Texas Begins a Huge Highway Project; Not All Are Happy

The New York Times ^ | January 1, 2005 | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

AUSTIN, Tex., Dec. 31 (AP) - Texas has embarked on a project to build superhighways so large and so complex that they will make ordinary Interstates look like cowpaths.

As envisioned by Gov. Rick Perry, the project, the Trans-Texas Corridor, would be a 4,000-mile transportation network costing $175 billion over 50 years and financed mostly, if not entirely, with private money. The builders would then charge motorists tolls.

These would be megahighways: corridors up to a quarter-mile across, consisting of as many as six lanes for cars and four for trucks, plus railroad tracks, oil and gas pipelines, water and other utility lines, even broadband transmission cables.

Supporters say the corridors are needed to handle the expected Nafta-driven boom in the flow of goods to and from Mexico and to enable freight haulers to bypass urban centers on straight highways that cut across the countryside.

The number of corridors and exactly where they would run have yet to be worked out. But on Dec. 16 the Texas Transportation Commission opened negotiations with the Cintra consortium to start the first phase of the project, a $7.5 billion, 800-mile corridor from Oklahoma to Mexico that would parallel Interstate 35.

"Some thought the Trans-Texas Corridor was a pie-in-the-sky idea that would never see the light of day," said Governor Perry, a Republican who has compared his plan to the Interstate system. "We have seen the future, and it's here today."

But some have called the project a Texas-size boondoggle. Environmentalists say they worry about its effect on the countryside, and ranchers and farmers who stand to lose their land through eminent domain are mobilizing against it. Small towns and big cities alike fear a loss of business when traffic is diverted around them.

Even the governor's own party opposes the plan. The platform drafted at last summer's state Republican convention rejected it because of its effect on property rights.

The tolls would represent a sharp departure for Texas, which has traditionally relied on federal highway money from gasoline taxes to build roads. But supporters of the Trans-Texas Corridor say its combination of tolls and private money would allow Texas to lay concrete at a rate that would be impossible through gasoline taxes alone.

The corridors could generate about $135 billion for the state over the 50-year span and lure new industry by offering efficient shipping routes for goods and utilities, Ray Perryman, a Texas economist, said.

In addition, Robert Black, a spokesman for Mr. Perry said, the new rail lines could lower the risk of chemical spills in urban areas.

For the Oklahoma-Mexico corridor, Cintra plans to spend $6 billion for about 300 miles of four-lane highway from Dallas to San Antonio and give the state an additional $1.2 billion for improvements along the route. In return, Cintra, which is based in Spain, wants to maintain and operate the toll road for 50 years.

The Texas Farm Bureau, generally regarded as an ally of Mr. Perry, opposes the project, with the organization's president, Kenneth Dierschke, saying: "They're proposing going primarily through farm and ranch lands. If someone comes in and cuts your property in half, that's no good."

Officials promise that property owners will be fairly compensated for any land seized. And a special provision put in for the benefit of rural Texas would allow some property owners to negotiate for a share of the revenue generated by traffic on the corridor.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

An overview of what could be the next wave in transportation. Apparently, a few other states are looking at Rick Perry's transportation scheme as a model for their own schemes.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Wave of the future PING!

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!

[Endeavor]

Is this to make it easier to get all of those illegals in? /sarcasm

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

This article is from the New York Times, but originally written by the Associated Press, so feel free to change this posting to an excerpt if necessary...

[ArmyBratproud]

The news that has been out on this project has been very misleading.

Including this piece.

I have had to deal with this issue.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

From what I've read and understand about the Trans-Texas Corridor scheme, I suspect the toll roads will be quite underused due to the high tolls to be charged, and I also suspect some of the rail aspect of this thing might be better off staying on the drawing boards.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Go to www.corridorwatch.org for more information; they're a group of TTC skeptics.

[lodwick]

Someone needs to file a RICO lawsuit against this mega-scam.

[bvw]

Sure sounds like a scam. "private money", eh? Is this a land grab under another name? Pretty valuable real estate?

[narby]

Toll roads suck. There's no better incentive for government to stop maintaining free roads than to give government tax money from toll roads.

Free and open transportation is what makes an economy tick. Check out those pictures of earth at night, and the bright lights in strings are the interstate highway systems.

Then check out the businesses that are NOT on the Turner Turnpike and Will Rogers turnpike, compared with the business that has grown up along I-35 and I-44 outside the exits.

This will kill economic development in Texas and in the long run reduce the taxes brought into the state. It's bad for government, and it's bad for the economy.

[Ben Chad]

Someone needs to file a RICO lawsuit against this mega-scam.

You got that right.

[Slyfox]

Well, if they do build this thing maybe all the trucks will use it and leave I-35 to the cars and SUV's.

[Peter vE]

Looks like a Texas sized version of the New London land grab.

Seize tens (hundreds?) of thousands of acres of private land by eminent domain, and turn it over to a big Spanish corporation. Wasn't there some little incident at the Alamo about control of Texas?

[ArmyBratproud]

The political folks going after the TTC are a bunch of folks tied in with Strayhorn...who wants to run for governor.
WHich is scarry. She is a bigger RINO than Kay Bailey.

Both of them will push for a State Income Tax.

Kay is a pork barrel maker's dream.

[ArmyBratproud]

I have worked on several transpertation studies.

The problems on 35 are the 4 wheel vehicles. They fall into the vast majority that violate the speed reg...causing traffic build up ( the tail gating increases it more)....and....even in accidents with Class 8 trucks involved....the 4 wheel vehicles are in the huge majority as far as who caused the incident.

35's and other interstate plans were set for trasportation of goods and defense needs.

Semi usage in the high volume areas has even declined for percentage in the recent years...yet the incident and volume issue has increased.

[ArmyBratproud]

Yeah...I have seen them around.

It is started by David and Linda Stall.

Well, that is who it is credited to. There is some Dem on Rino influence for the start.

David Stall was a city manager..which should send up another red flag. Down at the Nassau area....he was one who worked with Dems and never had a problem with using the 'land grab' domain rules to suck up land.

And the people who are opposed to this..including the Stall's and the folks that feed them marching orders....love using the domain rules to grab up land...
ITS JUST THAT THEY WANT THAT MONEY USED IN THEIR AREA.

The org. that the Stall's set up, again..with help (including some lawyer folks {you can guess what party many of them role with} that Linda Stall has worked with) is bogus in what it claims to be for.

[Paleo Conservative]

All From what I've read and understand about the Trans-Texas Corridor scheme, I suspect the toll roads will be quite underused due to the high tolls to be charged, and I also suspect some of the rail aspect of this thing might be better off staying on the drawing boards.

Many Interstate highways in Texas already have many times the traffic they were designed to carry, and the population of Texas has greatly increased since the Interstate highway system was originally designed. Perhaps you are unaware that Texas has been the second most populous state in the US since 1994. Do you think a transportation system designed for a state that had less than 8 million people in 1950 is still adequate for a state with almost 21 people in 2000? Texas is projected to have 25.6 million people in 2010 and 31.4 million in 2020. This plan is intended to design and build roads for the next fifty years. By that time Texas is expected to have over 50 million people (probably more people than there will be in France). There will be plenty of people to use these highways.

Have you driven I-35 from San Antonio to DFW recently? It has traffic well over it's designed capacity 24/7 52 weeks a year. Maybe you've noticed the state put in a concrete divider separating traffic in north and south bound lanes. This was necessary due to the fact that those lanes were placed closer than on more modern interstate highways. There had been horrific multi car accidents where cars had driven off into the grass median and into the the opposing traffic. Yes the state has been slowly modernizing the highway by adding one more lane to make three lanes in each direction in the intercity portions of I-35. There's no more room to expand I-35 after that, and the current traffic is more than enough to fill three lanes. I-35 modernization should have been finished ten or twenty years ago. I doubt it will be completed ten years from now.

Anyway, why should people living on the Texas Gulf Coast or the Rio Grande Valley have to drive all the way to San Antonio and Austin in order to get onto an Interstate grade highway in order to travel to Dallas or Fort Worth?

A private company can build roads faster than the state and under budget. Trucks are already paying fees to use some Interstate highways especially during rush hours. I would imagine that after a toll road paralleling I-35 is built, the state will increase fees on trucks using I-35.

[narby]

Well, I'm glad I don't live in Tx anymore. Here in Phoenix we're building a couple hundred miles of brand new FREEways. The economy is booming, and I expect it will continue.

The problem with toll roads is it is a discuragement to travel. Since a great deal of economic activity is "impulse", toll roads reduce the overall economy. Just a few percent is enough to make economic activity visibly less after a couple of decades.

I believe that "Free" highways by definition pay for themselves. The anti corridor people should do some serious analysis and I believe they can prove that Texas will be better in the long run without toll roads.

I wouldn't blame you for disliking the current traffic situation in Houston, Dallas, etc. It sucks. But do you really think politicians will fix the current roads when a toll road they can collect taxes from exists? Nope. They will do everything in their power to make people take that toll road.

The fix to the current bad highway situation is to light a fire under the politicians.

This is the biggest mistake in Texas history.