Commissioners Want to Make Us Pay a Mighty Toll
County Citizen June 3, 2015
Be thankful for small mercies, Commissioner James Noack, was the lone no vote on the issue of tolls for the EZ-tag only flyovers on SH-242.
According to Catherine Dominguez at the Courier~
“Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack was the lone nay vote. Before voting during the court’s regular meeting Monday, Noack told the court he didn’t support tolling the flyovers, which opened last month. The court approved a 50-cent toll during peak hours of 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and a reduced toll of 25 cents from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.”
“Philosophically, I am opposed to the tolling of a direct connector, a flyover, which connects two free roadways,” Noack said.
Turns out that vote was history making, standard now for plundering local elected officials who love to grow government with other peoples money.
Texas A&M Transportation Institute November 2014 report “Texas Toll Road Primer” includes analysis of Average Toll Rate per Mile in Texas and beyond. According to the study,
“In an effort to better understand toll road performance from one facility to the next, it is desirable to find a measure to compare toll roads with one another. As seen from Table 13, the toll roads in Texas have a toll rate that ranges from $0.53 per mile to $0.08 per mile for a passenger vehicle ”
In a rough estimate thanks to google maps distance measurement tool County Citizen estimates the flyover ramp length at 4700 ft for NB IH-45 to WB 242 and 4000 ft for WB 242 to SB IH-45. Even though the off peak rate is a mid range 25 cents its still too high for taxpayers who must foot the bill for the construction via bonds secured by their property and are then expected to pay a toll to boot. But that’s nothing compared to the real world Highway Robbery approved by County Judge and Commissioners who set the peak rate at FIFTY CENTS ( when people actually might want to use the ramps they paid for ). In comparison consider a four-mile Hardy Toll Road connecting road to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport requires a $1.25 toll.
These Flyovers are easily the most expensive Toll Roads in Texas and that is just Highway Robbery.
Are you OK with this?
I was wondering what the toll would be.I wont be using the flyover after Jul 6.