More Turnpikes

[CHenry]

Shortly after the licensing board's action, the firm closed.[/URL]

They did not close, they changed names. Maybe opened a new LLC or whatever but they have been doing highway work for the duration of my 26 year tenure at ODOT. FWIW, they do much better highway work than structural...lol. The founders of RGDC are former ODOT engineers and they are very good engineers from what I hear. The engineers they employ, I can't speak for.

 

[Ace_on_the_Turn]

They did not close, they changed names. Maybe opened a new LLC or whatever but they have been doing highway work for the duration of my 26 year tenure at ODOT. FWIW, they do much better highway work than structural...lol. The founders of RGDC are former ODOT engineers and they are very good engineers from what I hear. The engineers they employ, I can't speak for.

I remember from the lawsuit, the guy that basically designed the jail had never deigned a building before. He mostly copied what others had done, which is fine, but when it came to aspects that could not just be copied, he had no idea what to do, and just winged it. That was pretty typical of the entire process. One fail after another.

 

[SMS]

the fact that the extension is going up to Luther, which is a dead ass town, is the state paying tribute to Oklahoma county. Specifically the powers that be in District One.

Yeah, I bet it would be interesting to see who already owns the land along the proposed route...

 

[CHenry]

I remember from the lawsuit, the guy that basically designed the jail had never deigned a building before. He mostly copied what others had done, which is fine, but when it came to aspects that could not just be copied, he had no idea what to do, and just winged it. That was pretty typical of the entire process. One fail after another.

I also remember talk of trash being found in the piers once the forms were stripped. A Fritos bag in a concrete pier isnt a structural component. lol

 

[Raoul Duke]

Just close your eyes, it can't happen here:

It was House Bill 1917, by Rep. Phil Richardson, R-Minco, which would have authorized ODOT to assume federal environmental review responsibilities to participate in a pilot program for certain road projects specified by federal Title 23 codes.

Along with explicitly waiving Oklahoma's 11th Amendment rights, which protect the state from being subject to lawsuits by citizens of other states and of foreign nations, the bill also would have enabled ODOT to participate in "unlimited scope projects," as Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso, later explained.

Brogdon (whose involvement will be explained shortly) explained that the bill's language specified that ODOT could assume responsibility for the EPA environmental impact studies for projects specified under chapters 325, 326 and 327 of federal Title 23 codes.

The third, through--327, relate to "unlimited scope projects," which means ODOT would be able to undertake projects as massive in size as the TTC, Brogdon explained.

Upon learning of the bill's potential ramifications, Wright then used his clout to kill the bill in committee.

The bill's language was resurrected, though, when it was attached to another piece of legislation by Rep. Scott Martin, R-Norman, and Sen. Cliff Branan, R-Oklahoma City: HB 1819.

Branan attached the language at the request of ODOT representatives.

After much debate and struggle in the Senate, the transportation bill eventually made it back to the House, stripped of Brogdon's amendments, but also stripped of the offending language so that it had no more effect than to enable ODOT to resurface certain roads.

The resolution, though, passed both houses of the Legislature unanimously.

http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc_2007/CWA0706271.htm

Some have tried to convince the public that the Trans Texas Corridor and NAFTA Superhighways are dead. But Congress recently passed a new, two-year federal highway bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (or MAP-21), that not only gives priority funding to these ‘high priority’ trade corridors, it also makes it easier to hand them over to private corporations using controversial public private partnership (P3) toll contracts.

P3s are considered innovative financing, and though policymakers know it costs taxpayers more to privatize a public road, they claim the ability to accelerate the project that wouldn’t otherwise have enough funding justifies their actions. While a P3 project is not likely to receive 100% federal funding (why would the government sell-off our public road to a private entity if the project is already paid for with tax money?), these private consortiums are sharks and solicit as much in federal and state subsidies as they can get away with in order to ‘socialize’ their losses.

Not one P3 project in Texas has been 100% funded by the private entity. In one case, the taxpayers brought three-quarters of the project cost to the table and the private entity, Cintra, a mere one-quarter. So this notion that the risk gets transferred from the taxpayers to the private entity is patently FALSE.

In Texas, there is an egregious example of the State pursuing a P3 for a managed toll lane project on US 183 in DFW that would be 100% paid for by $1.3 billion in taxpayer money, yet TxDOT is still handing it over to a private entity to become their toll collector and to maintain the road. The State can get away with charging far higher toll rates when they can outsource the sticky business of taxation to a private corporation. With the changes in MAP-21, the federal government is encouraging such public subsidies, too. It’s legalized THEFT of public assets.

Adding tolls galore without a public hearing

SECTION 1316, gives the states the ability to add toll ‘managed lanes’ within the existing right of way of a road without ANY environmental review, which also happens to be the mechanism that triggers a public hearing. So a highway department can literally come in and impose unlimited miles of toll lanes, HOV or HOT lanes, dedicated bus lanes, truck lanes, even privatizing the toll lanes using a P3, you name it, without ANY study of the economic, travel, or safety impacts and without a public hearing. Since virtually all toll projects, whether public or private, now require non-compete agreements that prohibit or limit expansion of free routes surrounding toll projects, virtually every American will be subjected to constant impediments to our freedom to travel either by being forced to pay or be permanently relegated to hampered mobility and congestion.

Slush fund for both public & private toll projects

The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) federal loan program will be expanded by nearly ten times, eventually up to $1 billion/year. What used to be a competitive program has now been changed to easy credit for any project, with special emphasis given to freight movement, ie - the NAFTA corridors. The Ports to Plains Alliance lobbied for and got special reduced TIFIA interest rates for rural corridors like Ports to Plains.

Taxpayer-backed TIFIA loans can also go to directly fund a private facility if the private facility provides a “public benefit for highway users by way of direct freight interchange between highway and rail carriers.” Another boon for freight-intensive NAFTA corridors.

There is no dedicated tax revenue that funds the TIFIA program (unlike the highway system which is largely funded by gas taxes), so it’s primarily going to be funded through yet more federal borrowing of money we don’t have. TIFIA can also use pensions or other government plans to capitalize the fund, which is scary considering retirees depend on this money and the first project to ever receive a TIFIA loan went bankrupt -- a P3 toll project in San Diego called the South Bay Expressway declared bankruptcy in less than three years after opening. The traffic projections were off by nearly 40,000 cars a day. The taxpayers took nearly an $80 million loss on that TIFIA loan. This can hardly be considered a successful program, yet Congress just increased it almost tenfold and made it even easier to get one.

The TIFIA program has become a slush fund to finance P3s where private toll operators can easily snag public money to subsidize their losses on projects that have no business being built in the first place. Congress lets them exploit taxpayers this way by hiding behind the broad term ‘public benefit.’

Aside from the other ‘innovative finance’ giveaways in MAP-21, Congress adopted Senate provisions to give even greater tax breaks to private corporations -- think P3s --by allowing them to depreciate PUBLIC assets, our public highways, up to 45 years (instead of 12-20 years). With all these incentives, designations, and funding mechanisms in place, the NAFTA superhighway system is clearly alive and well and in the process of becoming reality. Coupled with the severely relaxed environmental review exceptions that give state DOTs unlimited authority to do anything they want within existing right of way, Americans will be very hard-pressed to find ways to stop it.

http://www.examiner.com/article/so-what-s-the-new-federal-highway-bill-anyway-nafta-superhighways

The State of Oklahoma does not make any money off the turnpikes.

Like many states, which lack adequate transportation funding, the toll roads are built with bonds and the bondholders are profiting off these toll roads... not the state.

So who are the bondholders? They are people, institutions and organizations all over the world who invest money in bonds and earn interest on that investment. In return, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority must meet certain financial requirements. Those requirements are lined out in a covenant. The covenant requires the authority to keep a certain amount of money in its accounts at all times or else the bondholders can take over toll collecting operations.

http://www.newson6.com/story/12836022/oklahoma-doesnt-make-profit-on-turnpikes-who-does

Public-Private Partnerships, (PPP’s or P3’s), and
initiatives and legislation supporting them, are a
prominent trend in State and Federal government.
They are often supported by Big Government
advocates as ‘innovative financing’ and by Crony
Capitalism advocates as ‘free market solutions.’
However, PPPs are a direct threat to the free market
and are an incentive for corporatists to engage in
unproductive ventures and monopolists to exclude
competitors. PPP’s are the source of the sort of
political corruption that undermines the rule of law
and the sort of central planning that is at the heart of
the anti-capitalist mentality. Everyone who supports
U.S. Free Enterprise should be on their guard against
supporters of PPP’s.

http://www.ok-safe.com/files/documents/1/OKSAFE_PPP_Position_Paper_rev_2010.pdf

Oh well, just gimme convenience or give me death, I guess.
Oklahoma, Uber Alles!

 

[SoonerP226]

I also remember talk of trash being found in the piers once the forms were stripped. A Fritos bag in a concrete pier isnt a structural component. lol

I knew someone working for OK County back when they opened the new jail; he said that they did an inspection after all the problems started popping up, and they very nearly condemned the building over what they found in the building's structural columns. IIRC, there were quality problems with the materials, but a lot of it was just poor design work, things that someone experienced in jail design would've never done. (The one I particularly remember was when the inmates figured out that they could escape by kicking out the windows; the consultant that OK County brought in after the fact said that the windows were far too big--they were counting on the reinforcements and bars to keep the inmates from escaping, when the windows shouldn't have been big enough for an inmate to squeeze through.)

The part about the inmates plugging up the sewer lines, resulting in the staff offices being flooded with sewage, was just in the news within the last few months.

 

[TerryMiller]

I knew someone working for OK County back when they opened the new jail; he said that they did an inspection after all the problems started popping up, and they very nearly condemned the building over what they found in the building's structural columns. IIRC, there were quality problems with the materials, but a lot of it was just poor design work, things that someone experienced in jail design would've never done. (The one I particularly remember was when the inmates figured out that they could escape by kicking out the windows; the consultant that OK County brought in after the fact said that the windows were far too big--they were counting on the reinforcements and bars to keep the inmates from escaping, when the windows shouldn't have been big enough for an inmate to squeeze through.)

The part about the inmates plugging up the sewer lines, resulting in the staff offices being flooded with sewage, was just in the news within the last few months.

Actually, the inmates started plugging up the sewer almost right after the jail went into service...at least within just a few years.

 

[SoonerP226]

Actually, the inmates started plugging up the sewer almost right after the jail went into service...at least within just a few years.

That was poorly worded on my part--I didn't mean to imply that it was new, just stating that it had been in the news recently.

 

[TerryMiller]

That was poorly worded on my part--I didn't mean to imply that it was new, just stating that it had been in the news recently.

That's OK. I've been known to "mis-state" something on the forums before.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Yeah, I bet it would be interesting to see who already owns the land along the proposed route...

Is there really any doubt that this plan amounts to anything much more than Mattress Mary and other term-limited state power brokers gilding their parachutes for life after office?

Any way to disclose the investors in this bond market?