Tag Archives: TxDOT

Maybe there’s a problem with building roads where there are no drivers

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The high speed toll road keeps having problems relating to not having enough paying customers. SH 130 has not been the immediate success story its backers had hoped. Last week, lower-than-expected traffic revenue prompted credit ratings firm Moody’s Investors Service … Continue reading →

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There are no new ideas, but there are plenty of bad ideas

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

There’s so much wrong with what Greg Abbott wants for Texas that it’s hard to know where to begin. In his first major policy address as a gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Greg Abbott proposed tighter constitutional limits on state spending … Continue reading →

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Third public meeting for I-45 widening

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

From the I-45 Coalition, via the inbox: TxDOT is starting to roll again on the I-45 project!   TxDOT has just scheduled the 3rd round of public meetings to be held Thursday, Nov 14 at Aldine Ninth Grade School, 10650 North … Continue reading →

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Yes, but why is traffic so bad at these places?

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Two things that aren’t mentioned in this story but need to be. Two adjoining stretches of U.S. 59 in downtown and west Houston fared the worst regionally on an annual list of the 100-most congested freeways in the state, compiled … Continue reading →

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And that’s a wrap on Special Session 3

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Hallelujah. The Texas Legislature adjourned its third special session since May on Monday night after passing a measure estimated to increase transportation funding by $1.2 billion annually if Texas voters approve it next year. “Let’s adjourn this mutha,” said state … Continue reading →

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Yeah, they’re still working on a transportation funding bill

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The committee hearings will continue until morale improves. After consulting with members from both the House and Senate, state Rep. Joe Pickett decided to make some minor changes to his latest transportation funding proposal. On Thursday — the third day … Continue reading →

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Maybe the same failed approach will work this time

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It could happen, right? Transportation experts now estimate that the state needs $5billion a year to keep Texas moving. The proposal that fell apart in the House this week would add less than a billion annually. And after months of … Continue reading →

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Special Session 3: Beyond Thunderdome

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Beyond ridiculous, if you ask me, not that they did. Standing before mostly empty chairs in the 150-member Texas House on Tuesday, House Speaker Joe Straus adjourned the second special session and announced that Gov. Rick Perry would be calling … Continue reading →

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Transportation deal dies

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Technically, it’s not dead till sine die, but it sure is on life support. A compromise plan to spend $848 million on Texas highways just landed in a ditch. House members voted down a plan to split oil and gas … Continue reading →

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Transportation funding deal completed

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

All over but for the voting. House and Senate leaders reached final agreement Saturday afternoon on how to protect the state’s rainy day fund as they propose to shift half of future rainy day dollars into roads, according to an … Continue reading →

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Lege may have found a way on transportation funding

Posted on July 27, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

As of Thursday, Special Session 3: Beyond Thunderdome was looming. Both chambers of the Legislature were filled with activity Thursday afternoon but they ended up essentially where they had started: waiting on House and Senate negotiators to come up with … Continue reading →

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Transportation bill heads to conference committee

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

There’s still that fundamental disagreement in approach to be worked out somehow. Representatives from the House and Senate are preparing to spend the next week informally negotiating a compromise proposal to boost funding for the Texas Department of Transportation, with … Continue reading →

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Senate passes non-abortion bills, committee passes HB2

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The decks are cleared on the Senate side for the main event. In a speedy Thursday morning meeting with little debate, the upper chamber passed Senate Bill 2 with a 30-1 vote, allowing Texas judges and juries to sentence 17-year-olds … Continue reading →

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Elsewhere in the House

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

No action on transportation yet. House budget writers on Tuesday ended a hearing on transportation funding with no clear decision about how to raise money for Texas roads. The House Appropriations Committee is considering several proposals to see which has … Continue reading →

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There are other items on this session’s agenda

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

I know, hard to believe, but there are two non-abortion items on the session agenda, and the Senate has already taken preliminary action on two of them. Six hours before a marathon state House committee hearing on abortion, two Senate … Continue reading →

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Transportation funding advances

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Between redistricting and abortion, transportation funding has taken a bit of a back seat in the special session despite being the first additional item on the agenda. The Senate took the first step on that yesterday. Despite concerns raised by … Continue reading →

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Perry signs HB5, adds transportation to the special session

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

There had been some buzz about a possible veto, but in the end this was to be expected. When Gov. Rick Perry signed House Bill 5 on Monday, he ended weeks of speculation that he might veto the high-profile education … Continue reading →

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Building speculative privatized toll roads is risky business

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Just ask the Texas 130 investors. Moody’s Investor Service has downgraded the credit rating of the private company that built and operates the Texas 130 toll road extension, a rating that could continue to drop unless traffic “aggressively” grows on … Continue reading →

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Transportation funding shouldn’t be intractable

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

As previously noted, Sens. Tommy Williams and Robert Nichols want to take another crack at finding additional funds for transportation. The problem, as always, is political

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Calling to add to the call

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The special session is just a day old, and already legislators are lining up to extend its agenda to cover things that didn’t get done during regulation time. Senate Finance Chairman Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, and Senate Transportation Chairman Robert … Continue reading →

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Where things stand with two weeks to go in the legislative session

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

With the Thursday midnight deadline for bills to pass on second reading in the House, I figured this would be a good time to take a look at the status of some major legislation and legislative priorities. There are two … Continue reading →

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Perry works against his own stated interests

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t understand this at all. A bill that would have increased vehicle registration fees to raise money for transportation projects met its demise in the Texas House on Thursday. House Bill 3664 by state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, … Continue reading →

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Senate officially taps the Rainy Day Fund

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Well done. Texas senators hammered out a sweeping deal to increase state funding for water and transportation projects and schools on Tuesday, tackling some of the thorniest issues of the legislative session all at once. The senators voted 31-0 for … Continue reading →

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More on that underutilized high speed toll road

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

More toll road travails. Traffic counts on the new section of Texas 130, released Friday by the Texas Department of Transportation based on newspaper open records requests, show that the tollway southeast of Austin in its first couple of months … Continue reading →

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Still arguing about road funding

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

I still don’t quite get why the obvious solution is so blithely dismissed. With most of the work of developing a state budget behind them, lawmakers can now drill deeper into the state’s spending plan to find a way to … Continue reading →

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Senate to tap that Rainy Day Fund

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It is just sitting there, not doing any good if it’s unused. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, laid out an ambitious plan to spend $6 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund on Thursday morning while also … Continue reading →

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Get ready to hear more about Texas high speed rail

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

I for one can’t wait. Texas Central High-Speed Railway has spent the last few years privately — very privately — looking at how to connect Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston with a bullet train moving upwards of 200 miles per hour. But soon, they … Continue reading →

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There’s no such thing as a free road

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

I have an issue with this. Texas’ boom of toll roads has made the “free” part of freeway mean something different lately. As toll lanes become the preferred choice for adding capacity to Texas roads, a growing number of state … Continue reading →

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Maybe there are fewer people who want to drive 85 than we thought

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Oops. The privately operated section of the Texas 130 tollway south of Mustang Ridge is attracting about half the predicted traffic, according to Moody’s Investor Service, prompting it to investigate downgrading credit ratings for more than $1.1 billion in debt … Continue reading →

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Driverless car bill filed

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Glad to see it. Two weeks after Google showcased its self-driving car to local officials in Austin, a Texas lawmaker has filed a bill attempting to regulate the use of the futuristic technology. State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, filed HB … Continue reading →

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We’re not going to solve our transportation issues without new revenue

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The choice isn’t whether or not to pay, it’s how do you want to pay. Despite broad agreement that repairing and improving Texas highways will cost more money than it has in the past, legislators split Monday on whether now … Continue reading →

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And maybe we won’t need as much road capacity as we think, either

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Felix Salmon writes about the possible implications of driverless cars. While I’ve generally been a fan of just about any alternative to the automobile, now I’m not so sure: I think that smart car technology is improving impressively, to the … Continue reading →

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Time for another report on how much traffic sucks

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

We love this sort of thing, don’t we? Houston commuters continue to endure some of the worst traffic delays in the country, according to the 2012 Urban Mobility Report released Tuesday by the Texas A&M Transportation Commission. Area drivers wasted … Continue reading →

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The 288-to-the-Medical-Center connector takes a step forward

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

I still have a bad feeling about this. In a first step toward providing relief, transportation officials will spend the year winnowing six possible locations for reversible toll lanes that would provide a direct connection between the sprawling medical campus … Continue reading →

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