Tollway funding is question of control

A company selected to build a toll road from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio has a reputation for aggressively collecting money from motorists, treating customers poorly and frequently raising tolls without public input.
Those are among the complaints lodged against Cintra -- selected in December to build the first leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor -- by motorists on the company's toll roads in Toronto and Chicago.
Across North America, private companies such as Cintra are spending billions of dollars to build roads in exchange for the right to collect tolls for 50 to 100 years -- relieving taxpayers of the financial burden.
But critics warn that some agencies may be giving up too much authority, blinded by the instant gratification of traffic relief.
"In some cases, because people were hungry to see something done to get a road built, they gave away the farm," said Alan Pisarski, a researcher and author of Commuting in America.
Some toll-road companies can raise tolls without a government hearing, or send collection agencies after drivers with past-due accounts.
Some even negotiate noncompete clauses into contracts so that governments cannot expand other freeways that might take business away from toll roads.
Just how much power Cintra will have is being negotiated behind closed doors in Austin. State officials say that within weeks they expect to sign a contract, known as a comprehensive development agreement, identifying Madrid, Spain-based Cintra as the lead agency, along with San Antonio's Zachry Construction Corp. and other minority partners.