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Some Texans are afraid of losing their land to the Trans-Texas Corridor while others loathe the thought of a quarter-mile-wide swath of toll roads and railway lines transforming the countryside into a superhighway. People continue to turn out in droves at public meetings concerning the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor proposal, specifically the portion known as the TTC-69 proposed from Brownsville to Texarkana. A meeting Monday, Jan. 28, at the fairgrounds in Austin County was no exception, drawing more than 1,000 people. Opposition to the proposed corridor has come from people in all walks of life, said Chris Steinbach, chief of staff...

BELLVILLE — In what is becoming a regular occurrence in Southeast Texas, more than 1,000 Austin County residents and interested outsiders jammed a county fairgrounds exhibit hall Monday night to let a panel of state transportation officials know that the Trans-Texas Corridor was not welcome here. State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, opened the public remarks to thunderous applause when she told the panel, "You all thought I was crazy in Austin when I said my people don't want it and I don't want it." The panel, which included Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Amadeo Saenz and Deputy Executive Director...

Gov. Rick Perry's ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor plan, and his advocacy of toll funding for future roads, hit the skids in a skeptical Legislature last spring. The road shows no signs of getting any smoother as state transportation officials try to sell the plan to Houston-area audiences. "This will wipe me out," Dee Bond told a panel of corridor advocates at a town hall meeting in Rosenberg last week. The panel, which included Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes of Houston and Steve Simmons, deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, was there to explain and gather comment on a...

Austin County residents get their chance Monday to comment on a massive “superhighway� that could be coming through their county. And if the public meeting in Bellville is anything like those already held by the Texas Department of Transportation, it will include hundreds of angry property owners lining up for a chance to lambast the proposed project, called the Trans Texas Corridor. Gov. Rick Perry first proposed the TTC six years ago. If completed as much as 50 years from now, it would roughly parallel interstate highways with up to a quarter-mile-wide stretch of toll roads, rail lines, pipelines and...

Leaders with the Texas Department of Transportation sought to allay fears about the Trans-Texas Corridor Thursday night in Rosenberg with a “town hall” meeting. The meeting proceeded fairly smoothly, but hardly seemed to put a dent in the large crowd's seemingly uniform opposition to the proposal of a massive transportation corridor. Hank Gilbert, a regular speaker at TTC events and leader of an anti-TTC non-profit group, drew cheers for suggesting TxDOT officials have failed to make the case for a large, privately owned transportation cluster. “No good argument has been made for the TTC that would allow farmers to be...

More than 400 people from Walker County and surrounding counties attended the Texas Department of Transportation town hall meeting Wednesday night at the Walker Education Center. According to Bob Colwell, TxDOT public information officer for the Bryan District, the Huntsville meeting was one of 11 town hall meetings scheduled throughout the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor study area. Colwell said 25 TxDOT representatives attended to answer questions. “Tonight is the opportunity for people to ask any questions that they want,” Colwell said. “In the past, TxDOT has gotten knocked for not having open discussions, so that’s what we’re here for.” After the town...

More than 800 people packed a meeting hall in Hempstead for a public meeting on the Trans-Texas Corridor. Seven more public sessions are scheduled. Residents are speaking out about a controversial highway that would cut right through the state. The state plans to build a 4,000-mile network of super-highway toll roads. In Hempstead on Tuesday, many residents said that road could cost them their property. Odis Styers owns hundreds of acres north, east and west of town. But the traffic that now travels through on State Highway 290 could interrupt his peace. A TxDOT super highway could soon plow through...

State Sen. Glen Hegar says he opposes a route that would bring the mammoth Trans Texas Corridor through his district. The Texas Department of Transportation has kicked off a series of public meetings to discuss the project. Meetings are scheduled for Tuesday in Hempstead (6:30 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 22892 Mack Washington St.) and Jan. 29 in Bellville (at the Austin County fairgrounds, also beginning at 6:30 p.m.). No meetings are scheduled in Washington County, which likely wouldn’t be impacted much by the highway project. Much of the discussion in public meetings already held centers on Interstate...

It's not often that an individual makes such a significant and undoubtedly lasting impact on a state as big as Texas, but my long-time friend and Chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, Ric Williamson, certainly did. As most of you know, Ric died suddenly last month at age 55. It is true that as the state's transportation policymaker, he was a controversial figure. But, it has been my experience that people with visionary instincts and those who prefer to think outside the box are often considered different and unconventional. The world has a long legacy of resisting new ideas, even...

Hundreds showed up to a town hall meeting Thursday night in Lufkin, many with questions for Texas Department of Transportation officials about the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor that could run through or around Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Huntsville and other East Texas towns. As it's drawn up, I-69/TTC would include toll roads, high-speed freight and commuter rail, water lines, oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines and telecommunications infrastructure in one corridor running north/south through Texas. One primary purpose of the corridor would be to help with the state's projected traffic congestion. Although TxDOT directors assured everyone that nothing is set in stone and...

CARTHAGE — James Mason doesn't want a new highway cutting him off from his property. James Boggs wants to keep American jobs here. They were just a sample of about 140 residents who asked, commented and listened during a public forum with state transportation leaders Wednesday night in Carthage. It was the second of several forums scheduled along the Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor, a proposed superhighway that likely will parallel U.S. 59 from Texarkana to the Mexican border. "We haven't done a very good job of (communicating) in the past," said Steve Simmons, deputy executive director of Texas Department of Transportation....

A state mobility agency wants local input concerning a major corridor that might slice through East Texas. A town hall meeting will be held in Carthage on Wednesday to discuss the Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor study area, according to a Texas Department of Transportation media release. The meeting, slated for 6:30 p.m. at the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame located at 300 West Panola Street, will be the first of 11 such discussions held statewide. Interstate 69 consists of two parts — a completed portion from the Canadian border to Indianapolis, and a mostly proposed extension to the Mexican border...

At the front of a quiet, dimly-lit auditorium inside Weatherford High School Thursday, Gov. Rick Perry and other friends eulogized the late Ric Williamson. Perry borrowed a quote from author Jonathan Swift to describe Williamson, who, as chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, was often at the center of controversy. “When a genius comes into the word, you will know him by this sign: that the dunces are all in confederacy against him,� Perry recited. “Jonathan Swift didn’t know Ric Williamson, but he pegged him.� Williamson, 55, was pronounced dead on Sunday after suffering an apparent heart attack while at...

2007 ended on a sad note for the family and friends of Ric Williamson, the chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission who died Sunday after a heart attack. Given his aggressive and often controversial role in reshaping Texas highway construction, his death leaves the state and Gov. Rick Perry with an important question about how to move forward after Williamson’s memorial service today. Williamson, 55, a successful business owner and former state representative from Weatherford, was appointed to the transportation commission in 2001 by his good friend Perry and was named chairman in 2004. He became a passionate advocate of...

The Texas Department of Transportation will hold several local meetings early next year to offer answers on the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor. In 2007 TxDOT released a tentative outline for the cross-country Interstate 69, which is currently planned to come through Texarkana. The highway would be a straight shot from Canada, through the United States and into Mexico. TxDOT will hold nearly a dozen “town hall� meetings and 46 public hearings to encourage public input and address concerns. “We want to hear the public’s ideas and we want to answer their questions,� said TxDOT Commissioner Ted Houghton. “Their comments will help...

Texas Department of Transportation officials have scheduled a series of town hall meetings in January and February in 11 locations along the proposed I-69/Trans Texas Corridor, with a panel of department officials slated to be on hand to answer specific questions from citizens. According to a press release from TxDOT, Lufkin's town hall meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17, at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center. "The town halls should not be confused with the upcoming public hearings on the I-69/TTC project," the news release said. Last month, the department released the draft environmental impact statement on the...

The Walker County Commissioners Court will hear a presentation on the I-69 Corridor project during a regular session today. Michael Parks will give the presentation to the five-member court at 9 a.m. at the courthouse. Sherri Pegoda, administrative assistant to the County Judge Danny Pierce, said the presentation will educate the court on how the project will affect Walker County. According to Keep Texas Moving Web site, “On November 13, the Texas Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Federal Highway Administration, released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposal for the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor Project.” The project, expected to...

AUSTIN -- Texans who are demanding that the state stop building toll roads may get their wish. But they might not like the alternative: Higher state gas taxes. There is broad support in Austin for increasing the state's 20-cents-a-gallon motor fuel tax , says a lawmaker leading the effort to strip the Texas Department of Transportation's authority to build toll roads and enter into agreements with private companies. The Texas gas tax has not gone up since 1991. "The message is loud and clear. You couldn't not hear it. People want us to build roads, and they're willing to pay...

Hundreds of people angry with the state's toll road contracts sounded off before state senators Thursday. Public hearings on toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor began early Thursday morning. Senators invited public input because state lawmakers will make some important decisions this session about how to pay for highways. So many people showed up that crowds were forced into overflow rooms. The Texas Department of Transportation and toll roads have found many critics, largely because of the private companies hired to build and run them. There are also questions about how much taxpayers pay for the roads. Speakers sounded...

In what is being projected as an economic boom for the East Texas region (if it comes to fruition), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will soon begin work on a feasibility study for an East-West corridor. The announcement was made last week as the TxDOT Commission voted to move forward with the study that will cost an estimated $2 million. The corridor is the brainchild of the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway Coalition. "If we had a major four-lane, east-west highway through Jasper it would mean to us what I-10 means to Beaumont and I-20 means to Shreveport," said Jasper...

News Release Contact: Randall Dillard Telephone: (512) 463-8588 Interstate 69 from Texas to Michigan is included on a short list of interstate corridors being considered for fast track development by federal transportation officials, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary. E. Peters has announced. If I-69 is selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation this summer as part of the Corridors of the Future program, the federal department will aggressively support the project to move it “from the drawing board to completion faster than ever before,” according to the announcement. The Texas segment of I-69 is being developed as part of the...

A San Antonio-area lawmaker has filed a bill to kill the Trans-Texas Corridor. State Rep. David Leibowitz, D-Helotes, told Waco-based KWTX that the massive toll road project would “destroy rural Texas as we know it.” State Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, whose district includes Ellis and Hill counties, both of which would be impacted by the proposed toll road, said he would be supportive of the measure. “I support efforts to get more control over TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) and the Trans-Texas Corridor,” Pitts said. “The Trans-Texas Corridor will have enormous effects on this area and the people who live...

CorridorWatch.org JANUARY, 2007 MEMBER NEWSLETTER Happy New Year From CorridorWatch.org 2007 promises to be a great year for CorridorWatch.org, its members, and its efforts to question the wisdom of the Trans Texas Corridor. We have been very, very busy during the last two months despite the holidays. CorridorWatch.org has seen tremendous growth in both December and January. We have jumped from members in 186 counties to members in 199 counties! We had such a surge in new members in December that our newsletter software crashed. Sadly we lost two weeks of newsletter subscriber information. That followed the failure of our...

One out of every eight votes in Rick Perry's margin of victory in the 2002 race for governor came from the rural counties along the Interstate 35 path of Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor. Now, as he seeks re-election, Perry's long-range transportation vision is turning into a political liability for the Republican chief executive. More than 14,000 Texans — almost all opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor — turned out at public hearings held by the Texas Department of Transportation this summer to express their displeasure with the highway and the governor. "I'd like to admit that I made one big mistake...

A plan to bring the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project closer to the heart of North Texas is getting a boost from Gov. Rick Perry. Since April, North Texas leaders have prodded state officials to alter their study maps to include a highway route that circles Dallas and Fort Worth. Until now, the state's preferred study area has prominently featured a route that only clips southeast Dallas County. The local lobbying efforts may have paid off. Mr. Perry has asked the Texas Department of Transportation to take into consideration North Texas' wishes, department officials said late Tuesday. In a letter to...

The debate over the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor may be shaping up to be a battle between those who have the clout to make it happen and those who wish they had the clout to stop it. The Texas Department of Transportation’s super-highway of the future is stirring up bad memories of the past for some. The proposed toll road would run somewhere east of San Antonio. Nothing like it has ever been seen in this country. Another 200 or so people showed up at the meeting Thursday night, most of them from rural East Bexar County. They're fighting to keep...

CLIFTON — It appears that the crowd the Texas Transportation Commission and the Texas Department of Transportation faced in Bosque County was not an anomaly. Public meetings across the state are being filled with opposition to the Trans Texas Corridor’s TTC-35 routes. In Clifton Wednesday, July 19, an estimated 400-plus packed the Clifton High School cafetorium to issue a resounding “no thanks” to TTC-35 running through Bosque County. An open house and public hearing hosted by the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Transportation Commission ran into unanimous opposition locally, and citizens almost as strongly opposed the entire project...

CorridorWatch.org NOTICE TO MEMBERS - 07.13.06 TTC-35 PUBLIC HEARINGS CONTINUE NEXT MONDAY - JULY 17TH Overflow crowds are attending TTC-35 hearings!!!! JOIN THEM!!!! This is the time for all CorridorWatch members to do something that will have an impact. ( ( ( VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED TO HAND OUT CorridorWatch.org MATERIALS ) ) ) I have updated the public hearing instructions below. Please take the time to read them and attend the closest hearing or any and all that you can. These hearings are helping us educate Texans about the Trans Texas Corridor – the truth – and impact that it...

TTC-35 PUBLIC HEARINGS BEGIN NEXT MONDAY - JULY 10TH IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU PARTICIPATE IN THE NEPA PUBLIC HEARING PROCESS. These hearings seek comment on TTC impact to: farmland; Ag conversion; community travel patterns; community social disruption; emergency services; local retail; regional economy; property & sales tax revenue; disadvantaged populations; air quality; noise; water quality; wildlife; floodplains; threatened & endangered species; historical sites; cemeteries; archaeological sites; hazardous waste sites; and, visual quality. Your opportunity has been created by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a federal law that requires TxDOT to follow a specific process in assessing the...

One day after the Fourth of July, congressional Republicans will offer a fireworks show of their own with the launch of summer field hearings on how to overhaul immigration laws. The made-for-media display begins Wednesday with dueling hearings 2,400 miles apart. A House subcommittee will meet at a San Diego Border Patrol station to discuss the vulnerability of the nation's borders to terrorists. The same day, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., will host a hearing in Philadelphia about a need for foreign workers. House GOP leaders called the unusual hearings last month in a blow to President Bush's...

Pulbic hearing set for Aug. 3 at Floresville High School AUSTIN — Wilson County residents will have the opportunity to participate in the decision-making process on the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 (TTC-35) this summer. A public hearing is scheduled Aug. 3 at Floresville High School to answer questions and listen to public comments, according to a news release from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The meeting will begin with an open house at 5 p.m. so that residents can review maps of the preferred corridor alternative and ask questions of the TxDOT staff. The presentation and oral comments will begin...

The Kerry Line: Fellow Senators Call For Kerry To Release Attendance At Private Intelligence Committee Hearings(title edited for length) "John Kerry served on the Intelligence Committee from 1993 to 2000, and according to official records, John Kerry missed 76 percent of the public Senate Intelligence Committee hearings during that time. This figure doesn’t include his attendance at closed door meetings. Those records can only be released to the public at John Kerry’s request. This is something that needs to be done, and I join Senator Roberts, Senator Chambliss, Senator Cornyn, and Senator Coleman and others in calling on him to...