[DeTomaso] FW: Car hits 220 MPH on new Texas Hwy

Will Kooiman will.kooiman at gmail.com
Mon Nov 5 10:19:25 EST 2012


There were a lot of issues with 121.

I don't know the full story, but I believe it was originally TTA with
Raytheon (for tolling, someone else did the construction) that tried to do
121.  Raytheon had problems with the tolling equipment. We offered to
help, but it was political.  We could have had the equipment working in a
week, but it was screwed up for many months.  And, it really messes with
NTTA, since most of the traffic would be NTTA patrons.  When there are
issues, they're going to complain to NTTA.  In the end, NTTA paid a lot of
money to gain control of the road.  They didn't really "give" it to NTTA.
NTTA bought control to avoid customer service issues.  That's what I
heard, anyway.

I don't know how Cintra played into it.  I can ask friends what happened,
but since I wasn't on that project, I don't know off the top of my head.

Just so I'm clear on what I said earlier.  I have worked on the private
side of tolling for 10 years.  I have never worked for the public sector,
but I saw them operate.  Some were pretty bad.  Some were excellent.  The
best relationship I saw was private doing the work, and public ensuring
that the private contractors are meeting requirements.  Most everyone has
heard about the fixed-cost/minimum price contract process.  That's what
I'm referring to.  Sometimes it fails, but it seems to be the best
relationship.


On 11/5/12 10:59 AM, "Jeff Detrich" <jjdetrich at gmail.com> wrote:

>>
>> Cintra is building one in Dallas, too. They are rebuilding the main
>> thoroughfare in Dallas, the LBJ Freeway. Cintra was supposed to build
>> another, the 121 north loop around the city, but there was so much local
>> opposition in Collin and Denton Counties that they took it away from
>>them
>> and gave it to the North Texas Tollway Authority.
>>
>
>
>> Infrastructure is one of the legitimate responsibilities of
>> government. Let's not forget that a toll road is a user tax regardless
>>of
>> who owns or runs it. One of the main advantages of a toll road is that
>>it
>> allows politicians to say that they have not raised taxes.
>>
>>
>Jeff
>6559
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