Possible Toll Road on Highway 121

[TexasStooge]

Highway 121 toll road approved

Panel votes for taking fees on Denton County stretch

By TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News

ARLINGTON, Texas – Add State Highway 121 in Denton County to the list of the region's toll roads.

The Regional Transportation Council sealed the contentious matter's fate Thursday by voting unanimously to impose tolls on the new Highway 121 under construction.

One by one, cities along the route have voted – some reluctantly – in the last month to support placing electronic tolls on the highway from the Business 121 split near Coppell to the Dallas North Tollway in Plano and Frisco.

"It's not a decision I made lightly," Denton County Commissioner Cynthia White said. "It's the best action we can take, given the funding environment we're in."

Toll opponents weren't surprised by the decision, and one vowed to keep fighting the expansion of Texas' toll-road network when the Legislature meets in January.

"We are going to concentrate on fighting it at the state level," said Randy Jennings, the Plano resident who founded the Web site http://www.stop121tolls.com. "A lot of candidates at the state level say they want to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen again."

The measure must be approved by the Texas Transportation Commission, which should vote on it in November. If approved, tolls would be collected by overhead electronic equipment that would read TollTags.

To help reduce costs, no toll booths are planned. Electronic toll collection could start when construction ends by about 2008.

And it probably won't be the last new toll road. Regional leaders have approved placing tolls on the planned 11.4-mile extension of State Highway 161 through Irving and Grand Prairie.

Collin County officials are studying imposing tolls along their portion of Highway 121. North Texas also has the 21.5-mile Dallas North Tollway and the 29.2-mile Bush Turnpike.

Toll roads have been touted as the way for regions to raise money for new roads because political leaders have been reluctant to raise gasoline taxes. The state collects 20 cents of tax per gallon and is in the bottom third of all states in the amount raised per capita or mile of road in the country.

The Highway 121 toll road in Denton County would stretch for 13.9 miles. At the suggested rate of 15 cents per mile, a one-way trip along the entire length would cost about $2.

By collecting tolls on Highway 121, state and regional leaders have vowed that they will be able to fund about $350 million in other projects in the fast-growing Denton County area. Those projects include $200 million for Interstate 35E expansion in Lewisville and about $80 million to widen FM423 in The Colony and Little Elm.

Frisco leaders were some of the last to officially support the tolls, but their opposition would have meant little. Most of the highway through The Colony, Carrollton and Lewisville already was planned to have tolls. With Frisco's support, one exit on Highway 121 that is in that city will have a 15-cent toll. By contributing a few cents per vehicle, Frisco stands to gain tens of millions of dollars for needed highway projects, said Cissy Sylo, the city's director of engineering services.

"For 15 cents, we can fund projects that were not in the 10-year construction horizon. That made logical sense," Ms. Sylo said, adding that Collin County officials will be looking closely at options other than tolls for Highway 121 from the Dallas North Tollway to Central Expressway.

With Denton County's toll-road fate all but certain, attention shifts to Collin County. The state Transportation Department is willing to do a study of the revenue that could be raised with tolls along the Collin County portion of Highway 121, said Collin County Commissioner Jack Hatchell, who also serves as chairman of the transportation council, a policymaking body.

"This does mean that the door is wide open on toll roads," he said. "But we've got to look at other alternatives, too"

Even if local cities and Collin County could raise the roughly $80 million needed to finish Highway 121 without tolls, the area still would have to find more money for the interchange at Central Expressway. That project is expected to cost about $100 million.

Collin County officials have promised to hold numerous public hearings before deciding on tolls.

"Part of the problem we've had is that we weren't able to have an educational process," Mr. Hatchell said of the Denton County toll decision. "If we do this in Collin County, it's going to be at least a four- to six-month study."