DALLAS — The Texas Transportation Commission has cleared the way for financing a $1.6 billion toll road in Dallas County that leverages a federal loan and the TTC’s strong credit ratings.
With approval in hand, the North Texas Tollway Authority plans to issue up to $784 million of revenue bonds Friday. Citi is senior manager.
Standard & Poor’s rated the deal AA. Fitch Ratings rated it AA-minus.
The deal was awaiting the commission’s final approval of an agreement between the Texas Department of Transportation, the NTTA, and the U.S. Department of Transportation to complete the State Highway 161 project already under construction in the western Dallas suburbs of Irving and Grand Prairie.
Funding for the project will include a $422 million loan under the federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or TIFIA, program. The TTC previously approved a direct agreement between TxDOT, the NTTA, and the trustee. Tuesday’s action added the U.S. DOT to the agreement.
SH 161, also known as the President George Bush Turnpike Western Extension, will be financed as a stand-alone toll road known as a “special projects system.” The major financing component will be an equity contribution from the existing NTTA system — $1.3 billion from tollway bonds, including the debt expected to price Friday.
TxDOT will provide Toll Equity Loan Available financing in the event that toll revenues fall below projections. The department’s commitment under the TELA program is for a total of $4.1 billion, to be available in annual maximum amounts until the final maturity date of the NTTA’s Series 2011 bonds and the TIFIA loan.
“This 'out-of-the-box’ agreement is phenomenal in what it comprises,” said TTC commissioner Bill Meadows. “It partners TxDOT, NTTA, and the U.S. DOT in an agreement that will advance crucial transportation projects in the [Dallas-Fort Worth] area.”
The agreement also helps with the continued development of the Southwest Parkway-Chisholm Trail Parkway in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. The project is the NTTA’s first in Tarrant County and will link southwest Fort Worth and its suburbs to the President George Bush Turnpike system. The two Tarrant County projects will be financially packaged together as the special projects system along with SH 161, since the projects will share resources.
The special projects are the first from the NTTA using bonds not backed by the entire toll system’s revenues.
Preliminary construction on both roadways is underway. SH 161 is an 11.5-mile extension of the President George Bush Turnpike extending from State Highway 183 in Irving to Interstate 20 in Grand Prairie.
The project was launched by TxDOT with the goal of the NTTA completing and managing the project.
The SH 121-Southwest Parkway project would be a 14-mile tollway extending from I-30 to FM 1187. It would connect with a 13-mile project in Johnson County known as Chisholm Trail.
