A small nonprofit corporation that owns the SH 288 toll lanes south of downtown Houston meets Aug. 19 to elect officers, adopt a budget for next year and hear how much traffic the road is carrying. The last minutes before it are from July 31, 2025.
The Texas Transportation Finance Corporation exists because the state changed its mind about privatizing a highway. In 2016 the Texas Department of Transportation signed a 52-year deal letting a private consortium build and collect tolls on the SH 288 managed lanes. In 2024 the Transportation Commission voted to end that deal for convenience, created this corporation to take the road over, and paid the concessionaire about $1.73 billion in termination compensation — for an asset the department valued at roughly $4 billion. The agency’s executive director called the buyout unprecedented in the United States.
The corporation carries the borrowing that paid for it. State bond records put its debt at about $1.73 billion as of last August, pledged against toll revenue rather than taxes, and it went to the public bond market in October 2025 to refinance, selling about $1.8 billion in subordinate toll revenue bonds rated in the double-A range. Behind that sits an agreement letting the corporation draw billions from the State Highway Fund if tolls ever fall short of debt service — a backstop the Transportation Commission authorized at up to $5 billion.
Drivers got something out of it. When the commission renamed the road the SH 288 Managed Lanes Project in July 2025 it also directed that average toll rates fall by about half, keeping rush-hour pricing high enough to protect speeds, and toll revenue is to pay for an additional free lane in each direction between Interstate 610 and Beltway 8 by 2030. The board that oversees all of this is three people, each of whom must be a full-time TxDOT employee, appointed by and removable by the Transportation Commission, serving without pay.
Watch the traffic and operating reports, which cover the two quarters ending in February and May and offer the first full public picture of how the lanes have performed since the toll cut took effect.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 11:30 a.m. CT Wednesday, August 19, 2026. The notice was filed August 11.
- Where
- TxDOT consolidated Austin-area campus, Goliad Conference Room, 6230 E. Stassney Lane, Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Transportation Finance Corporation — three directors, all required to be full-time TxDOT employees, appointed by the Texas Transportation Commission to six-year terms. The president presides; the current officers are not published.
- Format
- In person with videoconference participation allowed for directors; the presiding director attends in person. The public is invited to the physical location. No public comment period is listed.
- Live video
- None announced. The corporation publishes no meeting archive.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · TxDOT project page
Directors
- Stephen Stewart — initial director named 2024; TxDOT chief financial officer.
- Mohamed Bur — initial director named 2024; TxDOT project development senior director.
- Jeff Davis — appointed September 2025; former TxDOT rail division director.
The corporation publishes no membership page. The first two names come from the Transportation Commission minute order creating the corporation in March 2024, which named Stephen Stewart, Richard McMonagle and Mohamed Bur as initial directors. In September 2025 the commission filled a vacancy left by a director who had retired from the department, across this corporation and two sister corporations; that appointee is Jeff Davis. Whether Davis replaced McMonagle on this particular board could not be confirmed, and the current officers are not published. Meeting contact: Audrea Blake, (512) 469-3166.