Here's a map of the concept. The corridor parallel to I-35 is about 50 miles east of San Antonio and goes through Seguin.
Posted on 01/05/2005 3:10:55 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
AUSTIN, Tex., Dec. 31 (AP) - Texas has embarked on a project to build superhighways so large and so complex that they will make ordinary Interstates look like cowpaths.
As envisioned by Gov. Rick Perry, the project, the Trans-Texas Corridor, would be a 4,000-mile transportation network costing $175 billion over 50 years and financed mostly, if not entirely, with private money. The builders would then charge motorists tolls.
These would be megahighways: corridors up to a quarter-mile across, consisting of as many as six lanes for cars and four for trucks, plus railroad tracks, oil and gas pipelines, water and other utility lines, even broadband transmission cables.
Supporters say the corridors are needed to handle the expected Nafta-driven boom in the flow of goods to and from Mexico and to enable freight haulers to bypass urban centers on straight highways that cut across the countryside.
The number of corridors and exactly where they would run have yet to be worked out. But on Dec. 16 the Texas Transportation Commission opened negotiations with the Cintra consortium to start the first phase of the project, a $7.5 billion, 800-mile corridor from Oklahoma to Mexico that would parallel Interstate 35.
"Some thought the Trans-Texas Corridor was a pie-in-the-sky idea that would never see the light of day," said Governor Perry, a Republican who has compared his plan to the Interstate system. "We have seen the future, and it's here today."
But some have called the project a Texas-size boondoggle. Environmentalists say they worry about its effect on the countryside, and ranchers and farmers who stand to lose their land through eminent domain are mobilizing against it. Small towns and big cities alike fear a loss of business when traffic is diverted around them.
Even the governor's own party opposes the plan. The platform drafted at last summer's state Republican convention rejected it because of its effect on property rights.
The tolls would represent a sharp departure for Texas, which has traditionally relied on federal highway money from gasoline taxes to build roads. But supporters of the Trans-Texas Corridor say its combination of tolls and private money would allow Texas to lay concrete at a rate that would be impossible through gasoline taxes alone.
The corridors could generate about $135 billion for the state over the 50-year span and lure new industry by offering efficient shipping routes for goods and utilities, Ray Perryman, a Texas economist, said.
In addition, Robert Black, a spokesman for Mr. Perry said, the new rail lines could lower the risk of chemical spills in urban areas.
For the Oklahoma-Mexico corridor, Cintra plans to spend $6 billion for about 300 miles of four-lane highway from Dallas to San Antonio and give the state an additional $1.2 billion for improvements along the route. In return, Cintra, which is based in Spain, wants to maintain and operate the toll road for 50 years.
The Texas Farm Bureau, generally regarded as an ally of Mr. Perry, opposes the project, with the organization's president, Kenneth Dierschke, saying: "They're proposing going primarily through farm and ranch lands. If someone comes in and cuts your property in half, that's no good."
Officials promise that property owners will be fairly compensated for any land seized. And a special provision put in for the benefit of rural Texas would allow some property owners to negotiate for a share of the revenue generated by traffic on the corridor.
Here's a map of the concept. The corridor parallel to I-35 is about 50 miles east of San Antonio and goes through Seguin.
Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth should be bulldozed for any highway. They are the two butt-ugliest metro areas in the USA.
Loop 610 was designed so that if a 10 megaton bomb exploded in downtown Houston and destroyed the interchanges between US59, I-10, and I-45, it would still be possible for Houston to be connected to the Interstate Highway system via Loop 610.
What an evil thing to say.
Noboy will drive anymore if it costs more than a 1 penny a mile from DFW to New Mexico or from DFW to Houston or DFW to SA.
They're gonna price transportatation right out of the marketplace for travelers unless it's very, very cheap.. IE near free. People just won't travel anymore if costs too much.
It already costs about $0.40 per mile to operate a car.
Add another 20 cents to that.. Asking for a lot of empty roads.
I-35 isn't empty. I could save a couple of hours driving to Dallas or Ft. Worth if I didn't have to go through San Antonio and Austin first.
I'm no expert but I-35 would probably be improved greatly by just adding another lane.
Adding lanes to a freeway does nothing to speed traffic. Shutting off exits would speed it up more.Limited access highways are needed and toll roads fill that need. Houston has greatly improved it's traffic flow in the past 15 years by the tollroads on the beltway.
More money for Herb Kelleher!
I-35 needed another lane 20 years ago. Maybe it will be finished ten years from now. But by then, it will need another lane or two. After the current expansion, there's no room on the existing right of way to add anymore lanes. By 2040 there will be over forty million people living in Texas (double the current populuation). The existing Interstate highway system was designed for a life of 30 years. It has now been almost 50 years since the Interstate Hiway Act was signed. We need to plan for the next 50 years not just incrementally add to the existing infrastructure.
3) The toll road from downtown Dallas had nothing along it but houses, while I-35 had businesses and growth.
Businesses and growth are what slows down traffic. Limited access higways move commerce over long distances faster. If you want buisness and growth on your highways, make them all two lanes
That depends on how entrance/exit ramps are designed. The entrance/exit ramps on I-35 between Austin and Hillsborough are atrocious and very dangerous with very short and abrupt merges from the access roads to the freeway. I-37 has much better ramps
"98% of the Interstate Highway system was built with taxes"
Only 98%? Who paid the other 2%?
LOL, were will you save money going to Dallas with a 20 cent a mile toll?
"Hey they are expanding 610 in Houston now it runs just a little inside the Beltway 8 toll road...."
That would be a feat beyond imagination. Texas traffic engineers are good, but that ain't possible
I suspect the TX corridor will one day be viewed similarly.
I suspect you and Perry are right. No one ever went wrong speeding up commerce
bttp
Well if it fails then those private investors will have some of the longest runways in the world..... Damn what an airport hub.
One of the rules for the interstates was that one of every five miles of road was to be straight. The reason was to be usable as a runway in emergency.
a toll road is never EVER paid for, and the fee never goes away, it might rise but it surely won't go down.
The toll road in Dallas was paid for and the booths came down many years ago
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