Name: Texas 288 tollway opening pushed to end of year, as uncertain times loom for traffic, pay lanes
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Texas 288 tollway opening pushed to end of year, as uncertain times loom for traffic, pay lanes

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateKate Gravell used to look at the toll lanes taking shape in the center of Texas 288 and long for the day they opened.These days, the X-ray technician’s trip to the Texas Medical Center from her Pearland area home happens so fast she does not have time to think much about the tollway, even as the opening day looms later this year.“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it, when the traffic comes back,” Gravell, 41, said. “I’m not celebrating it, with so many people isolated or out of work or both, but it is nice to not sit there.”COVID may have bought the years-delayed toll work a little more time to finish construction, but it has taken a toll on the crews. Sickness is just the latest setback for a project once touted as the future of freeway work, back when congestion was the biggest complaint in the community.More from Dug Begley“Everything will be completed by the end of the year,” said Raynese Edwards, spokeswoman for the project. “Can I tell you what that will be or when? Not right now.”When work wraps up and motorists make their way onto the lanes, they will do so under far different conditions than when the project was conceived. Freeway traffic remains about 10 percent below typical volumes — significant enough along Texas 288 that the northbound morning commute just inside the Sam Houston Tollway has been virtually delay-free. Even if congestion increases slightly, traffic could move smoothly enough to keep drivers in the free lanes.BAR RESCUE:Edwards said the private firms behind the tollway, part of a $2.1 billion, 52-year deal with the state, still are assessing the effect any changes in demand will have on the revenues raised in the early years of the project.Conceding past estimates were too ambitious, builders of the tollway in the center of Texas 288 from Interstate 69 to Brazoria County say the pay lanes will open by the end of the year, as some minor work continues into 2021.The only upcoming opening is the Southmore bridge spanning the freeway. Edwards said automobile lanes on the project are expected to open later this month, with some access for pedestrians while work continues on a separate pedestrian bridge.“We got affected by everything,” Edwards said, from rain to subcontractors’ scheduling difficulties.That includes COVID. Since March, dozens of workers have tested positive for the coronavirus or quarantined as a precaution.“If one person is sick or has a fever, it affects that entire crew,” Edwards said.At peak in late June, Edwards said 74 workers were sick, representing 10 percent of the workforce.COVID is just the latest calamity builders have cited for delays that have put the project more than two years behind initial estimates.It started with Texas Department of Transportation officials who that cedes operation and maintenance of the tollway and main lanes of the freeway to Blueridge Transportation Group until 2065. In return, the private firm will reap all the toll revenues.The company is a partnership led by the Spanish construction giant Grupo ACS, global investment firm InfraRed Capital Partners and the Israeli building and real estate company Shikun &amp; Binui Ltd. The trio created a company, Almeda Genoa Constructors, made up primarily of its own construction firms, to build the tollway and rebuild the Loop 610 and Sam Houston Tollway intersections.QUICK WORK:Less than a year into construction, Hurricane Harvey swamped much of the muddy soil where crews were installing drainage along freeway, an area known to flood during heavy rains. Construction leaders at the time said they were hopeful they could accelerate parts of the project but struggled to juggle all the contractors and the need to redo some of the excavation and digging.Tropical Storm Imelda last September again left work stuck in the mud, Edwards said. The timing of some crucial parts of the project, including pouring or setting concrete, floundered as earth work waited for the ground to dry.Some of those rains also led to a re-evalaution of drainage along the project, which cuts through areas plagued by flooding thatSuddenly, Edwards said, work once scheduled for spring was waiting on the next available window in the late summer.The delays will cost Almeda Genoa or their owners. Edwards said Blueridge and the state have agreed that the adjusted deadline for the project — based on the contract and the number of working days the contractor has to complete the job — is the end of September. After that, the contract calls for liquidated damages of $100,000 per day for each working day the project is not open. By December, that tally could reach as high as $7 million.The project also is holding up a companion toll project along Texas 288 in Brazoria County. Dragados, the American subsidiary of Grupo ACS, is the contractor on the Brazoria County piece, overseen by the county government. For drivers, the tollway will operate seamlessly, though Blueridge will reap Harris County tolls and Brazoria County will keep its share.FREEWAYS &amp; FAIRNESS:Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta said last month the project was proceeding slowly, partly because Dragados moved resources to the Harris County work, and would be ready by the time the Harris County lanes open.“We’re just waiting on them,” Sebesta said. “It’ll just be nice to get to that finish line.”It’s not clear what the completion of this project will mean for toll lanes elsewhere in Houston. Aside from the extension of the Grand Parkway from Interstate 69 to Interstate 10 in Montgomery, Harris and Liberty counties, upcoming major projects do not include a toll component. That has drawn concerns about Texas’ economic outlook because the pandemic has reduced sales tax revenues, shuttered businesses and led to steep drops in oil and gas production.“All indications show we will have a historic drop in state revenue,” Aaron Cox, senior vice president of the Texas Association of Business, said on a recent call outlining the need for more transportation investment. “Let’s leverage public private partnerships. … We need every tool in the toolbox.”Some estimates of the pandemic’s long-term effects on employment and employee habits envision less demand on area highways in the near future, while others believe that even with the respite in stop-and-go commutes there is increasing need to build more lanes.“Texas roads are simply not keeping pace,” Cox said, noting an oft-used stat that 1,000 people move to Texas daily, a number COVID likely cratered.The association last month revived its Keep Texas Moving campaign, which helped win voter approval of Prop. 1 in 2014 and Prop. 7 in 2015 that together committed hundreds of millions toward transportation projects. Upon their passage, lawmakers including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick cheered a return to freeways being free and , as both measures said TxDOT could not spend the money on building or developing toll projects.Now, with tax revenues expected to take a major hit — notably the energy severance tax that funds Prop. 1 and the rainy day fund allocation that Prop. 7 absorbs — Cox and business leaders argue toll roads need to be an option to continue road widening in congested areas.“The reality is, we would love to be able to build free roads, but our tax revenues are not keeping pace with the growth,” he said.A return to tolling would be a tough pill for many Houston-area drivers to swallow.“I think people are just sick and tired of being nickel and dimed,” said Dallas Foster, 33, who commutes into southern Houston from Angleton along Texas 288. “If you want to use the toll lanes and there is a free option, that’s up to you. … It just seems like all they want to build is toll roads because they make someone else money and then tell us there isn’t enough money.”Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly calculated the amount of possible damages owed by the company.dug.begley@chron.com

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateKate Gravell used to look at the toll lanes taking shape in the center of Texas 288 and long for the day they opened.These days, the X-ray technician’s trip to the Texas Medical Center from her Pearland area home happens so fast she does not have time to think much about the tollway, even as the opening day looms later this year.“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it, when the traffic comes back,” Gravell, 41, said. “I’m not celebrating it, with so many people isolated or out of work or both, but it is nice to not sit there.”COVID...

Texas 288 tollway opening pushed to end of year, as uncertain times loom for traffic, pay lanes

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