When the Dallas North Tollway opened in 1968, officials promised it would eventually become free. However, the North Texas Tollway Authority informed The Dallas Express that this was merely an “urban myth.”
The Dallas North Tollway runs nearly 40 miles from downtown Dallas to downtown Prosper, and it is planned to extend to Grayson County. When the now-defunct Texas Turnpike Authority first launched the highway, officials promised the tolls would pay for construction – then disappear.
“When revenue bonds for a project are finally paid off… the facility reverts to the state as part of its highway system, to be used free,” TTA Engineer-Manager J.H. (Jack) Davis said in 1968, according to WFAA.
However, in 1997, the TTA was abolished, and its responsibilities were split between the Texas Department of Transportation and the NTTA.
NTTA Media Relations Manager Michael Ray told The Dallas Express that the promise to make the DNT free was an “urban myth.”
“There is a bit of the urban myth feel about the ‘promise’ of making the Dallas North Tollway (DNT) free,” Rey said. “Unlike the DFW Turnpike, which was codified through state statute to be free after construction debt was satisfied, my understanding is there was no similar legislative provision for the Dallas North Tollway.”
Since taking over the DNT, the NTTA has hiked tolls multiple times, as The Dallas Express reported.
$8.8 Billion In Debt
Rey said he can only speak for the current NTTA based on his own research, noting that when the NTTA acquired the DNT in 1997, its leaders aimed to “ensure money spent on tolls in North Texas stayed here in the area and went toward the maintenance and creation of new mobility options for a growing region.”
“Over the years, if road projects could have been funded through traditional tax funding mechanisms, they quite likely would have been,” Rey explained. “Toll funding has always been used as an alternative source when officials wanted to get roads on the ground in a timely manner.”
The NTTA is currently maintaining 1,212 “lane miles” of toll roads across the region, according to Rey. “The ‘make toll roads free’ argument fails to consider the maintenance costs to keep a roadway system in good order,” he added.
Currently, NTTA’s toll roads are interdependent in terms of financing, according to Rey. He said the agency is currently paying off roughly $8.8 billion of debt from building the system.
“The final debt payoff date of 2048 assumes the Regional Transportation Council will not ask NTTA to finance any new system operations, maintenance, or capital projects,” Rey said.
‘The User Fee Is Maintained To Rebuild’
The RTC falls under the North Central Texas Council of Governments, a regional planning organization that controls billions of dollars in funding.
In August 2025, The Dallas Express sat down with NCTCOG Transportation Director Michael Morris for an exclusive interview. Morris has gained a reputation as the “King of the Roads” for his influence on DFW highways and as a “marriage counselor” between Dallas Area Rapid Transit and its member cities.
In the interview, Morris told DX that the tolls are permanent to pay for their own reconstruction.
“Everyone thinks, ‘Oh, once the bonds are paid off, we don’t have any particular cost to bear,’” Morris told DX in the interview. “That’s not a true statement. You’re ready to spend two to three times what the original cost was to rebuild it.”
“The user fee is maintained to rebuild the facilities. As they get 50 years old, they have to be replaced,” he added. “Instead of shifting the burden to the taxpayer – and in the case of I-30, that got shifted to the taxpayer – why should the taxpayer have to pay it, when the user can pay for it?”
Morris said NTTA uses tolls to rebuild roads when they reach 50 or 60 years old, adding that the agency is responsible for repaying the borrowed money, and then rebuilds the roads once they age out.
“They don’t get any federal money or state money like TxDOT does,” Morris said. “They have to get all the money themselves to rebuild their system.”
The Dallas Express reached out to Morris for additional comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
Repaying and Repaving
“Tolls are collected to repay debt and to operate and maintain the roadways,” Rey said. “DNT is most often cited for ‘free tollway conversion.’”
He pointed to maintenance and reconstruction of the DNT from downtown Dallas to Addison, the addition of lanes on the DNT from Addison to US 380, and the expansion of the DNT north into Grayson County.
NTTA currently owns and operates numerous highways across DFW. Rey pointed to the DNT, Addison Airport Toll Tunnel, Chisholm Trail Parkway, Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge, Mountain Creek Lake Bridge, President George Bush Turnpike, Sam Rayburn Tollway, and 360 Tollway.
“Toll rates are fixed; they do not change based on demand,” Rey said.
NTTA is not part of a state highway system, so it does not receive funding from the state legislature, according to Rey. When the TTA ran the show, he said, Austin distributed money for statewide transit projects.
“We are self-funded through the sale of revenue bonds to construct projects,” Rey said. “We collect tolls to repay the bonds and put funds into maintenance and operation costs and reinvest by widening and extending existing projects.”
NTTA does not determine where to build toll roads, according to Rey. Instead, he pointed to the NCTCOG RTC’s Metropolitan Transportation Plan, which runs through 2050.
“If a toll road is called for, NTTA has first option to construct it,” he said.
NTTA is a political subdivision of the state, “not a private company owned by foreign entities as sometimes mistakenly referred to,” and it does not receive tax appropriations, according to Rey.
He also noted that the agency does not control TEXpress lanes, though it accepts TollTags.
“TEXpress lanes are operated by a completely different entity comprised of the Texas Department of Transportation and private developers,” Rey explained.
“In short, a lot has changed for DNT and area toll roads since they started,” he added. “We invested a lot of money to make that happen.”
