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.
Lots of trucks are now required to have an onboard GPS system that records information about where a truck is and how fast it traveled. I wouldn't be surprized if government start charging tolls for use of streets and highways and also charge congestion tolls. Quite frankly I'd rather encourage trucks to use truck only lanes than congested Interstate highways.
Its 75mph out in West Texas and 70mph just about everywhere else except within cities.
Are they using the finally completed Central Expressway as their model, only bigger?
I've lived in Dallas twice in my life. Even after Central was completed I hated driving on it. While it was under construction (the almost never-ending, how many years did it take, expansion) I always took the toll road even if Central might have been more convenient.
I did ride the train several times from N. Dallas to downtown and that was nifty.
How many small towns will die once this is completed? How many farms/ranches will be affected?
I know something needs to be done with I-35 because the traffic tie-ups leading into Austin and on to San Antonio are awful no matter the time of day. I just don't know that what Perry is proposing is the answer.
and believe me,
They've got Perry by the ba&&s
"And why sould I?....."
...and here's how the drivers in California were rewarded when a private company was allowed to build a privite toll road:
NAFTA at work-Mexican trucks, US rules collide
DOT Against Inspection Of Trucks in Mexico
Bad brakes plague trucks from Mexico
I was thinking in the context of Pennsylvania, rather than Texas - but your point is valid. This MAJOR problem has to be dealt with in any case.
So we are going to get sold out for the hunderds of miles of free Interstate highways just so some independent company can block their expansion?... Reckon Perry and the DOT isn't aware of this in CA?. Maybe not since you seem to think they are such dunces.
Hey they are expanding 610 in Houston now it runs just a little inside the Beltway 8 toll road.... What happened there? Katy Freeway is in a major expansion and there's that Beltway out there....
You aren't from CA are you?.....
"In colonial times, there were many private "pike" roads and private toll bridges. They were eventually all brought under public free access. The old-timers learned from experience what worked. We've just forgotten, and there are a bunch of billion dollar companies selling us this bill-of-goods called toll roads.
"I guess theres a sucker born every minute."
Well, if the history you recount repeats itself, I guess it's the "billion dollar companies" who will be the suckers.
"Well, if the history you recount repeats itself, I guess it's the "billion dollar companies" who will be the suckers. "
Not this time - the companies will do quite well, thank you. So will Perry and his buddies (nice retirement/lobbying jobs in the future - free toll road use, no doubt). The only losers are the people who will actually have to pay to drive on these roads. That's all.
I suspect the TX corridor will one day be viewed similarly.
"Actually, I'm quite serious (but then, you knew that)."
Of course I knew that. But seriously, I don't of any circumstance where a toll road has actually helped development.
One example in Houston is the Grand Parkway (a loop that will be outside of Beltway 8, assuming Beltway 8 doesn't get moved, along with 610 - just kidding). The road was originally conceived as a freeway. When that was true, the landowners on the right-of-way offered to donate their land (knowing that the economic growth would be through the roof). Then some wise guy (I think before Perry) decided to make it a toll road. The landowners immediately withdrew their offer and said you now have to BUY our land. When it comes to people's own money, they know what the deal is.
That's one reason why I see this toll road plan being a disaster for Texas. There are others, but not quite as dramatic.
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