By Shelley Kofler
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-647822.mp3
Dallas –
A lucrative Collin County toll road may be the cash cow that insures an Arlington road needed for the 2011 SuperBowl is built in time.
The Texas 161 tollroad is already a decade behind schedule and critical for relieving a congestion bottleneck near the new Cowboy Stadium.
Now an impass between the Texas Department of Transportation and the North Texas Tollway Authority over who will build the road threatens to delay construction even longer, and prevent its opening in time for the 2011 Superbowl.
The Council of Government's Michael Morris says, in this case, Cowboy-mania may be just what's needed to try something new.
Morris: "Yes the Superbowl is important and yes we are going to use the Superbowl as an excuse to do the things we should be doing anyway. It is not fair to the customers who need transportation to wait on two state agencies to resolve who is going to do what."
Morris is proposing the Regional Transportation Commission loan the state a quarter-billion dollars to begin construction while negotiations continue. The loan comes from money the builders of State Highway 121 in Collin County agreed to pay up front for the right to operate that lucrative road.
If state and regional transportation officials sign off on the novel financing Morris says the all-important road will open well before the SuperBowl. It will be up and running in 2009 when America's team plays its first game in its new digs.