Is 15 minutes of your time worth a $1 of your money?

Officials with the Texas Department of Transportation are betting that enough people will say yes that they plan to toll a series of overpasses on U.S. 281 through Falfurrias.

The toll road is part of a $114 million upgrade to the highway to bring it to Interstate standards.

Using a portion of the agency's $2 billion share of stimulus package funds, TxDOT approved plans in March to remove bottlenecks along the trade corridor by adding overpasses and bypasses in Falfurrias, George West and Ben Bolt.

The toll - expected to be about $1 for the six-mile route - is only for drivers who take the Interstate-style overpasses, Jorge said. The existing route won't be tolled, giving drivers a choice to pay for convenience as they make the trek north.

The plan to charge drivers who use the road is not new - TxDOT announced the plan in 2004 - but the revelation caught some Hidalgo County officials off guard.

"I know the word has got some bad connotations," said Mario Jorge, the local district engineer for TxDOT. "But the key to tolls is that it always provides an option to the users. You can either stay on the road or you can get off it."

TOLL ROAD
Drivers entering Falfurrias once the overpasses are done can get on U.S. 281's main lanes and pay to drive 70 mph through the city or take the existing route for free that continues as a frontage road beside the businesses.

Since stopping to pay at a toll booth negates any gains drivers get from taking the new route, TxDOT plans to use video tolling that sends drivers a bill in the mail.

By tolling that portion of U.S. 281, TxDOT raises funds to pay for road maintenance and make improvements to the route, Jorge said. Since cities don't have to help with right-of-way costs for toll roads, Jorge said, Falfurrias benefits by not paying for the new route and by the business traffic that's generated by drivers who avoid tolls.

New overpasses in Ben Bolt and George West are not toll viable because the projects are not long enough to worry about.

However, another new route through Premont - expected to cost up to $104 million - will be tolled once planning and funding for the work is finalized.

Direct connectors onto Interstate 37 in George West are also not yet funded but may be tolled when built.

Similar work to bring U.S. 77 to Interstate standards is also expected to be tolled, including a $36 million connector to the Port of Brownsville that was also funded by stimulus dollars.

Chris Lippincott, a spokesman for TxDOT, said tolls are an option the state can use to pay for projects and road maintenance in the midst of a massive statewide shortfall for highway funding.

More than 80 projects were identified two years ago by the Texas Transportation Commission as toll viable, Lippincott said. Without tolls, many of those projects cannot be built.

Lippincott said tolls - which usually average about 15 cents a mile - are cheap enough to encourage all drivers to take the route.

"No one is excited about making your drive more expensive, but in the absence of other options, we have to consider building toll roads," Lippincott said. "It's a tool we have available to us, and one we have to explore and use where it is appropriate."

DIFFERING OPINIONS
News of a toll in Falfurrias surprised Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas and other local government officials who learned about the plan last week.

Salinas said he wasn't aware the project was going to be tolled, and he planned to meet with state legislators to discuss whether it was the right decision.

But he also said he was unwilling to dictate what should be done in Brooks County, where residents supported tolling the road.

"I'm hoping Brooks County doesn't tell us how much we should charge for tolls in Hidalgo County," Salinas said. "They're hoping we don't do the same there."

A plan to toll the road was passed in 2004 when Brooks County residents supported the new route, said Brooks County Judge Raul Ramirez. Residents saw it as a way to finance the project and keep the city's fledgling business district intact.

While the plan back then was in support of a toll road - as it was one of the ways to fund the project - Ramirez said their goal was only to get the improvements built.

Business owners and residents saw the new route as a way to strengthen the city's economic future.

"We just want this project done," Ramirez said. "Toll or no toll, as long as it gets done, it's good for Brooks County."

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.