LBJ Express Tour during P3 Conference & Expo

For the 11th year in a row, our LBJ Express concession played host to 20 attendees of the Public-Private Partnership Conference & Expo (P3C), which took place in Dallas March 5-8.
Tour guests, who had pre-registered, received a firsthand look at one of the largest public-private partnership transportation projects in Texas. The LBJ Express project team hosted a bus tour of its 13.3-mile, $2.6 billion highway reconstruction project along I-635 and I-35E and Loop 12, completed in September 2015. Tour participants not only got front seat view of our roadways and innovative managed lanes, but in-depth information on what it takes to operate, maintain and run our TEXpress lanes, plus the real-time data used to adjust toll rates to reduce congestion.

LBJ Express Tour

Robert Hinkle, LBJ Express Communication & Corporate Affairs Director, and Tommy Williamson, North Tarrant Infrastructure (NTI) Public Relations Manager, led the bus tour. They provided an overview of how the LBJ project was built, the design change that saved the state a billion dollars and the P3 model used. Robert went into detail about operations and maintenance, the city’s homeless problem and how it affects the corridor, illegal racing on our lanes and how the LBJ fits into the larger managed lane network.

The bus tour ended at the LBJ Express office, where participants listened to a business presentation on the TEXpress Lanes by:
• Ruben Roman Gonzalez, Deputy CEO of the Dallas Highways
• Ning Zhang, Senior Traffic & Revenue Manager
• Andy Nguyen, Senior Marketing Manager

Participants then toured the Traffic Management Center, where TMC Supervisor Chelsi Garcia explained where the magic happens – the behind-the-scenes traffic and lane surveillance, weather monitoring, toll adjustments and much more.

The two-hour tour ended in the LBJ Maintenance Yard, where Roadway Maintenance Manager Greg Joslin talked about the equipment, staff responsibilities and their working relationship with the City of Dallas, Dallas Police Department and North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA).