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Follow TURFCintra spokesperson sings sunshine to Seguin about its privatized SH 130
Link to article here.
Cintra-Zachry spokesperson, Victoria Miller, is already misleading the public. She said TxDOT sets the toll rate when that's not true. Cintra sets the toll rate based on an approved formula that can be highly manipulated based on what Cintra says its operating costs are. Then Miller tried to act concerned appearing to agree that I-10 needs to be widened, when a non-compete agreement signed by TxDOT restricts and can even prohibit the expansion of free roads surrounding Cintra's tollway. "Competing" free roads threaten Cintra's guaranteed profits. This is what Rick Perry has wrought upon the state of Texas....foreign-owned toll roads where the private investors are granted government-sanctioned monopolies over our public roads.
A savvy member of the audience brought out one of the key issues surrounding the SH 130 tollway boondoggle: why would trucks want to incur the cost of paying expensive tolls to take a road around Austin that's a much longer route? Her answer makes no sense. Current traffic patterns on the first four segments and basic economics tell us truckers WILL NOT take SH 130, despite TxDOT lowering the truck toll rate to try and incentivize truckers to take its failing toll road that's running with red ink. When the Cintra segments 5 & 6 open, we can expect the same.
Official answers questions about SH 130
By Bob Thaxton
Seguin Gazette
July 7, 2011
SEGUIN — A wide variety of questions about State Highway 130 were answered Wednesday during the monthly membership meeting and luncheon hosted by the Seguin Area Chamber of Commerce at the Seguin-Guadalupe County Coliseum.
Guest speaker for the luncheon was Victoria Miller, director of corporate affairs and public information coordinator for the SH 130 Concession Company.
A joint venture of Cintra, a multinational company based in Spain and Zachry American Infrastructure, headquartered in San Antonio, the SH 130 Concession Company is building segments 5 and 6, the southernmost sections of the 90-mile toll highway running from Interstate 35 near Georgetown to Interstate 10 east of Seguin.
“We’re hoping that the road will be done by the end of 2012,” Miller said.
After delivering a brief description of the project, she opened the proceedings to questions from the audience.
Several questions concerned the cost of traveling on the toll highway.
“We don’t set the tolls; TxDOT does,” Miller said.
The TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) website includes a calculator that will compute the toll for a trip along the highway which now has been completed from Georgetown to Lockhart.
The cost to travel from Georgetown to Lockhart totals $5.40 for a vehicle bearing a TxTAG and $7.20 without the tag.
Miller had noted earlier that vehicles without TxTAGs are sent bills by mail which include a processing fee in addition to the toll. Obtaining a TxTAG involves making a deposit into an account from which tolls are deducted electronically, and there are no processing fees.
There are no toll plazas or booths for collection of coins and currency along SH 130.
Asked why a trucker would want to incur the extra expense of tolls on a highway that involves a longer route, Miller said paying tolls will be less expensive than the cost of sitting in congested traffic on Interstate 35.
“There’s no good reason to keep the trucks on I-35,” Miller said. “The trucks, the weight that they have, they’re tearing up the road.” She added that the accident rate for trucks on I-35 is “staggering.”
“When a truck has a wreck with a car, the car doesn’t win,” Miller said.
Another questioner asked about traffic congestion on Interstate 10 after SH 130 has been completed.
“I-10 does need to be widened,” Miller said. “We are concerned about it.”
The SH 130 Concession Company has a 50-year contract for financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the highway. Miller pointed out that tolls will be reinvested in the maintenance of SH 130.
“Maintaining it is important,” Miller said. “We didn’t do a very good job of explaining to the public how much it costs to maintain a road.”