User:Cperezdavid/sandbox

Purpose/Operation of Toll Roads
The toll roads in Central Texas are governed through the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, which is stated to be the creating agency for transportation models to keep up with todays population growth. to promote future road construction which is to alleviate traffic issues within Travis and Williamson Counties Texas is one of few states that has allowed private toll roads.

The idea that toll roads should be privatized, is an idea that stemmed from european models that are evident in Spain, Italy, and England. The european model is called a, BOT or Build-Operate-Transfer; which is simply a public-private ownership of a roadway (toll road). The idea of a BOT is that a private company will fund, design and construct the planned toll roads and will operate them at the beginning of a project until their contract is fulfilled with a government, in which at the end of the contract the toll road will go under the ownership of...[such] government. Despite the fact for which the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority stands for or wishes to promote, there are many opposers to the expansion of toll roads within Central Texas.

Pros and Cons of Toll Roads in Central Texas
A pro belief for toll roads mentioned in the The Texas Tribune was, "that tolls: are "vital" to the state's future mobility planning as Texas tries to close the gap on road funding shortfall. The article explains how the gas tax (38.4 cents per gallon of gas) hasn't been increased since 1993 and costs of building roadways has increased throughout time supporting the construction of toll roads.

A con to one of the Central Texas toll projects is that the company that runs the SH-130 toll road has been said by Moody's business rating to have the possibility of defaulting on its debt in 2014 therefore Moody's lowered the business rating to B1. A B1 classification "indicates that the business is pretty risky to lend money to". The sponsors of the toll road are Zachary (a San Antonio, Texas based company), which sponsored 65%, and Cintra (a company based out of Spain) that sponsored 35%. The lenders to the project: TIFIA program under the Federal Highway Administration which contributed $475 million, and several other banks that funded $686 million.

Despite the fact that the partner companies (Cintra and Zachary) are defaulting on debt, the chairman for the SH 130 (130 Toll) Concession Company reiterated that in time the project would, "prove a wise investment as drivers look for an alternative to Interstate 35." Even though traffic volume has been low on SH130 Krier (Chairman for the SH 130 Concession Company) went on to state that the company, "...is pretty confident that in the long term, this is going to be a huge transportation asset for the region."