Posted on 06/21/2007 1:59:42 AM PDT by Man50D
A NAFTA superhighway plan under way in Texas will be extended to Oklahoma and Colorado, stretching the four-lane, train-truck-car-pipeline corridor from the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas, to Denver, reports WND columnist Jerome Corsi, whose new investigative book, "The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada," has just been released.
As WND has reported, the Federal Highway Administration is promoting public-private partnership projects to expand superhighway projects, consistent with extending the Trans-Texas Corridor network north.
The plan is for the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado to apply the TTC toll road concept first developed by the Texas DOT to largely rural areas along the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.
To advance this plan, the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition – sponsored by the consulates of Mexico and Canada along with the Texas and Colorado transportation departments – is co-sponsoring a "Great Plains 2007" international conference Sept. 19-21 at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Denver.
The brochure recommends the conference be attended by real estate developers, transportation planners, highway services business executives, as well as state, local, county and municipal public officials and international trade professionals.
An April Texas DOT study on the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition website documents the tie between the two groups.
The study says the Ports-to-Plains Corridor offers an opportunity to apply the Trans-Texas Corridor technology to NAFTA superhighway development in rural settings. It concludes by recommending new highway construction be undertaken parallel to the existing Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor route in order to apply the superhighway design north through Oklahoma into Colorado.
As WND previously reported, the $180 billion needed to build the 4,000 mile Trans-Texas Corridor network over the next 50 years will be financed by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., a foreign investment consortium based in Spain. Cintra will own the leasing and operating rights on TTC highways for 50 years after construction is complete.
A press release on the Texas DOT website confirms the agency is looking for a public-private-partnership to help finance the construction of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.
WND also has reported Texas Gov. Rick Perry has received substantial campaign contributions from Cintra and Zachry Construction Company, the San Antonio-based construction firm selected by the Texas DOT to build the TTC.
The homepage of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor Coalition website proclaims, "Together, the communities along the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor are becoming the Gateway to trade throughout the nation and with Mexico and Canada."
The homepage also links the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor to the millions of containers from China that are planned to enter North America through Mexican ports, commenting, "The Trade Corridor will allow for the development of less congested ports of entry along the Texas/Mexican border."
Thanks for the ping.
Did ya notice the fire brigade?
A little hard to miss (lol).
Very disturbing. Anyone with a brain in his/her head knows that we only lease the land we “purchase”. Try not paying property taxes. Now after paying all that money, it can be taken from you to enrich some government approved scheme. Buy rural? Who knows which way growth will head, ten years down the road? Office plaza, upscale condos, 400yd-wide super highway?
We don’t own anything except one vehicle(oops-try not paying the yearly fees), but I’m still very uncomfortable about the long term affects this particular project will have on all those communities and individuals.
Thank you for reminding me about Perry’s veto. Every American has been sold out. There has been so much going on, I forgot about the Dubai ports fiasco. Used to live in Long Beach, CA. Worked near the Port of Los Angeles. The damage that a “booby trapped” cargo container could cause, would be catastrophic :(
No, the whole thing stinks. Does anyone have a definitive route for this Hwy? I wonder how many people will be affected?
We aren't talking about one house here.
You might want to stop cherry-picking responses to fit your view point. We are already familiar with your stance on illegal immigration and big government. This time the government is apparently handing over private property to foreign interests(Cintra). I have a feeling that you won't care until they come and take something that belongs to you.
Btw, new schools wouldn't be needed if we repatriated foreign nationals and their anchor babies. Ditto more cop shops.
Eminent domain to build roads and transportation is not an outgrowth of Kelo, it is as old as the Republic.
No, actually I don’t know how much private land was taken for the original interstates, RRs, and canals. A little before my time ;)
Let me put it this way: if my local government needed to lay sewer or water pipe through my property, and paid me a fair price to tear up my yard, I don’t think I’d have a problem with that. The improvements would be a long term benefit. Likewise with road widening. Fair price for a useable improvement.
Now, with this super-duper hwy, is it necessary to build a throughway from Mexico to Canada, that will encompass four football fields across? What is the immediate benefit to those who will inevitably get screwed? Will this project create a better job base? Will people who have lost family farms and property, perhaps dating back generations, be justly compensated? Will the government make federal land available for restitution, and the ability to continue farming?
I don’t have the information I need to make a solid argument regarding how much the American citizen/legal resident will lose in this deal. Some of the examples I cited in the second paragraph don’t have anything to do with the Kelo situation. There were several posts here detailing the events leading up to Kelo. The neighborhood was not blighted, the land was being seized for private enterprise rather than for the public good, ie road widening, infrastructure improvements, or even a school campus or hospital.
I hope I have been able to better explain my opinion on this particular issue.
Remind me about my stance on those subjects.
This time the government is apparently handing over private property to foreign interests(Cintra).
Handing over? Like land was handed over to build the interstate highway system? Like land was handed over to build the school up the street from my house?
Todd, your posting history speaks for itself :(
Who owned the site used to build that school? If the property belonged to a private citizen, were they/he/she properly compensated? See post 49. Schools, hospitals, interstate hwys, improvements are worthwhile and benefit the citizens of the particular community, ie taxpayers who pay for such improvements for their use.
Of course this has gotten way off topic by focusing on the implications regarding the Kelo decision.
There was a small victory in Pasadena CA, regarding a fwy extension. The 110 to be exact. It’s worth the hassle to drive through town to hop on the next leg of fwy, rather than lose historical homes and neighborhoods.
Personally, I’d like to see how much damage this super hwy will cause. I want to see a map with actual towns and cities that will be affected. Until then, I’m basically running off at the mouth. I know one thing though, and that is that an American firm should be given top consideration for this project.
And unfortunately, you don't know anything about it. Or you do and are too cowardly to admit you were wrong.
Who owned the site used to build that school? If the property belonged to a private citizen, were they/he/she properly compensated?
Yes. That's what the condemnation process is all about. They buy property from people for public purposes. Like schools, roads, police stations. Kelo gave the property to a private developer. If you don't understand the difference, well, your posting history speaks for itself.
Until then, I’m basically running off at the mouth.
About the road and about me.
Say what?!?! I see your posts on border/illegal alien topics all the time. Anyone who is vaguely interested can look up your posting history. I'm the only one stupid enough to still reply to you.
The condemnation process is there to condemn substandard housing, not to enrich some private entity. The housing in the Kelo decision was not substandard, just in the way of some private developer. I most certainly do understand the difference. Are you telling us that this super hwy project will only target blighted neighborhoods?
You do realize that this super hwy of which the topic is about, consists of toll roads! Who is going to get the money from that? I'll bet it won't be John (Juan, Joachim, Johannes, Julio)Doe, or the communities that are about to be ruined.
NAFTA superhighway extends north
Great. Then you can easily tell me what my position is on the border and illegal immigration. Unless you're a coward? Or a liar?
The condemnation process is there to condemn substandard housing,
Condemnation can be used against housing in perfect condition, against farmland, office buildings, etc. etc. etc. It has a much broader meaning than you think.
not to enrich some private entity.
I agree, Kelo was a travesty.
Are you telling us that this super hwy project will only target blighted neighborhoods?
Look up the word, you obviously don't understand its definition.
You do realize that this super hwy of which the topic is about, consists of toll roads!
Yes. Roads. Which the government has historically acquired land for the purpose of building.
I owe you an apology. I have you confused with another poster. I am very sorry for that. That doesn’t make me a coward or a liar, however. Well not intentionally.
As for the rest, I want to actually see what may be condemned. How do you condemn a functioning farm, for instance? We’re losing enough family owned farms as it is, without this happening. The article says rural land, so I’m thinking farms and small communities. You know, the bumpkins with zero clout. I think I know what condemn and blight means.
I’ve lived in neighborhoods that deserved to be condemned for being a blight. I’m not having a lot of luck tracing the proposed route of this super hwy, not to be confused with your average interstate, so I don’t know how many people will be negatively impacted.
Thanks. Glad we could clear that up.
As for the rest, I want to actually see what may be condemned. How do you condemn a functioning farm, for instance?
The city, state, whatever, condemns it.
4 : to declare convertible to public use under the right of eminent domain
It's not just definition #3, to adjudge unfit for use or consumption
We’re losing enough family owned farms as it is, without this happening. The article says rural land, so I’m thinking farms and small communities.
Yes, farmland. Would it be better to build a road thru a crowded city? Push out tens of thousands instead of dozens? Spend tens of billions on more expensive land?
When the Center for Transportation Research released their 1996 report recommending the multi-modal corridor, one of the justifications was that it would require much less land. Common sense will tell you one corridor containing all the transportation modes will require less land than each mode having a seperate corridor.
As you may, or may not know, Texas will need these new cross-state corridors becauce the population is predicted to double in the coming decades.
However much land will be condemned to build the TTCs, it is relatively small compared to the amount of land that will need to be condemned to build the surface streets required for this population growth.
Beside the roads needed for growth, Texas will also need water. Care to guess how many square miles of land will have to be condemned to build 20 new reservoirs?
Well I know who has the power to condemn, but what I want to know is how many parcels will be grabbed.
My 1977 edition didn't list "condemn" in a property sense, so I turned to my 1928(LOL-I'm serious!)edition of Funk and Wagnalls 'Desk Standard Dictionary':
(3)To forbid the use of, commonly by judicial order, as something unfit. (4) To appropriate for public use by judicial decree, declare forfeited.
Just damn :(
It would be better to not build the darn thing in the first place, but NAFTA will not be denied. To hell with the American taxpayer, or property rights. Where are the environazis on this one???? I'd like to see an environmental impact study on this project. Might as well wish for a money tree in my backyard, while I'm at it.
Tell me, would you rather buy American farm products, or foreign produced meat and produce? Once it's gone, you can't bring it back. Our government already spends billions of dollars on stupid crap. Fwys and Hwys already exist to ferry 3rd world junk into our country, and to make it really hurt, the contract apparently goes to CINTA, based in Spain. Who pockets the tolls???
As many as it takes.
Tell me, would you rather buy American farm products, or foreign produced meat and produce?
I like both.
Once it's gone, you can't bring it back.
Gone? We produce more than ever.
Fwys and Hwys already exist to ferry 3rd world junk into our country, and to make it really hurt, the contract apparently goes to CINTA, based in Spain. Who pockets the tolls???
They pay to build it. Pay to maintain it. Pay for the lease. Billions. They pocket the tolls.
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