NTTA

North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) has engaged cash stores operator ACE Cash Express to provide walk-in options for NTTA customers to pay their video toll - local brand is "ZipCash" - invoices. The ACE Express stores and cash machines will also allow north Texas tollroad users to open and load cash-backed transponder accounts locally branded TollTag.
 
Customers will be able to use the ACE Cash Express stores and machines to:

Plans advance for further extensions of the Dallas North Tollway taking it closer to the Oklahoma border. North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) have scheduled public meetings for discussion of alternate alignments for Phase 4B/5A. The area of study is in Collin, Denton and Grayson counties and between FM428 and FM121.

North Texas Tollway will in future bill all non-transponder reads initially as a video toll under their ZipCash brand for camera-generated tolls sent in the mail. Violation notices will no longer be sent directly for trips through open road toll lanes where there is still cash collection alongside.

Economists call it elasticity of demand, the response of customers to higher prices.

North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) are breaking with their practice of relying heavily on contracted consultant firms for legal, engineering, planning and financial services in favor of hiring staff. And they plan to recompete consulting contracts in place for years by periodic negotiation.

Two major personalities have recently departed North Texas Tollway Authority without there being any announcement. The quiet departees are:

- Rick Herrington, former #2 and deputy executive director

- Susan Buse, former chief financial officer

North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) are due to open their sixth toll facility, Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge August 1. The bridge is part of a 22km (14 mile) east-west surface arterial route between I-35E on its western end and Dallas North Tollway on its eastern end. Apart from the bridge the route is untolled and is being built by TxDOT Denton County and local cities, Frisco and Little Elm.

North Texas Tollway Authority on the President George Bush Turnpike and E470 Public Highway Authority in Denver CO will cease all cash toll collection this week. The conversions to all-electronic tolling (AET) will be very differently conducted.

North Texas Tollway are cutting spending and considering higher toll rates to cope with a major drop in traffic and revenue. A statement issued this week says their traffic and revenue consultants are forecasting a 10.91% drop in toll revenues this year compared to 2008. By our calculation that would mean an approx $27m drop to $218m for 2009 v $245m in 2008.

The much fought-over State Highway 121 tollroad is being formally renamed in a ceremony next week the Sam Rayburn Tollway. That will be the second major toll authority facility in  the United States named after a famous speaker of the US House of Representatives, the first having been Thomas 'Tip' O'Neill (1912-1994).

NTTA staff expect the economic crisis to drop revenue by $25m or 7% in 2009, according to a statement from the Dallas TX toll authority. Initial traffic and revenue projections for 2009 were made in July based on trends through the end of June. The past four months have seen a dramatic worsening of the economic outlook.

After less than a year and a half as executive director of North Texas Tollway Authority, Jorge Figueredo has resigned, effective immediately. There's no public hint of any job-related cause for the separation. Figueredo is quoted as explaining to the board of directors: "The difficulties of being separated from my family in Florida have been more of a burden than I ever anticipated."

North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) have announced that they've succeeded in the completing the longterm financing of the $3.2b concession fee they paid Texas Department of Transportation for the 50 year right to toll the 28 mile (45km) section of SH121 north of Dallas now known as 121 Tollway. To make the $3,200m upfront payment to the state on the toll concession last November NTTA issued a set of short term bond anticipation notes (BANs) which are now expiring.

North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) chairman Paul Wageman is quoted: "There is very little or no credit out there right now and the access to the credit markets are almost non-existent." So they are being innovatory.

NTTA gets another 15km (9 miles) of tollroad this Sunday Aug 31. The new pike to be called the "121 Tollway" will be opened on SR121 between Old Denton Rd and Hillcrest Rd. Called Segment 2 it straddles Denton and Collin counties.

Segment 1m open for over a year, is 11km (7 miles) long.

NTTA say their latest bond sale - just over a billion dollars - was a success because it was heavily oversubscribed. Paul Wagerman, NTTA chairman is quoted: "The success of this sale is indicative of investor confidence in the NTTA and the strength of our financial system. We look forward to another successful sale in the coming months to complete the refinancing of the remaining $725 million in BANs."

The latest bonds were oversubscribed by 150%, NTTA say.

After months of rancorous arguments TxDOT has backed down agreeing to NTTA terms, reaching a kind of agreement on the value of the toll concession on State Highway 161 (TX161) in the south central part of the Dallas-Ft Worth metro area. Agreement on the "market valuation" of the concession with NTTA allowed construction of the road to begin today.

North Texas Tollway Authority has successfully refinanced $2.4 billion of bond anticipation notes (BANs). The sale of bonds today was heavily oversubscribed. Over 60 institutions put orders in for $16b in NTTA bonds according to Bear Stearns who organized the placement.

NTTA chairman Paul Wageman said the result was "particularly gratifying" given recent turbulence in the municipal bond markets.

North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) has a groundbreaking ceremony Friday Feb 22 at the heavily fought-over TX121 tollroad project north of Dallas. It's a big media show with heavy construction equipment, previews of cashless highway speed electronic tolling, and a gaggle of local politicians jostling for microphone time.

TxDOT's 50 year toll concession and lease of SH121 to the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) reached financial close late Thursday when the NTTA wired $3,197m into a bank account of the Texas Department of Transportation.