BETTER HIGHWAYS
EVERYBODY agrees that the U.S. needs more and better roads, but almost nobody agrees on how to pay for them. While the argument rages, Texas has gone ahead and devised something new: the nation's first privately owned and privately financed modern toll roads. This week the Texas Turnpike Co. will start constructing a 223-mile, four-lane thruway from the Dallas area to Houston, at a cost of $140 million. At the same time the Sam Houston Toll Road Corp. will start building the first leg (Dallas-Waco, 83 miles) of its $140 million. 246-mile Dallas-San Antonio Thruway. The two corporations, franchised as nonprofit public utilities by the Texas legislature, will float 40-year bonds at 4-5%, pay all costs of construction and operation, including salaries for the promoter-operators. When the bonds are paid off, the turnpikes will become state property.
The Texas idea is a new turn in the development of toll turnpikes. Ten years ago, the nation had less than 300 miles of major toll highways. Today there are 1,058 miles in operation, 1,247 under construction, and another 6,232 either ready for construction or proposed. Until now, all have been built by states or municipalities. Of the $2.4 billion of highway bonds floated last year, $2.2 billion were for toll roads. Some have been phenomenally successful. For example, the 118-mile New Jersey Turnpike, opened in 1951, took in $20,756,344 last year, more than double the engineers' estimate of $9,500,000. On the other hand. West Virginia's turnpike traffic is running below estimates, and its bonds are below par. Actually, the toll road is only suitable through a densely populated area, is not a cure-all to the nationwide need for better roads. Traffic engineers estimated that no more than 9,000 miles of U.S. highway (of a total 3,348,000 miles) carry enough traffic to pay for themselves through tolls.
If the toll road is not the answer, what is the best way to finance U.S. highways? For the most part, the nation's roads are still being built or repaired with revenue from gasoline taxes, license-plate fees and other taxes on motorists and truckers. But in most states the immediate need for roads is greater than the immediate income, and the double-edged question of taxing motorists and building highways regularly touches off pitched battles in state capitals.