Dirt flies across Texas over controversial highway plan

About 30 opponents of Gov. Rick Perry’s controversial Trans-Texas Corridor plan for superhighways statewide rallied at the McLennan County Courthouse Saturday morning, waving plastic bags of soil and vowing to resist any efforts involving eminent domain to seize their land for highway construction.

“This is a little piece of my land,” Riesel rancher and farmer Robert Cervenka said. “And this is all they’re going to get from me without a fight.”

Although some of those gathered at the steps of the courthouse were allied with independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, others said they were for any political force capable of jettisoning Perry from office and derailing his Trans-Texas Corridor toll road plan.

The rally was one of about 40 mounted across the state Saturday, largely coordinated through Strayhorn’s campaign.

The candidate chose to make appearances in Gonzales and at the Alamo because of their significance in Texas’ battle for independence.

Perry spokesman Robert Black says Strayhorn needs to tell Texans what she will do to meet the fierce traffic demand on Texas’ current highways, saying her calls for transportation revenue bonds and expanding Interstate 35 are too expensive.

Proposed by Perry in 2002 to accommodate the state’s projected trade and population growth, the massive corridor would cut across Texas from the Mexican border to Oklahoma. The plan has drawn fire for what some believe would be its displacement of farmland, its funding as a toll road and the choice of a Spanish company to develop it.

A group favoring the corridor project, Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation, issued a statement Saturday reminding motorists that nearly half of all Texans live within 50 miles of Interstate 35 and that “current traffic nightmares along Interstate 35 are projected to get worse if additional road capacity is not built.”

Texas’ population is expected to grow 65 percent in the next 25 years, the group said, while road use is projected to increase 214 percent. Unless Texans change their approach to transportation, road capacity will grow by only 6 percent, the statement said.

“Texas is growing, and our transportation system must grow too,” TSRT chairman Joe Krier said. “Good roads positively impact all aspects of our lives. Texans should know that the alternative to not building the Trans-Texas Corridor is more gridlock, outrageously higher gas taxes and solutions that will take years longer to deliver.

“Opponents of the Trans-Texas Corridor offer no meaningful solutions,” Krier said.

Area Republican activist Dot Snyder, who has property in Coryell County, acknowledged at the local protest Saturday morning the dangerous congestion on I-35 but said Perry’s plan, including the upheaval it would cause Texans in the form of land grabs and toll roads, carries too high a price.

“There are just bound to be better solutions,” she said. “If Gov. Perry’s plan is so good, why doesn’t he put it up for a vote of the people?”

Also during the local rally, Hallsburg Mayor Mike Glockzin faulted area politicians who say they oppose the corridor plan but refused to cross party lines Saturday to show solidarity with protesters. He said such politicians “need to grow a backbone.”

The McLennan County Commissioners Court has condemned the Trans-Texas Corridor as a threat to rural Central Texas, but none of the commissioners attended Saturday’s rally.

County residents stage Corridor protest

By BRAD KELLAR

Herald-Banner Staff

GREENVILLE — There weren’t very many protesters, but they all brought their sacks of dirt.

About a half-dozen area residents met outside of the Hunt County Courthouse Saturday morning, as part of the “Hands Across the Corridor” protest, designed to show opposition to the Trans-Texas Corridor project.

Each carried the “cup full of dirt” organizers of the event, who also are supporting the campaign of independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn for governor, asked them to bring.

Similar demonstrations were scheduled Saturday morning at county courthouses all along the proposed route of the Corridor.

The Trans-Texas Corridor was originated by Governor Rick Perry as a method to help relieve traffic congestion along Interstate 35.

While they were a little dismayed to find they were the only ones there, the protesters nonetheless felt they had a message that needed to get out.

“I don’t think it is going to go through the governor’s ranch,” said Richard Schauer, who lives near Caddo Mills.

“That’s where we ought to put it,” added Mary Strickland, who lives in Leonard.

Officials with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) have announced construction on the project could begin by 2011.

Maps released Thursday show the current preferred route of the roadway starting near Gainesville in Cooke County, then heading southeast through northeast Collin County. As the path veers back southwest, the eastern edge of the possible route passes through Caddo Mills, taking in the Municipal Airport, while the western edge passes just to the east of Copeville.

The breadth of the proposed route would then pass through Rockwall County as it heads further south, crossing through Royse City and the McLendon-Chisholm communities with the western edge nudging the east side of the Rockwall City limits.

The Trans-Texas Corridor would include separate lanes for passenger vehicles and large trucks, along with freight railways, high-speed commuter railways and infrastructure for utilities, covering a path up to 1,200 feet wide.

Cintra-Zachry, a Spanish-American consortium, is partnering with the State of Texas to develop the first segments of the corridor. The consortium is contributing $7.2 billion, in exchange for getting to operate the first parts of the corridor.

The protesters handed out information from Corridor Watch, a group which is helping lead the fight against the project. There was the question of what to do with the dirt, however.

“It started off as bring a cup, then my wife pulled up on the Internet and it said to bring a cup of dirt in a bag,” Schauer said. “It is trying to say, ‘This is all you are going to get’.”

First phase of [TTC-35] project goes on as environment studies, public debate continue (09/30/06)

Staff Report

Despite seemingly overwhelming opposition from Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe Texan, master development plans continue for the first phase of Trans-Texas Corridor 35 with possible construction beginning by 2011, according to a release issued Thursday by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Any final alignment of TTC-35 would be determined only after public input and the completion of rigorous environmental impact studies conducted by TxDOT and the Federal Highway Administration but Cintra Zachry, a consortium led by Spanish and Texas firms, is continuing to develop its plan for construction and management of the massive road project. In 2004, Cintra Zachry identified a plan to relieve congestion on U.S. Interstate 35 by investing $6 billion to build a state-owned toll road from east of San Antonio to the Dallas/Fort Worth area and to pay the state $1.2 billion for the investment opportunity.

The Texas Transportation Commission authorized TxDOT staff to enter into discussions with Cintra Zachry to produce a master development and financial plan. Work on the plan has been ongoing separately, but parallel to, the environmental process.

“What the public is seeing,” said Michael Behrens, TxDOT executive director, “is an environmental process that runs in tandem with a separate planning process. The private developer assumes a great deal of risk this way but the ultimate benefit to drivers is that the project is delivered sooner. In the past, environmental studies and detailed planning were performed sequentially, adding years to major projects. I firmly believe the public knows and appreciates it when we move faster on our projects.”

A two-tiered environmental study and public input in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act are ongoing. These studies will determine if and where TTC-35 is built.

The master development plan takes into account issues covered to date in the environmental study, but the plan will change as the environmental study proceeds and as project development continues, according to state transportation officials.

TxDOT is currently reviewing comments and input gathered at 54 public hearings this summer along the I-35 corridor. The comments will be addressed in a report to the FHWA, which is expected to determine next summer if studies for TTC-35 will continue to a second phase, or Tier Two level. It is anticipated that it could be four years before a final alignment for TTC-35 could be approved by FHWA.

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