One ping only
Posted on 01/05/2005 10:41:46 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
........
The Trans-Texas Corridor project, as first envisioned by Republican Gov. Rick Perry in 2002, would be a 4,000-mile transportation network costing $175 billion over 50 years, financed mostly if not entirely with private money. The builders then would charge motorists tolls.
But these would not be mere highways. Proving anew that everything's big in Texas, they 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, and broadband transmission cables.
Supporters say the corridors are needed to handle the expected boom in the flow of goods, driven by the North American Free Trade Agreement, to and from Mexico and to enable freight haulers to bypass heavily populated urban centers on straight-shot highways that cut across the countryside.
.......
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Why don't they just build a pipeline from Mexico to the U.S. so illegals can be piped into this country?
I'd chip in if it was a direct route from mexico to canada with no offramps.
Heard a little about this earlier today. The proposed toll from Austin to Dallas was $40.00. Can you imagine what it would cost to drive it from Texas to Canada? It will be cheaper and quicker to fly. This is all pie-in-the-sky.
Wow, that's a mighty steep toll. Up until I got a job requiring travel 7 years ago, I'd never consciously thought about toll roads, never had been on one. I was amazed with gas taxes and all that people would pay for using a road. Of course, I was also amazed people would pay for bottled water, and that's huge, I even buy them when I am on the road.
It's a pipeline to suck US taxpayer dollars out of US wallets and right into el Presidente Fox's
LOL if it weren't so darned true. Or the builders could just erect a whole mess of Teleporters, for that matter.
The toll seems *awfully* steep... until you're trying to drive from San Antonio to Denton during the week, hitting traffic all along the way. Between that insanity and the bliss of driving the tollways across Ohio, I'll bite the bullet and take the tollway. $40 is cheap for the sanity.
Here's what I wrote in another thread.
Cintra would be insane to allow Perry to leave open the possibility of some future governor, maybe KBH or a Dem, coming in with a vengeance and adding a couple of lanes each way to I-35 - thereby destroying Cintra's investment.Where would the state get the right of way to add two lanes in each direction to I-35? The right of way currently is narrower than most newer Interstate highways that have two lanes each direction separated by a grass median. The grass median separating north and south bound traffic between Austin and Hillsborough is about half the width of other Texas Interstate highways. That's why the state built concrete crash barriers between those lanes in the last five years. The frontage roads adjacent to I-35 are also closer than more modern frontage roads. There is no place to to put more than one additional lane in each direction using the current right of way unless elevated lanes were built. You could build lots more lanes in a brand new right of way for what it would cost to build an elevated highway from San Antonio to Denton.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1314785/posts?page=98#98
(I notice that you joined FR the day after I did. Howdy.)
People's taxes pay for the roads and they want you to pay to use them. Why not,they do it with parks and other Government (people's) land.
I have never in my life payed for water. They can do it because they know ANYTHING in this country sells and people will buy it.
Instead of 6+ lanes, they could make the superhighway into ONE BIG LUXURIOUS ELAINE BETTIS LANE.
If I have to pay a toll, no biggie, I expense it. I'm just happy I live in a place where there aren't enough people to make a toll road profitable. I have payed for water when flying, that's about it.
I like the idea that our highways will be bigger than anybody else's.
I don't think you've driven down I-35. The land on either side of the righ of way is pretty heavily developed, and it was one of the first Interstate highways built in Texas so there were mistakes made in making the right of way too narrow. It would cost a lot more to acquire more right of way adjacent to the existing right of way than to buy up undeveloped land to build a whole new highway. Undeveloped cow pasture is a lot cheaper to acquire than already developed commercial realestate.
The highways and other rights of way won't disappear in 50 years. They'll continue to benefit people for many generations. The new roads would be considerably safer than the existing I-35. There should be quite a bit of value in decreasing highway deaths in the state.
Howdy back! LOL on your way with words, more-seasoned FReeper. ;-) You have rights to boss me around if you'd like.
I notice that you don't include among your relatives Miss Aligned (so you've got that goin' for you). And even though it would be easy to Miss Trust your screen name, you ain't been Miss Behaving as far as I can see.
But the morning's just getting started... (grin).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.