Trans-Texas Cooridor meeting set for Feb. 10

Gainesville Daily Register ^ | January 31, 2005 | JENNIFER SICKING

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The next meeting concerning the Trans-Texas Corridor has been set for 5-8 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Gainesville Civic Center.

Officials have set forth the corridor as a way to alleviate traffic on the state's major highways by building a system of highways, railroads and utilities that stretch about 1,200-feet wide. Such a corridor also would bypass major metropolitan areas of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston.

From Feb. 7 through March 31, Texas Department of Transportation officials plan to have 47 meetings throughout the Interstate 35 corridor area, which covers 800 miles in length and 77 counties, according to a press release. The route that most concerns Cooke County residents generally parallels Interstate 35 and extends north of Dallas and Fort Worth and south to Mexico or the Gulf Coast.

TxDOT officials are looking at three entry points from Oklahoma: One at Gainesville, one at Denison and the other near Paris.

In deciding the corridor's path, engineers and officials will look at socio-economic, environmental and engineering impacts. TxDOT officials hope for approval of the Tier 1 study, which is the first part of the project, in late 2005. If federal officials approve the study, then TxDOT will begin a Tier 2 study, which will take a more detailed look at the area.

TxDOT District Engineer Larry Tegtmeyer pointed out another option could be no build.

"It could be decided the Trans-Texas Corridor is not the way to go," he said. "They could run into the realization another alternative might be better."

That would suit some Cooke County residents just fine.

Kenny Klement said during a previous meeting he hoped TxDOT officials took the road out of Cooke County because of county's agriculture production.

"That road will destroy agriculture in Cooke County," he said.

Comments may be e-mailed to info@transtx.com, by calling 1-877-872-6789 or by mailing a letter to Trans-Texas Corridor, Attn. TTC-35, P.O. Box 14707, Austin, TX, 78761-4707.

[dirtboy]

Trans-Texas Cooridor

What's a Cooridor? A means to more rapidly ship Coors? If so, I'm vehemently against it.

[Guvmint_Cheese]

If Rick Perry would just take that money for this project and put it into improving transportation within some of our bigger cities to improve mobility, it would be money better spent. The traffic problems for on-road shipping tend to occur in large cities (Houston, Dallas, Austin) where there is more traffic clogging up these main thoroughfares like IH-10, IH-20, & IH-35. It's not that there's a huge build up of cars every day between 4-6pm in Mt Vernon, Lorena, or some other town that a lot of folks haven't heard of - It's on the Katy Freeway in Houston every day like clockwork!

Please, Kay Bailey (or Kinky Friedman), save us from this nimwit!!!

[deport]

It's on the Katy Freeway in Houston every day like clockwork!

---

The original construction completed in 1968 was designed to carry some 79,000 vehicles/day. Today it carries almost three times that amount or about 220,000 per day with congestion lasting from early morning until early evening at best.

The construction is underway with completion schedule for 2009.... 23 miles for a billion dollars. The following shows the design from 610 west to SH 6. The toll/managed lanes reduce to zero by the time you reach Katy.

[BobL]

"they held meetings last summer all over the state the on-line clips were full of all these hearings by TXDOT, notices and briefs about the few comments from the handful that bothered to show up. Dozens of them."

Too late. The plan predated those hearing by a couple of years, and, as far as I know, there was no changes to the plan. My question was whether any hearings took place prior to the plan being released.

[BobL]

"It's on the Katy Freeway in Houston every day like clockwork!"

What you show is accurate, but it will be real, real, interesting to see if they really add that 4th free lane (for others, the Katy used to have 3 free lanes). That 4th free lane will reduce the revenue from the 2 added toll lanes by at least half (my estimate, full disclosure), since it greatly increases traffic capability, even without the added toll lanes. I just cannot see that happening - but for everyone's sake, I hope that I'm wrong. I know in California that they did not add any free lanes to SH 91, when the built the toll lanes down the center. We'll see.

[BobL]

"Beginning Feb. 7 thru Mar. 31 there are 48 meetings scheduled across Texas from the Red River area down to the Valley. Anyone wishing to participate will have their chance.........."

Well let's see. The contract with Cintra will be signed next week (from what I've read), so these meetings simply concern alignment.

The meetings that I was referring to are called Major Impact Studies (MIS) by TXDOT. They take place before any plan is adopted, and well before any money is spent or contract is signed. I've been to many of them.

Those are the meetings that the Nixonian Perry simply chose to ignore.

[StAnDeliver]

Thanks for the ping. Again, this project is all about needless abuse of eminent domain. Clearly the goal is to get more NAFTAmobiles out of Mex (and CA). And just as clearly, this can by accomplished by improvements from Brownsville to SA, and by a major I-35 upgrade from Austin to DFW.

Let Cintra build a worthwhile upgrade of that Austin-Dallas leg before they are given carte blanche by a state (actually, a republic with the right of recession) that formerly regarded property rights as sacred.

[HamiltonFan]

I don't get why this is so hard to understand? The state is not funding the project. so more gas tax money is available to improve urban roads and less through traffic to improve urban congestion. this is the best way to solve gridlock in the long term. folks who want to travel long distances without grid lock can for a fee and those who choose not to can continue to enjoy gas tax supported highways and even there less volume of truck and long distance traffic. why is this such a hard notion to grasp?

[HamiltonFan]

How can hearings be held before the idea is announced? This has been under consideration for three years. some one had to launch the first notion, vision, blueprint or we would still be stuck on Cape Cod wondering how to repair the Mayflower for the 100th time.

[BobL]

"How can hearings be held before the idea is announced?"

I've been to a lot of TXDOT meetings, and they have hearings, and give alternatives. For example, if they're widening a Segment of I-20 near Dallas, the alternatives may be:

1) Do nothing.
2) Add 1 lane each way
3) Add 2 lanes each way
4) Add toll lanes.


For this plan, they could have had the hearings and used options such as below:

1) Do nothing, live off existing revenues
2) Widen existing freeways with a modest gas tax increase
3) Widen existing freeways with toll lanes
4) Build new freeways with a larger gas tax increase (on the order of 20 cents)
5) Build new, state-owned, toll roads, that would revert to freeways (as was done in Kentucky)
6) Build new private toll roads, that would remain in private hands for 50 years or longer.


The governor obviously chose Option 6, and published it several years ago in his plan, and never budged. He then went and got the legislation he needed to legalize the plan. But when were the other options discussed? I certainly did not see any news reports about other options being discussed (and believe me, I'm happy to read any reports you may have). As far as I can see, Option 6 was chosen by fiat and that decision appears final.

And just from a pure political standpoint, Governor Perry wouldn't be finding himself in the Primary fight of his life, hand he simply consulted with the voters first.

[BobL]

"The state is not funding the project. so more gas tax money is available to improve urban roads..."

You draw the conclusion: "so more gas tax money is available to improve urban roads" from the preceding statement: "The state is not funding the project".

The conclusion is not necessarily correct. Since this negotiation is being done in secret with Cintra, we do not know how much monopolistic protection Cintra will receive. If they receiver strong protection, as they have in the past on other projects, then the state will lose a lot of discretion about how its gas tax money can be spent.

For example, it is almost a sure bet that not one inch of I-35 will be permitted to have lanes added, beyond what Cintra agrees to. So I-35, one of those free urban roads you mention, will NEVER be widened (for the record, that is an assumption, but a safe one - unless the contract reads differently).

So I have as much interest in how this plan is formulated as you, the Gov., Cintra, or anyone else. And since this contract is being negotiated in secret, with no publicly known guidelines that I've yet seen published, I tend to be a bit suspicious.

Others may feel comforted when a politician says: "Trust me, I know what's best for you." I'm sorry, but I'm not one of those people.

[BobL]

"The state is not funding the project."

I guess one other way to look at it is that when you go to a hybrid freeway-tollway system, as I guess we're about to embark on here, the actions of one clearly will impact the other.

Even if the toll roads are built exclusively with private money, there is no way the investors will allow for the possibility of Kay or some other future governor simply adding lanes to I-35, and wiping their $7.2B investment.

What are those protections? When will we be told? Is there anything we can do if they're too onerous (probably not)?

These things affect me a freeway driver - so it is my business.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Of course you can be pinged. And you have been added to the list, just like you requested by FReepmail.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

(Or, for that matter, Texas news. I voted for Rick Perry twice, but I'll vote for Kinky Friedman or one tough grandma or even a t-sip cheerleader before I'll do it again.)

For general Texas news, try to get on MeekOneGOP's Texas ping list. My interest centers specifically around the TTC. Also, you can check out the Texas message board on this forum, and you can also get Google to e-mail you daily news alerts that include links to articles with the word "Texas" in them. Hope that helps.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Bump!

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

What's a Cooridor? A means to more rapidly ship Coors? If so, I'm vehemently against it.

I can see that. You might as well call a Cooridor a Nazidor if it serves that purpose. :-)

[dirtboy]

You might as well call a Cooridor a Nazidor if it serves that purpose. :-)

Or a pipeline for transporting horsepi**.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks, TSR.

Jedidah, I added you to my Texas ping list, based on your post #10 and TSR's #34.

If you don't want on, or later decide you want off the list, let me know. It's easy on/easy off.

Thanks, and welcome to FreeRepublic.com. :^)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

You're welcome. :-)

[StAnDeliver]

By way of bumping this one last time, can you add me to your general Texas ping list? Thank you in advance.