The Texas Transportation Commission amended language in the state’s pass-through financing/tolling program. Statewide, about $249 million in pass-through tolling projects are in development. The approved minute order allows the TxDOT executive director to add language to future pass through agreements that will limit TxDOT’s share of the actual costs incurred for construction of the project. The new language will put a cap on both overruns and underruns of project costs.
At this week’s meeting, TxDOT Deputy Executive Director Steve Simmons, explained that the cost revision recommendation would be on agreements negotiated but not yet executed. He said the new language would limit the pass through toll reimbursement obligation, with the maximum capped at 110 percent of the estimated total reimbursement amount. Underruns, he said, would be reimbursed up to a maximum of 10 percent of the estimated cost of construction. Additionally, he noted the language recommended also would require that any leftover funding from the project that would go to the local entity must be used for highway projects in that entity’s jurisdiction.