression on congestion.” He said that the first contracts on the 20-mile starter system should be awarded in 2006.
Central Texas RMA: “If we don’t act this time, it will put us back 10 to 20 years”
The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) proposed tolling:
-- US 183-A from RM 620 north to Leander,
-- Highway 45 North from US 183 to the proposed Highway 130 east of I-35,
-- Highway 130 from Georgetown to Seguin,
-- Highway 290 from US 183 to Highway 130,
-- US 183 from I-35 in north Austin to Highway 71,
-- Highway 71 from US 183 to I-35 and a portion west of Loop 1,
-- Highway 45 from Highway 130 to I-35 and a portion west of I-35,
-- Loop 1 south of Highway 71, and
-- Loop 360 from Highway 71 to US 183.
Mike Heiligenstein, said that the first projects in Williamson and Travis counties, totaling $2.2 billion, would gain $1.6 billion for Central Texas. “If we don’t use (the tolling authority), we could lose 74%” of the funds.
By traditional financing, he said, just four of those projects would take 100 years. By tolling, “if we put the projects together in four or five years, we will see results in 20.”
“Our task,” he said, “is to convince and educate (citizens and officials) to the fact that if we don’t act this time, it will put us back 10 to 20 years. We cannot fail to act.”
“It is a quality of life (issue) – not just steel and concrete,” Heiligenstein emphasized. “It is safety getting to day care, to soccer practice, being able to do what you do in a timely and effective fashion.”
“It is not easy for public officials because they do have, in some cases, an aroused public. That is not all bad.”
Heiligenstein observed that in advocating projects, “all politics is the closest intersection to my house. They want to know, and that’s fair.” On the other hand, some people say, “I can accept this on a community-wide basis if my children are being treated fairly.”
Some people criticize short projects. But Heiligenstein pointed out that “you have to capture short segments…because short segments will fund longer ones.”
The toll projects, he said, are “the difference between having an economically viable region and continue to grow with high-quality of life or having another congested city that individuals like Dell Computer are going to figure out and say, ‘You know what, Nashville looks a lot better to me’.”
He said CTRMA would push tolltag technology, which allows tolls to be recorded as the vehicle passes the counter. “We’re not going back to coin-operated manual, unless it becomes necessary under specific situations.”
Houston launches light rail
Ashby Johnson, transportation policy program director for the Houston Galveston Area Council, said his eight-county area is expected to grow by three million by 2025. That’s the equivalent of “putting two San Antonios on top of Houston,” he emphasized.
Houston’s first seven-mile light rail began operating last January, and the council is looking at regular rail as well. The Katy Freeway will have managed toll lanes in the center, and Houston is looking at other toll ways. In addition, Houston plans for a 55% increase in bus lines.
By operating improvements along neighboring thoroughfares, the Smart Streets concept will reduce cut-through traffic in neighborhoods, relieve freeways, improve travel times and improve economic development.
More aggressively, Dallas-Fort Worth looks for toll ways
Dan Rocha, senior program manager for the North Texas Council of Governments (NTCOG), said the Dallas-Fort Worth area – with 50 miles of toll ways and another five under construction now – has taken an aggressive pro-toll stance since 1993. Now “more aggressively than ever,” NTCOG wants to use the additional tools provided by HB 3588.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area is looking at another 100 miles as candidate toll ways and 210 miles for proposed high occupancy vehicles (HOV) or managed lanes:
-- The Highway 121 Southwest Parkway from Fort Worth to Cleburne already has its Tarrant County portion funded.
-- Highway 161 will run from Irving to I-20 as a toll way.
-- The I-30 Tom Landry Highway from Fort Worth to Dallas, already under construction, will be leveraged with toll revenue.
-- Tolls are being explored for Highway 121 from Irving to McKinney.
-- The President George Bush Turnpike extension, now under environmental review, is a proposed toll way from Garland to I-30.
-- Trinity Parkway is a planned toll way/parkway along the Trinity River on the west side of the Dallas Central Business District. It will provide more capacity around the I-30/I-35 “mixmaster,” described as one of the nation’s worst bottlenecks.
-- HOV or managed lanes are being considered for I-35W between Fort Worth and Denton County and for Highways 820, 121 and 183 between I-35W and Dallas.
-- On the I-635 LBJ Freeway, the High Five interchange at US 73 is already under construction. A comprehensive development agreement, with managed lanes, is a potential for I-635 west to I-35E.
When officials suggest tolling for existing highways, Rocha said they build consensus by following a “near neighbor rule.” “If we toll,” he said, “we get a consensus from neighborhoods by using public funds freed up by tolling on other nearby non-toll projects.”
Railroads focus on security
Jerry Martin, assistant regional grade crossing manager for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), said rail freight growth was substantial from 1998 to 2002. Intermodal miles did very well and will increase in the future.
The FRA, expecting to continue its focus on safety and security, is developing new policies, Martin said. Actions include increased cyber security, restricted access to railcar location data, increasing tracking and checking certain shipments, and just increasing the eyes and ears of everyone to the heightened dangers in the post-9/11 era of homeland security.
Beaumont key port for military cargo to Iraq
The Port of Beaumont, a strategic port designated to handle military cargo, has been busy recently as it moves cargo for Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to John Roby, its logistics and public affairs director.
One-fourth of the military cargo the port handled went to Iraq, most arriving by rail, Roby told TGRTA.
Of its total 86 million tons of cargo, three-fourths comes by 20,000 railcars.
Beaumont now is fourth among U. S. ports in total trade, following South Los Angeles, Houston and New York/New Jersey.
Beaumont’s biggest bottleneck is the KCS Bridge, where 50 trains pass through each day. Roby said moving the interchange into the terminal will add 300 car spots and increased security, increase efficiency for both the port and railroads, and open riverfront property for downtown economic development.
Low-cost airlines gaining, legacy carriers need to change
Discount airlines – which now hold 30% of the passenger market – will continue to grow in the future, David Fulton, TxDOT’s Aviation Division director, told TGRTA.
Focusing his attention on airlines, which absorbed a “pretty big blow” on 9/11, he said passenger boardings have almost recovered to 2001 levels.
Only the discount carriers are making money. United Airlines and US Air are in bankruptcy. In addition to the impact of 9/11, other contributing factors have been the recession, thin margins, very high labor costs, an elastic market (where people found alternate ways to travel), higher fuel costs and increased security costs.
“It’s like a large number of sharks in a small pool,” Fulton said. “They’re feeding on each other.”
Southwest Airlines is a bright spot in the picture. It is growing faster than any time in its history, Fulton said.
Legacy carriers like United, American or Delta will “have to change or disappear,” he cautioned.
Fulton predicted continued growth of the discount airlines, using 50-100-passenger jets.
Driven by congestion at larger airports, there will be more direct flights and fewer out of hub-and-spoke patterns. Airports like Austin’s will benefit through more direct flights, he said.
“It used to be a thrill to fly on an airline,” Fulton commented. “Now it’s just a bus in the sky.”
The airline business “won’t go back to being nice and comfortable,” he added. “It will continue to be mass transportation.”
One of the consequences of airline difficulties is an increase in fractional ownership of aircraft, “like a time share,” he explained. It provides business with transportation on demand at the cost of first-class travel.
CRIS ready soon to supply traffic crash data
Law enforcement agencies, metropolitan planning organizations and local governments will have faster access to statewide traffic crash data starting next January, a TxDOT traffic official told TGRTA.
Carol Rawson, traffic operations deputy director, previewed the Crash Records Information System that is being built by IBM under a $9.9 million contract.
With 800,000 traffic crashes each year, the Department of Public Safety currently is 30 months behind in entering crash information into the system. “DPS is swamped…the boat is going under,” she said.
The good news is that when the computer system goes live, she expects the backlog to be reduced to six months.
Recent crash data is the base for knowing whether a particular highway is safe, Rawson explained. With the new system, she added, “you can do a better analysis.”
The search engine to produce summary reports will be “incredible,” she enthused.
The Accident Annual Report, which has taken years to complete and print, will be available via the Internet within one week.
Carlos Lopez, the traffic operations director, said the system would be helpful when evaluating recently completed highway improvements. “You can use this date to learn how good a project really is,” he added.
Limit trucks in left lane and cut crashes, Houston finds
Keeping trucks out of the left lane of multilane highways, except for passing and entering or leaving the road, has reduced crashes on I-10E at Houston by 68%, a TxDOT traffic engineer said.
I-10E was one of the first highways in Texas to sign the highway to restrict trucks in the left lane, said Darren McDaniel. Compliance was 70 to 80%.
Safety was improved by reducing different vehicle speeds, lane changes and passing maneuvers, he reported.
The restrictions apply to vehicles with three or more axles and freeways with three or more lanes.
Highways at Houston and San Antonio were the first. Currently, the signs are on I-10E, I-45N and Highways 225 at Houston, Pasadena, Deer Park and LaPorte in the Houston area and on I-10/US 90 at San Antonio. All were requested by local governments.
TxDOT decided to restrict I-35 in the Austin area. Signs will be installed in Hays and Williamson counties by October and in Travis County by January.
Under consideration are I-10 at El Paso and I-30 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“Enforcement is the key,” said Lopez, “but it’s hard to argue with a 68% reduction in crashes.”
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