Posted on 03/22/2005 8:35:24 AM PST by ckilmer
Trans-Texas Corridor constructors to sign contract with TxDOT Plans for the $7.2 billion, 600-mile turnpike from Oklahoma to Mexico are closer to becoming a reality.
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The Texas Department of Transportation and a private consortium led by Spanish toll road operator Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA and San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corp. signed a contract Friday, jumpstarting the construction process.
The Cintra-Zachry proposal -- which the Texas Transportation Commission authorized in December -- includes a private investment of $6 billion to design, construct and operate a four-lane, 316-mile toll road between Dallas and San Antonio as the initial segment of the Trans-Texas Corridor.
That proposal also included a payment to the state of $1.2 billion for Cintra and Zachry to operate the initial segment as a toll road, which the state might use to finance road improvements or high-speed and commuter rail projects along the I-35 corridor.
Construction on the first segment of the first phase could begin as soon as 2007, with construction on the other four segments likely beginning in 2009 and 2010. Completion of the entire project is expected by 2014.
"Texas is a national example for all states and a leader in unleashing the resources, innovation and efficiency of the private sector to bring transportation improvements to the public faster and at less cost to American taxpayers," says Mary Peters, federal highway administrator.
The project will bring billions of investment dollars to Texas and create thousands of new jobs, Cintra and Zachry claim, adding that the majority of the workers on the companies' project would be Texan.
The Cintra-Zachry proposal also offers to finance and begin development of a freight rail before 2007.
And the plan proposes to implement a system of truck and auto lanes coupled with freight and passenger rail between the corridor's major metropolitan centers before the project is completed.
The entire Trans-Texas Corridor is an alternative to the I-35 north-south route comprised of 4,000 miles of four-lane toll roads.
eventually mexicans will get unlimited access to US government dollars. think about it.
nobody is minding the store.
Thanks for sharing your ignorance with us. CINTRA is Spanish, not Mexican. "Cintra, with headquarters in Madrid, Spain, " http://www.txfb.org/TexasAgriculture/2005/031805/031805TTCpart3.htm
Also, in government schools, they teach that the first word of a sentence should be capitalized, and that proper nouns (such as "Mexican") should also start with an upper case letter.
This will have to be nowhere near the I-35 corridor. They can't expand I-35 anymore so they want to tear up more land? I definitely do not want to see this happen.
Actually Cintra SA is parent company of both national airlines in Mexico. Much confusion has been brought about by the abbreviation of the company name Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transpor SA (which is Spanish) to simply Cintra.
"Cintra, with headquarters in Madrid, Spain, " http://www.txfb.org/TexasAgriculture/2005/031805/031805TTCpart3.htm
This sentence does not pass the "government schools" test for punctuation or grammar. Not that I care.
I35 through Dallas is a nightmare. Maybe rerouting the shipping traffic would be a Godsend.
You are correct. I should have added the ... to show that it was a fragmentary quote. In my defense, my terminal degree was from a private institution, not a state college.
They would have to split it up. I'd suggest rail lines and trucking lines to Dallas, then other traffic going AROUND Dallas. But I've done that before and it takes a LONG time to go around Dallas.
traffic around washington dc has become a mess in recent years. go to the DMV and you're practically the only american in sight.
Yea, there's no easy way around DFW. Really, if you avoid rush hour, 35 through the metroplex isn't THAT bad, just congested. Anytime between 7am and 9:30am and 3pm-7pm though just forget it!
I would suggest routing trucks and rail around town and leaving passenger traffic through it. Those trucks have beat that road to death.
The key to understanding the president's policy toward's mexico is to look at how the president views european integration. he think's its ok. he's even in favor of including the turks in europe--against the insincts and aspriations of most the europeans--even or most especially the french.
european integration is a top down affair. north american integration is mostly a bottoms up affair. that is the secondary--or primary purpose of illegals is to create a transnational constiuency for north american integration.
(this is process of continental integration is considered to be an essential stepping stone for one world governement. The process of going from the nation state to one world government in one jump has proven to be too difficult so the one worlders are looking for intermediate term solutions. this north american continental integration is one step in the process.)
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Having said that the French left seems to be having serious second thoughts about france joining the EU and that seems to be bleeding into french leftist thinking in Canada. Consider these two articles: (its not entirely clear to me why the french left is suddenly against the eu. but it might have something to do with turks--whose participation in the EU the the french adamently oppose.)
France and the European Union: Are they winning?
The Economist ^ | March 23, 2005 | Unattributed
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1369142/posts
Posted on 03/23/2005 2:21:36 PM PST by quidnunc
The shocking risk of a non to the European Union constitution.
It was not supposed to happen this fast. When President Jacques Chirac decided to advance France's referendum on the draft European Union constitution to May 29th, the idea was to avoid the “Maastricht scenario”. In 1992 support for that treaty sank over the summer months from 65% to just 51%. This time, with two months still left, two new opinion polls suggest that backing for the constitution has already collapsed: the no vote is now at 51-52%. Is France, architect of Europe, really set to reject its first constitution?
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Canada's Left Angry With PM's 'Hidden' U.S. Agenda
Posted by hedgetrimmer
On 03/23/2005 11:46:10 AM PST · 23 replies · 402+ views
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1369020/posts
Reuters ^ | Mar 22, 2005
An opposition party that is helping to keep Canada's minority Liberal government in power angrily accused Prime Minister Paul Martin on Tuesday of planning to push an agenda of closer integration with the United States. Martin is due to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and Mexican President Vincente Fox in Texas on Wednesday for talks that will include discussions on how to improve the North American Free Trade Agreement. Canadian officials say they want to eliminate "nuisance tariffs" among the three partners and harmonize some continental business regulations. But the idea of any deeper...
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