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Preventative Maintenance Saves Dollars, Adds Longevity Tollway construction is one part of the NTTA story. The Authority is dedicated to thorough, ongoing maintenance of the toll roads to ensure safe travel far into the future. Motorists on NTTA toll roads can take confidence in knowing that the tolls paid are used to construct high-quality roads and facilities and to maintain the longevity of those roads.
The NTTA partners with many other transportation entities to develop mobility solutions and prudently plan and design new toll roads and bridges that keep up with the North Texas region’s expanding population. With a statewide shortage of funds available for road construction, sound judgment and far-sighted decisions are required to ensure that today’s roadways will be built and maintained to provide convenient access for generations to come.
Building more roads in more places
As outlined in the North Texas region’s 2035 mobility plan, toll roads will continue to play an ever-increasing role in North Texas’ transportation infrastructure. The NTTA is designing, building and operating important roadways throughout the region to assist with this plan. By the end of 2010, the NTTA owned and operated 97 centerline miles of toll roads and maintained a total of 554 lane miles. An additional 45 miles were under construction, while projects totaling approximately 33 miles were in various design and planning phases. These all will be important transportation arteries that reach more communities and provide congestion relief and alternative routes.
Better Roads = Lower Vehicle Maintenance Costs
The quality of NTTA roads – in terms of how well they’re built and how well they’re maintained – actually can help put cash back into drivers’ wallets. Simply put, better roads lead to lower vehicle maintenance costs on average. According to a recent study by TRIP, a national nonprofit transportation research organization, Dallas-Fort Worth area drivers pay an average of $539 per year in extra vehicle operating costs due to deficient road conditions. Because the NTTA does not rely on dwindling state funds for its operating costs, the Authority is able to keep its toll roads maintained at higher standards, reducing vehicle maintenance costs for drivers.
Cost-effective maintenance
Once a tollway is built and open to traffic, the NTTA works tirelessly to assure that it remains in top condition throughout its long life. The NTTA builds its roads and facilities to top industry standards with long-term durability and sustainability in mind. To maximize a toll road’s life span and minimize replacement costs, the NTTA follows a rigorous maintenance rating program.
Spending the right money at the right time provides motorists with reliable roads and saves money over the life cycle of the project. Generally speaking, the cost of preventative maintenance is about one-tenth the cost of reconstructing a road.
It’s similar to the general maintenance of a car. Changing the oil, checking the fluids and rotating the tires on a regular basis keeps a car in top shape and costs a lot less than major repairs that could result from neglect. The same holds true for toll roads.
Every six months, NTTA maintenance crews clean bridge joints so that overpasses and other bridges can expand and contract safely. Every year, pavement cracks are sealed to prevent potholes or other failures created when moisture sinks into a road’s base layer.
The NTTA spent $105,000 per lane mile from 2003 to 2007 for preventative maintenance on the Dallas North Tollway between Northwest Highway at Harvest Hill Road. This work, which also included texturing, pavement slab raising, full depth repair, and bonded overlay, kept this section of the toll road in top shape. Had the NTTA not conducted this preventative maintenance work, the road would have become a candidate for major rehabilitation, with an estimated cost of $1 million per lane mile.
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