Grand Prairie toll road in peril … again

by Kirk Dickey of Grand Prairie TODAY

A software turf battle over State Highway 161 is threatening several projects in Grand Prairie — again.

Once a near-casualty of a state legislature looking for ways to curtail what it saw as runaway toll road development and an oft-debated development since the 1970s, the latest troubles stem from an argument over which government entities get to determine the road's value.

The Texas Department of Transportation and the North Texas Tollway Authority are haggling over use of the model determining the value of Highway 161 as a toll road. The modeling program used by TxDOT's local engineers - software which looks at a variety of factors over 50 years to determine the proposed toll road's worth - is proprietary, and officials at the agency do not want to share the model with NTTA.

The NTTA argues that TxDOT may be overstating the tollway's value because it is using private-sector assumptions about the road's traffic load and toll rate inflation among other things.

“They are coming out with different numbers, depending on who does the work,” Grand Prairie Transportation Director Jim Sparks said.

Texas Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson decreed in mid-November that the two sides had to reach an agreement regarding the project by Dec. 20 or risk losing it as a toll road. Highway 161 would likely still be built, only as a regular roadway.

And while local drivers might rejoice over that, it could mean the loss of millions in federal funding for other projects around the city.

“They've been giving us this near neighbor money and we have been spending money on design in anticipation of these projects that are federally funded because 161 is being tolled,” Sparks said. “We are very concerned about that. We don't want these project to go away.”

The projects, which range from continuous frontage roads on I-30 to extensions of Wildlife Parkway to Highway 161, are necessary to relieve congestion and enable future growth, according to the city. And while the city has invested in design of those roadways, they might never be built if a 161 is not built as a tollway.

Money for some of the projects come from “near neighbor” funds from the federal government and monies projected to come from tollway fees.

Sparks said he hopes TxDOT and the North Central Texas Council of Governments will not take the money they have already committed to them away, but concedes the project must first get by this impasse.

“I think Ric Williamson is just tired of those guys arguing and I think he was saying ‘You guys need to come to the table and agree on something by Dec. 21,'” Sparks said. “I think he is putting pressure on TxDOT and the NTTA to resolve it and stop going back and forth and arguing.”

Main lane construction could start in March of 2008 if the two entities reach an agreement.

“We would hate for 161 to be delayed or not even be built,” Sparks said.