Construction on the Dallas North Tollway will widen the roadway on both sides.[/caption]

Beginning today the North Texas Tollway Authority toll rates increase from 16.16 cents to 17.06 cents per mile for TollTag customers.

ZipCash customers, those who do not have a TollTag account, will pay at least 50 percent more for tolls.

The increase is part of a biennial toll rate schedule that was first approved in 2009, according to NTTA.

The tolls drivers pay on NTTA roads go toward bond money used to construct and maintain the roadways. Bonds also fund NTTA’s safety and service programs.

At a recent June Frisco city council meeting, NTTA Technical Oversight Leader Mark Bouma said in the next five years NTTA is looking to do capital improvements and extensions to existing roadways. He said roadways are running at capacity and NTTA is now facing aging infrastructure issues.

The NTTA does not receive tax revenue to pay for the maintenance and operations of its roads.

The NTTA is beginning work this year to improve and widen some of its toll roads, including the President George Bush Turnpike and the Dallas North Tollway. Work on the DNT will include adding a fourth lane on either side of the toll road from PGBT to SH 121.

NTTA roads help alleviate traffic congestion in the growing North Texas region, according to an NTTA press release.

“When surveyed, drivers tell us they choose to pay for driving NTTA toll roads because they find them faster, safer and cleaner,” NTTA Chairman Kenneth Barr said in a press release. “Communities also benefit from the economic development that toll roads generate, such as the future Toyota and Dallas Cowboys headquarters near the Dallas North Tollway/Sam Rayburn Tollway interchange and the State Farm and Raytheon headquarters near the George Bush Turnpike/US 75 interchange.”