FACT vs. FICTION
Fiction: We have already paid for the 281 North expansion project through the gas tax.
Fact: Although the original plan was to expand 281 North using gas tax funding, TxDOT never accrued enough gas tax money to completely fund the project, due in large part to decreasing revenues and the strain of maintenance costs for existing highways.
Fiction: We can just build overpasses at Encino Rio, Evans and Stone Oak to solve the traffic problems.
Fact: Simply building overpasses is not a viable solution. To comply with national guidelines and safety regulations, any expansion plan must include frontage roads, entrance and exit ramps and overpasses.
Fiction: The traffic lights along 281 North were adjusted to make traffic worse.
Fact: At rush hour or peak traffic times, capacity simply overwhelms the function of the traffic signals and no amount of adjustment will make a significant difference.
Fiction: If 281 North is expanded using toll lanes, that is a conversion of a freeway to a toll road.
Fact: Texas Transportation Code Section 228.201(a)(4) states that as long as a highway is reconstructed so that the number of nontolled lanes is greater than or equal to the number that existed before the toll lanes were added, the project will not be considered a conversion of a highway. Any addition of toll lanes to 281 would meet these requirements. Drivers would still have the choice to drive on free lanes, just as they do today.
Fiction: If toll lanes are built on 281 North, a foreign country or private company would own our highway.
Fact: Texas law changed in 2007 making it illegal for a toll project on 281 North to be leased to a private company. The toll lane system in Bexar County would be publicly owned and excess revenues from the toll system would be used to fund other transportation projects in Bexar County.
Fiction: If TxDOT agrees to build the original expansion plan that was approved in 2001, construction can begin immediately.
Fact: The Federal Highway Administration withdrew the environmental clearance for new capacity construction on 281 North on October 1, 2008. Without environmental clearance, no additional lanes can be added, whether toll or non-toll.Even with environmental clearance, there is no available funding.
