• After a few months of what was scheduled as a five-year experiment, Texas Department of Transportation officials are touting savings from a program that contracts out maintenance on Interstate 45 in three counties.
• Phil Wilson, head of the agency, figures the project will be $2 million cheaper per year than having state employees handle repaving, crack repairs, mowing and litter pickup. Transfield Services from Australia is managing the 100-mile test zone.
• The state tried privatized maintenance in 1999 with a company from Virginia taking care of parts of two other interstates and deemed that a failure.

From the article:

Based on assumed savings from a five-year pilot project that began this summer, the Texas Department of Transportation is considering outsourcing all routine maintenance on long stretches of Texas interstate highways, including much of Interstate 35. The agency has touted the potential savings as high as $120 million over five years. ...