Texas can move forward with plans to raise more than $1.8 billion for work on State Highway 121 outside Dallas now that the federal government has approved its request to seek private-sector funds,
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters has announced.
Peters said Texas officials were the first to request and receive authorization to pursue plans to pay for a highway project using Private Activity Bonds. Under the terms of the application, the state will hold a competition early next year to select a single private company with the authority to design the project and build the highway. The state would then go back to the Department for final approval to issue up to $1.866 billion in Private Activity Bonds by the fall of 2007 and transfer the proceeds to the company, she added.
“The best way to get commuters moving again is to give states more options to pay for and build vital transportation projects,” Secretary Peters said. “This decision allows planners to tap into the billions of dollars in private capital available to invest in highway projects.”
Peters noted the Department also is considering a request from the Texas Department of Transportation for a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan of up to $700 million to help pay for the project. Texas officials are proposing to repay the loan using toll money collected on the new road.
As part of new surface transportation legislation signed by President Bush last year, states can issue and transfer to private companies up to $15 billion in tax-exempt bonds, known as Private Activity Bonds, to finance a range of highway, freight and transit projects.