The brand new stretch of toll road SH-130 between San Antonio and Austin, which has a posted speed limit of 85 mph, had some bad news to report this weekend. First, on Sunday, it recorded its first traffic fatality when "the driver of a Honda Civic died after colliding with a Chevy Tahoe," [KVUE.com]. It also ended the free two-week period, meaning the full 41-mile stretch will cost you $6.17 if you have TX-Tag or over $8 if you don't.
The fastest road in the US is also the target of a boycott, according to KVUE.com:
The groups "Texans uniting for Reform and Freedom" and "Texans for Accountable Government" are calling for a boycott citing several concerns with the Spain-based toll operator, Cintra.
Cintra, which built this stretch of the toll road along with the other sections already in use, has been under fire for an ad last month promoting the new stretch. It also has taken heat for its cozy relationship with TxDOT. Terri Hall's blog on MySanAntonio.com has lots more to tell:
Many news articles say no state money went into Cintra’s road, however, $430 million in federal taxpayer money did. So Cintra’s full court press propaganda campaign conveniently leaves out the most controversial aspects of Texas’ first public private partnership toll project, like its non-compete agreement that prevents free roads surrounding the private toll road from being expanded. Other provisions give the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) a financial incentive to artificially manipulate speed limits to drive more traffic to the tollway. Not only did TxDOT increase the speed limit to 85 MPH, it concurrently lowered the speed limit on the competing free route, US 183 through Lockhart, from 65 MPH down to 55 MPH.
But the biggest hurdle for Cintra is the lack of traffic on the four state-run segments of SH 130 already open to traffic. In fact, SH 130 is so empty a distressed plane landed on it during ‘rush hour.’ TxDOT has tried repeatedly to reduce both auto and truck toll rates in order to attract more traffic, but it has not yielded the kind of bump needed to pull the beleaguered toll road out of a sea of red ink.
Lest we forget, one of the original incentives behind the toll roads was that commercial trucks would be required to use them, thereby reducing traffic congestion along the I-35 corridor, which has seen a seismic increase in large trucks since the NAFTA agreement. But with that requirement quickly removed before construction was even finished, the toll roads have been mostly empty for years.
Maybe with ABIA hitting max capacity, and with CoTA's first F1 race coming this weekend, Cintra should turn SH-130 into a premium landing space for all those private jets from Dubai. At least we know they could afford it.