and the destruction of our city begins.
Looks like they're going to get started sometime this fall.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...=et77&ana=e_du
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 5:59 PM CDT
Design/build team selected for U.S. Highway 281 toll project
The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority Board of Directors on Wednesday selected Cibolo Creek Infrastructure JV to serve as the design/builder for the 281 North Toll Project.
The value of the contract is $330 million and it will be paid for by a combination of public funds from the Texas Mobility Fund, money generated from the sale of toll revenue-backed bonds and financing from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA), a U.S. Department of Transportation loan program, says the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority's (Alamo RMA) spokesman Leroy Alloway.
However, this amount does not include the cost of acquiring all of the right-of-way needed to proceed with the project, Alloway says.
Once the toll lanes are complete, the money generated from drivers on the lanes will pay off the debt on the project. Drivers will pay 17 cents per mile and will be charged through the use of a toll tag on their vehicles. Drivers will be able to use this same tag on toll roads in Austin, Houston and Dallas because the systems will be interoperable, Alloway says.
People who do not have a toll tag will be charged through a video billing system. Video cameras aligned along the toll route will track a vehicle's license plate number and send the person's toll charge through the mail. Drivers will not have to carry cash or coins to pay their tolls.
Alamo RMA wants to begin construction on two to three new "non-toll" lanes along U.S. Highway 281 from Loop 1604 to Stone Oak Parkway possibly as early as this fall.
The next phase of the project will involve building out new "non-toll" lanes from Stone Oak Parkway to the Comal County line along Highway 281, Alloway says. In all, Cibolo Creek Infrastructure will be building new highway lanes along a 7.9 mile route.
Once the non-toll lanes are complete, the Alamo RMA's contractors will build three new toll lanes in each direction. Cibolo Creek has committed to complete the project in 44 months after construction begins.
Cibolo Creek Infrastructure is owned by joint venture partners Fluor Enterprises Inc. and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc. Atlanta-based Balfour Beatty is an engineering, construction, services and investment business. Fluor Enterprises is an engineering and construction services firm based in Dallas.
The other team members are HDR Engineering Inc., Raba-Kistner Consultants, Guerra DeBerry Coody, Donze Lopez Public Affairs, Vickery & Associates Inc., Bain Medina Bain, AIA Engineers Ltd. and Pinnacle Consulting Management Group Inc.
Alamo RMA officials say this approach is not a concession or a private sector model and the Alamo RMA will retain ownership and operations of the toll project.
"This has been an open and transparent process," Alamo RMA Chairman William Thornton says. "The Alamo RMA has ensured the highest possible value for our community and we will see this needed roadway constructed in the shortest possible time through the use of the design build approach."
The widening and expansion of U.S. Highway 281 using toll lanes will be the first official toll project in Bexar County.
and the destruction of our city begins.
Toll roads = destruction? What? I'd seriously love to know how that equation works.
You're right, everyone should continue to sit in traffic for five hours a day waiting for TxDOT to do something about it![]()
I dont see the issue.
You can still make this same trip and not pay any toll.
WGAF.
FINALLY
SOMEBODY ING GETS IT!!!!!!
Ha! LMAO !! The good ole boys at Zachary got screwed on this one! They pumped a bunch of money all over the place for toll roads and pimped around and now the project goes to some out of towners!!!
Just like several toll roads in California where the per mile charge has gotten so high, it causes the majority of traffic to the FREE frontage roads where traffic is snarled and backed up for miles.
LMAO at you not understanding how business works. Do you honestly think that Zachry has come out of this as losers? Think about it for a second. The first time Zachry was awarded the job and it got cancelled they had to bill TxDot for time spent............guess what, they ended up making more money on that deal then they would have if they built the job in the first place. Second, do you think they won't be compensated for once again bidding this work? Third, and the saddest part, is that Balfour under bid this by 25%. Do you understand what that will do to the job? Delay it, and make it suck and end in even more lawsuits.
Zachry will come out with extra money, looking like the good guys and just happen to be waiting around the corner for further TTC jobs as well as 1604 toll.
So keep thinking that they "got screwed" because that's why you'll always be you, and they'll always be rich.
So you haven't driven there yet either huh? Traffic is already snarled and backed up for miles so nothing will change.
Average speed on 281 from 1604 to stone oak on a 24 hour time frame = 8 mph.
drivers will just use the back alley ways to avoid toll roads...
Point is you dont have to use it all the time. If you NEED to get somewhere faster, it will be there.
oh they still made some $$$.
you mean like it is today?
they dont need to follow any back alley ways. they can just drive on the frontage.
myself, i'll be laughing at everyone as they sit in traffic and i go zipping on by.
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