This financing tool is available for toll projects through TxDOT's State Infrastructure Bank and the Turnpike Authority Division. The 1997 Legislature also abolished the Texas Turnpike Authority, creating a division within TxDOT in its place. To allow more local control and attention to detail for regional toll facilities, existing toll road projects in Houston and Dallas were not brought under TTA's authority. The state also has one privately owned toll ferry, a hand-drawn float that can carry up to two vehicles at a time across the Rio Grande from Los Ebanos, Texas, to Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Tamaulipas. These toll facilities are operated by 16 separate entities, including six cities, three counties, one road district and three private U.S. companies.
Some entities operate more than one facility.
Texas has just over 100 miles of toll roads. The most recently completed section of the 62-mile Sam Houston Tollway in Houston made its debut in May 1997. Two additional toll facilities are under way. The first two-mile section of Dallas' President George Bush Turnpike opens in November. Completion of the entire 26.6-mile road is scheduled for 2004.