DMN INVESTIGATES

Dallas-Fort Worth commuters have begun paying tolls in recent years because, they were told, tax dollars were too few to expand all the congested roadways and build new ones.

The Star-Telegram did a nice job this weekend showing how there has been, in fact, public money to spare. Since 1991, nearly $1 billion has been dedicated to projects that had "little to do with mobility," the newspaper reported.

Two examples: $16.1 million for the Battleship Texas restoration project on the Texas coast and $262 million spent on highway rest stops across the state, including one for $10 million off Interstate 35 with Wi-Fi connections (shown at right).

Who's to blame? Texas transportation officials say the federal government ties their hands by requiring spending on enhancement projects, as these are called, in order to get a much larger chunk of construction change. Once the money is here, state lawmakers then push to use it on pet projects, such as $2 million for a Houston fire museum.

Do you have thoughts on how government is deciding to spend these transportation dollars? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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Our blog has featured a couple of items on complaints with the North Texas Tollway Authority's billing system. The most common we've received: The agency doesn't keep track of toll payments then assumes drivers haven't made good, levies a stiff late fee and sics a bill collector on them.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's watchdog columnist, Dave Lieber, reported this weekend on similar complaints he's hearing. One reader was told he could be arrested if he didn't pay up.

A top NTTA official says the fees -- $25 per toll violation, plus other costs -- are needed to cover its collections operation. But state Sen. Jane Nelson is skeptical.

"It's gotten out of hand," she told Lieber. "What really bothers me is this is not supposed to be a revenue source for the NTTA."

The implication: Funding is tight as NTTA expands with more toll roads. Nelson also told Lieber that when she's made inquiries about this with agency officials, "They've been very defensive."

Do you have an experience with NTTA's billing system? Post a comment.

Hot Links today make the world seem somehow upside down.

1. The more you need help, the less likely you are to get it. That seems to be the logic transportation officials are using in deciding how to spend federal stimulus money. Reports USA Today: "Dallas trails only Los Angeles in miles of bad roads, yet it has received less than 1% of the $530 million that Texas approved for road repairs." A TXDoT official says our roads are so bad that fixes would cost too much to be eligible for funds.

2. The Dallas Morning News' Victor Godinez has a fascinating back story today about the Perot family confidant who's accused of insider trading. Reza Saleh, it turns out, helped rescue Perot employees from a prison in his native Iran 30 years ago. Now he's adding to the embarrassment facing Perot-affiliated investments this year. My colleagues Gary Jacobson and Brendan Case wrote a few months ago about the multi-billion dollar collapse of a family hedge fund.

Do you have a tip about street repairs? Hedge funds? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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In today's Hot Links, Dallas-area TV stations show public employees endangering schoolkids on roadways.

1. Channel 8 obtained dash-cam video of a Dallas police response that sped through active school zones and past school buses. Doesn't Chief David Kunkle's strict speeding policy apply here?

2. Channel 11 reported that a Dallas County Schools bus driver lost a mentally disabled child for about two hours. Happy ending: The Oak Cliff boy apparently was asleep on the bus the whole time. Do drivers not check all their seats at the end of a route? What if this had happened in hotter weather?

Do you have a tip about schools and transportation safety? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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Finally, some relief.

No, not from the heat, but the traffic tie-ups at Buckner Boulevard and Garland Road, reports editor Steve Harris.

Steve drives through the Casa Linda Plaza intersection every day to and from work. Today, he found that the new left-turn lanes were finally done after weeks and weeks of promises.

What a difference, he says. There are now double, protected, green-arrow only left-turn lanes at each of the four points of the intersection, which has been one of the worst in Dallas for years.

So, we can finally put this repair job into the completed category. Whew.

A reader let me know this morning about her issue with the North Texas Tollway Authority. She said I was welcome to post it for the rest of you readers.

"Today's article (DMN Problem Solver) was incredibly timely!

I called NTTA this morning regarding a 'Late Notice' I received for a charge ($6.17) that I knew I had paid on time. The 'Late Notice' assessed me a $2.50 late fee, for a total of $8.67.

Rosemary Udell of DeSoto doesn't have a TollTag, but she knows she always pays promptly when a bill arrives from the tollway. That's why she was upset when she got four invoices for 75-cent tolls, each with a $25 fee attached. She called. "They have a phone number, but they never answer it," she said. She wrote, but didn't hear back.

She e-mailed. "The email response said, 'We're too busy to look into this and we'll get back with you later.' The 'later' was a $103 collection agency notice," she said.

The problem was that the North Texas Tollway Authority didn't know Udell had paid her bills.

"The problem is there were no reference numbers on the checks, so they couldn't be cashed," said Sherita Coffelt, public information officer for the tollway authority. "The customer service director called her and worked it out. Everything should be good."

Udell confirmed that things should be fixed. Still, "I don't know why it's so difficult to get to someone," she said.

Readers are starting to wonder if the Buckner Boulevard and Garland Road intersection work will ever be done.

"Honestly, I'm sure that there's been progress -- but I don't see that anything significant has happened since May," a reader wrote.

The workers didn't make their end of June deadline for the intersection near Dallas' White Rock Lake. But the Texas Department of Transportation assures commuters that an end really is in sight.

"They are in the final stages of staining the asphalt and, hopefully, will be open by the end of the week," said agency spokesman Tony Hartzel.

A reader asked what D/FW does to recycle. He sees a lot of recycling efforts at other airports, but not as much here. He sent a letter to the Airport Board to try to get the information but didn't get a response.

It turns out they do a lot of recycling. Tons of it.

Specifically, more than 7,813 tons of material since 1996. The airport collects recycling all over the place, too. There are 86 public-use newspaper recycling containers, 76 public-use plastic bottle recycling containers and 80 administrative office mixed paper-recycling bins.

The airport has almost doubled its primary recycling collection from 550 tons to 978 tons annually, Magana said.

A reader wrote that the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport has consistently overcharged him at terminal rates of $17 a day on his TollTag - even though he was parking in the Express North lot, which charges $10 a day.
He tried to explain the error to the operators at the exit tollbooths, but he couldn't prove that he had parked in the cheaper lot. He complained, but the problem has continued for months.

"That's an extra $7 a day for each person paying this," he said. "There is no incentive to fix their system when you figure how much they've been making on this."

The airport says there is a faulty data connection in its computerized system, so information is not always relayed from the Express North lot to the toll booths at the airport exits. When that happens, customers are charged at the higher terminal rate.

The airport is working on fixing the connection. Airport spokesman David Magana said the problem "should be corrected by the end of the month."

A caller let Problem Solver know that he was tired of seeing that the southbound High Occupancy Vehicle lane on Central Expressway has been shut down in parts of Allen and Plano for "no discernible reason."

There is a reason why the lane is not being used. It was shut down last October from Bethany Drive in Allen to Park Boulevard in Plano so that a contractor could build a wide center support for a bridge at Parker Road.

The closure is necessary to keep workers safe as they do the work, Hartzel said. "We're hopeful to get this back open by October," he said.

Several readers frustrated by roadwork have called and written to complain. For instance, Samra Jones Bufkins asked about construction on Loop 288 in the Denton area, saying the process has been "interminable."

"Stores and restaurants have gone out of business because the access was impossible, and traffic backed up horribly," she said. "In fact, it looks complete, but orange barrels and barricades block off up to two lanes in each direction. It's a finished road, but we can't drive on it. Why has this been allowed to go on so long?"

The $39 million project has been underway for more than three years, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

"We understand motorists' desire to use the new section of Loop 288, and we hope to have the portion from Interstate 35E to McKinney Street open by the Fourth of July weekend," said spokesman Tony Hartzel. The entire project should be completed by September.

He said that even when roads look finished, there can be additional work items to complete. "In this case, contractors are working to finish irrigation work and safety-related issues such as pavement striping and signal light timing before the road can open

It turns out there are still some delays to opening up the left turn lanes at Buckner Boulevard and Garland Road.

Mark Titus, program manager of traffic management systems for the city of Dallas, had thought that the work at the intersection would be done at the beginning of June.

Five days later, frustrated drivers are anxious to know what is going on, noting that there has been "minimal progress" and that they're still sitting for what-seems-like-forever at the traffic light.

"Can you post an update? This construction has been dragging on FOREVER," wrote one reader.

We start today with questions, as we look at some of the public-interest stories in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. What's leading to all the fatal wrong-way crashes on the Dallas North Tollway? Overnight we had yet another one. Police say alcohol may be a factor in what The News' Scott Goldstein counts as the fifth such crash since October.

2. Are some homeowners' associations getting a little overzealous? One in Lake Highlands threatened to tow the vehicle of a Vietnam vet if he didn't remove military decals that he had displayed on his ride, News columnist James Ragland tell us. The HOA likened it to advertising.

Did I miss a good story? Or do you have a tip? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

Here's a sign that the federal stimulus package is reaching into North Texas: Funding for local transportation projects.

In the latest installment of our Citizen Watchdog column, Jennifer LaFleur shows us a new online tool that we can use to keep track of the $2.2 billion in funding for new roads, bridges, bike paths and walking trails due to Texas.

The Texas Department of Transportation is operating the site. The information is organized by county. After clicking on a particular project, you can pull up a construction schedule, location map, funding breakdown and construction company in charge.

Jennifer used the TxDOT site to find that Harris County leads the state so far in the number of projects with 18. Tarrant County has the highest dollar amount, more than $1.2 billion.

Did you find the TxDOT site helpful? Did you spot an interesting trend? Leave us a comment and let us know.

A reader who drives to work on Garland Road gets stuck at the intersection of Buckner Blvd. every morning and afternoon.

"Is there a way to have the city set up an evaluation for this intersection? By the way, I have e-mailed the city a couple times about this over the last year or so and nothing ever comes of it."

Mark Titus, program manager of traffic management systems for the city of Dallas, went out himself to check out what was going on with the intersection.

A reader wrote in to ask about the street lights at the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and Shady Grove Road in Irving. The lights had been taken out when work was done recently and not replaced. Without the street lights, the intersection is too dark at night, the reader said.

Jim Cline, public works director for Irving, immediately reacted when I called to tell him about the complaint. Within a week, lights were back up at the intersection.

The lights are now working, but the city doesn't really like the way they look. So, the intersection will probably get a different long-term fix.

"The ultimate plan is for us to put lights in the median closer to the intersection. They're nice looking poles right now, but there is a preference not to have the lights over the intersection," Cline said.