(Bloomberg) -- Texas regulators took a step toward terminating a 52-year toll road concession held by Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA and restoring control to the state.

The state Transportation Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to begin the process of ending the contract under which ACS operates toll lanes along a 10-mile stretch of SH-288, a conduit that connects downtown Houston to fast-growing suburbs and the Gulf Coast. Upon such a vote, ACS has six months to attempt to negotiate a new agreement with the state, the company said in a filing late Wednesday. 

Texas signed the contract in 2015 at a time when the Lone Star State was strapped for highway-construction funds, State Senator Robert Nichols told commissioners. Now is an ideal time for the state to reassert control over the toll lanes because they are in a “high-growth area” and “volumes of revenue are shooting through the roof,” said Nichols, a Republican who chairs the chamber’s transportation committee.

ACS shares fell as much as 4.6% in Madrid in the hours before the commission met after the company warned the vote was imminent. 

The commission said the vote doesn’t make any immediate changes to highway operations and that they expect conversations with ACS’s US subsidiary Blueridge Transportation in coming months. The agency also said the move doesn’t imply a deficiency in ACS’ management of the project, but rather this would allow Texas to act in the state’s best interest. 

“We are grateful to the Chairman of the Transportation Commission and TxDOT for their continued partnership and look forward to working with them over the coming months to best serve the people of Texas,” a Blueridge spokesperson wrote in an email. “We are a highly credible, long-term operator of toll roads with a proven track record of delivering for the local community.”

--With assistance from Clara Hernanz Lizarraga.

(Adds concessionaire’s comment in final paragraph.)

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