Free Republic

The new Interstate 69 should be built in Texas mostly along existing highways – including U.S. 59, U.S. 77 and U.S. 281 – according to a draft environmental report released Tuesday. The federal environmental report recommends that the new interstate enter Texas from the east at Shreveport, La., travel south near Houston and head west to near Laredo. At the eastern part of the state, it would also connect north to Interstate 30 near Texarkana. Tuesday's report – called a draft environmental impact statement – is far from the final word on exactly where the interstate will go. The draft...

Coin trays in Texas cars may actually get to see the faces of dead presidents. The much-discussed and controversial Trans-Texas Corridor, or TTC, has breathed life into the debate of toll roads in Texas. Plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor include TTC-Instate 35, which starts in Laredo and extends north to Gainesville, running along the eastern part of Texas; and Interstate 69/TCC, which has three openings in Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville and follows the coast to Texarkana. Much of the TTC will be privately operated toll roads, run by the Spanish firm Cintra. The TTC will not run through San Antonio,...

Three private groups are now in the hunt to build U.S. 281 toll lanes, but two big foreign companies competing just a short while ago to build and lease a larger toll network here have dropped out. The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority board voted Wednesday to let all three teams submit plans to rebuild U.S. 281 north of Loop 1604 into a tollway with free access roads by 2012. It's the fledging agency's first project. "Goodness knows we have been two and a half years getting here," board member Bob Thompson said. "Maybe it's even more important to see the...

McALLEN — State transportation officials are still months from making a final decision about the location of the much-heralded Interstate 69 superhighway from Canada to Mexico. Still deep in the preliminary study phases of an environmental impact assessment, Texas Department of Transportation officials are making headway toward a decision on whether to use existing U.S. highways 77 to Harlingen, 281 to Edinburg or 57, which connects to Laredo, or build an entirely new road. I-69, known as Trans-Texas Corridor 69 in the state of Texas, is a proposal for a 2,600-mile highway system running from Canada to Mexico. About 1,000...

The Interstate 69 corridor, a Mexico-to-Canada concept discussed since 1991, has received government recognition as a "corridor of the future," a designation that immediately means $800,000 in federal money for studies. Local officials say it could mean more trade in South Texas. The corridor -- a 2,680-mile international trade route from Mexico to Canada also known as the Trans-Texas Corridor-69 -- was one of two designated Tuesday as corridors of the future. Interstate 10 from California to Florida also received recognition. Hailed as a route that would facilitate trade resulting from the North American Free Trade Agreement, I-69's Texas portion...

Transportation was a hot subject during the recent legislative session - and it continues to be so in the interim. This week, several Texas lawmakers, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson and state Reps. Joe Farias, David Leibowitz, Nathan Macias and others held a press conference in San Antonio in protest against current transportation policy and the Texas Department of Transportation. Key among their concerns are recent reports the state agency has launched a public relations plan to promote the Trans-Texas Corridor and to lobby for toll roads. Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom founder Terri Hall is among those criticizing...

Now that legislators have gone home and trumpeted how they passed a bill to freeze private financing of toll roads, the governor's office has some bubble-busting news. There isn't much of a moratorium in Senate Bill 792. "Of any kind, that we can tell," said Robert Black, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry. "Unless there was something screwy that happened." Actually, there were plenty of screwy machinations in the Legislature as lawmakers hammered out bills to rein in tolling powers of the Texas Department of Transportation. Slapping a two-year moratorium on privatization contracts started out simple. But skittish lawmakers carved out...

If anything has approximated unanimity in the 80th Texas Legislature, it is the desire to slow down on toll roads. This has left the state’s biggest proponent of toll roads, Gov. Rick Perry, the odd man out. But he’s still the man with the veto pen. The House and Senate last week overwhelmingly approved a two-year moratorium on most toll roads, including the Trans-Texas Corridor. Lawmakers earlier sent a bill to Perry with toll-road restrictions. He vetoed it, and threatened a special session if he didn’t get a bill he could sign. The bill that emerged reportedly meets his terms....

Those persuasion skills were key to Ms. Kolkhorst marshaling support for a partial two-year moratorium on private toll roads. The bill could get lawmakers' final blessing today. The Brenham Republican has emerged as a central figure in the Legislature's efforts to slow down the privatization of Texas roads. She has persuaded nearly all of her 149 House colleagues to back the moratorium, which excludes most North Texas toll projects. Ms. Kolkhorst, 42, has parlayed a blend of persistence, fearlessness, smarts and country charm into a more visible role in Austin. In addition to leading the toll road freeze, she has...

In many ways, Terri Hall was on a collision course with Texas toll road policies long before she and her family loaded up their van and drove from California to the Hill Country three years ago. A lifetime of volunteering, a hunger for staying on top of politics, and strong religious and moral convictions helped hone Hall's activist instincts. Her brains, drive, superb speaking skills, engaging personality and wholesome good looks — noted by friends and enemies alike — make Hall especially effective. They help explain why this 37-year-old mother of six is a leading force in a populist assault...

Wonder why there is all the fuss over toll roads? Well, we're not talking about traditional toll projects. Gov. Rick Perry and his Transportation Commission are pushing private toll road deals that limit free routes and allow the private operator to charge high tolls. As ex-Transportation Commissioner Sen. Robert Nichols, a stickler for details and the author of a bill to halt comprehensive development agreements, or CDAs, has noted, the devil is in the details. These private toll contracts include noncompete agreements like Cintra's. There will be no improvements made to existing roads or new free routes built within a...

ANGLETON — Development of an interstate highway connecting the United States with bordering countries could improve the economy of Brazoria County, some city and county officials and business owners were told Thursday. During the quarterly Economic Development Alliance of Brazoria County luncheon at the Angleton Recreation Center, Anne Culver, executive director of the I-69 Alliance, updated attendees about the alliance’s work and the status of the Interstate 69 development. “Any major new infrastructure, even if it’s not located right down the middle of Brazoria County, it’s going to benefit Brazoria County,” Culver said after the luncheon. “It’s going to have...

News of a possible Panama Canal expansion makes the Rio Grande Valley's quest for interstate highway access even more important, state Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson told a crowd of South Texas officials pleading Thursday for the interstate. President Martin Torrijos of Panama on Monday urged Panamanians to support a $5.25 billion expansion that could increase cargo ship traffic and the need for new or expanded ports. Rio Grande Valley leaders see the port of Brownsville as both a key Gulf of Mexico port and a destination for goods coming across Mexico from expanded Pacific Coast ports taking traffic from clogged-up...

AUSTIN — The southernmost stretch of the proposed Canada-to-Mexico interstate could come to the Rio Grande Valley as a brand new toll road cutting through untouched ranchland rather than an upgrade to highways 77 or 281. The proposal by the Texas Department of Transportation for the road known as Trans-Texas Corridor 69 is drawing sharp criticism from South Texas landowners and elected officials who say the state should instead spend its money turning one or both existing highways into interstates. Three options are on the table for building the first interstate to the Valley: expansion of Highway 281, expansion of...

The developer of the first phase of the Trans Texas Corridor super highway toll system says Texas needs an addition: 600 miles of new rail line from Dallas-Fort Worth to Mexico for freight trains. That's the proposal from Cintra-Zachry, the Spanish and American partnership already working on the first section of toll road for cars and trucks, announced by state transportation officials Wednesday. The Trans Texas Corridor is the plan kick-started several years ago by Gov. Rick Perry to build 4,000-plus miles of tollways and railways that would incorporate oil and gas pipelines, utility and water lines, and even broadband...

In the next few decades, the ever-growing Dallas-Fort Worth area could experience striking changes in the way that people and goods move. North Central Texas' population has been ballooning faster than the transportation infrastructure -- a situation akin to that of a growing middle-schooler whose old jeans don't quite fit anymore. With the Metroplex expected to add about 4 million people by 2030, it's hard to imagine the hellish traffic jams that we'll face in the future unless we take giant steps to reverse course. New transportation projects and strategies are being hashed out now that might someday save us...

Now that Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other officials have pronounced “the federal funding genie” dead, as far as highway construction money goes, it's time to find another way to pay for Interstate 69. “By the time Washington funds I-69, we'll be driving around in hover cars or whatever,” Perry said Thursday during a meeting of I-69 Alliance members, including Lufkin Mayor Louis Bronaugh, in Houston. “The harsh reality is we cannot wait for Washington, D.C., to solve the problems of this state.” Perry wants to “resuscitate” I-69 by merging it with his proposed Trans Texas Corridor, which would combine...

Can't post the text for this one, since contents of the Monitor's website can't be reproduced without written permission. Here is the link: Lobbyists, local biz: I-69 still alive

‘I-69 is dead’ State, federal officials disagree on status of road By Matt Whittaker The Monitor WESLACO, November 9, 2005 — There are not enough federal dollars for an Interstate highway to the Rio Grande Valley, state officials said Tuesday “I-69 is dead in the state of Texas,” Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton told about 75 area city officials and business leaders at a lunch discussion about transportation issues. “The road fairy has been shot.” But federal lawmakers said the project to create an Interstate linking major commercial centers in Mexico, the United States and Canada is still alive and...

Ramiro Dela Fuente attended a recent forum on the proposed Interstate 69 highway, because like a lot of other people, he’s anxious about which route it might take. "Interstates bring commerce. Restaurants, hotels, stores start building up around them. That would be good for Harlingen," the 58-year-old Harlingen resident said. "We’ve been seeing the signs for future routes of I-69 everywhere, and we don’t know where it’s actually going." At this point, nobody really knows. What many agree on is this: The route that is eventually selected will become the gateway to the Rio Grande Valley. Will it be U.S....