Drivers have waited years for a tollway stretching south from downtown Houston to Manvel, and now money related to the project will move south as well.

Days after local leaders celebrated the recent start of construction on the $815 million first phase, Texas Transportation Commission members approved giving Brazoria County $10 million to design its segment of the tollway. The money comes from the upfront payment that Blueridge Transportation Group made to finalize its selection as the concessionaire for the Harris County portion of the tollway.

Though not the first project to use concession money to advance another phase - Austin and Dallas area managed lanes have benefited from toll-related proceeds - the swap of money from one toll project to another is "not unprecedented, but certainly not common," said Bob Kaufman, spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation.

The approval comes as state transportation officials are under increasing scrutiny to use taxpayer money for toll-free roads, set clear policies for properly developing and building highway projects, but continue delivering congestion relief. "We as an industry have to saddle up and put a hitch in the get-along," transportation commission member Jeff Austin said.

2 segments of toll lanes

The plan to add two toll lanes in each direction from U.S. 59 to County Road 58 is broken into two segments. Within Harris County, the Texas Department of Transportation is using a development agreement with Blueridge - a consortium of businesses including Spanish-based Grupo ACS, global investment company InfraRed Capital Partners and the Israeli building and real estate company Shikun & Binui which is also a principal in the pro-ject's general contractor, Almeda Genoa Constructors. Blueridge will build and maintain the tollway as well as maintain the general use lanes of Texas 288 until 2065. In return, the company will reap the revenue of tolls paid along Texas 288.

Work slowly started earlier year along the route, and is expected to increase significantly in the next few months. In addition to laying four lanes in the wide median along Texas 288, direct connectors to the lanes are planned near the Texas Medical Center, along with significant improvements at the interchanges of Texas 288 and Loop 610 and Texas 288 and the Sam Houston Tollway.

Brazoria's approach

Brazoria County, meanwhile, will build the tollway within its own limits. Drivers will not notice anything, though the projects in terms of financing and maintenance are different.

The county's portion, expected to cost about $100 million, is slated to open about the same time or soon after the Harris County portion is completed in mid-to-late 2019. Along with the $10 million contribution to jump-start final development of the lanes, state transportation commissioners approved linking the tollway to the state highway system - which while perfunctory, also establishes Brazoria County's role in building the tollway to where eventually a new segment of the Grand Parkway will cross south of Pearland.

The agreements, and increased regional cooperation, will be important as officials develop more highway projects along with toll projects already in the planning stages. Texas voters in 2014 and 2015 approved hundreds of millions of dollars in new highway spending - potentially $3 billion per year in strong tax revenue times - with the caveat the money go to expand freeways and not tollways or transit around the state.

Critical audit

Meanwhile a state auditor report submitted in August and a review from the Sunset Advisory Commission released earlier this month both found TxDOT needs to tighten its planning procedures to make sure it spends taxpayer money wisely.

"The department has made good-faith efforts to address previous concerns, but improvements most critical to its ability to meet high expectations are far from complete," the sunset committee wrote. "TxDOT needs to get out of its crisis mode mentality developed in previous times of change and funding uncertainty, and implement a more proactive and streamlined approach to delivering highway projects from beginning to end."

In its review, the 12-member sunset commission - made up mostly of elected state lawmakers, including State Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee - said better rules and more attention to enforcing them are needed to move projects from the drawing board to construction without delays and hiccups in funding.

Kaufman, the TxDOT spokesman, said the agency is already working to make some of the improvements as part of constant efforts to revise transportation regulations.

"There is no best, only better and while the department is improving in many areas, we know we can do it better and faster and are seeking ways to accelerate that progress," he said.

Progress noted

Nichols, in a statement, agreed transportation policy has improved, but underscored its importance.

"I believe TxDOT has regained the trust of the Legislature and will continue to build upon that trust," he said. "Legislators and the public deserve to know how projects are selected and that they will be completed in a timely manner."