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Gee, thanks for forgiving me. That's big of you. However, by all press accounts, Cintra is putting up $7.2 billion to build this corridor -- $1.2 billion of that is cash to the state to be used for other transportation needs. The tolls on the corridor will repay Cintra for taking on the risk. Therefore, all the toll money is going to pay for roads. Gas tax money, on the other hand, doesn't. Public education gets 25% of the gas tax. So right off the bat, your 20 cents per gallon gas tax increase becomes only 15 cents for actual road building. And that's before you take out the $400 million or so DPS currently takes from gas tax revenues for public safety.

Also, last time I checked Cintra can't condemn land. The government can, but the government is going to have to condemn land to build any type of highway, whether taxpayer funded through a gas tax or toll funded. You go on and on about expanding I-35, but how much do you think I-35 can be expanded???? Do you drive it? If so, you will see that the frontage road of I-35 is highly developed. Highly developed means very, very expensive to expand. Think prohibitly expensive, unless you think all those McDonald's and Dairy Queen franchisees are going to donate their land for the expansion...

By the way, Zachary, a San Antonio based company is actually going to build the road, not Cintra.

Finally, do you honestly believe the state is going to shut down I-35?!?! Not to mention the fact that it is a federal highway, so something tells me it's still going to be around. And, according to the link you provided, TxDOT has plans to add additional lanes to the whole of I-35.

I'm sure if blogs existed during te days of Eisenhower, the same debates would have been held about the interstate highway system.

"The tolls on the corridor will repay Cintra for taking on the risk. Therefore, all the toll money is going to pay for roads. "

Please don't treat me like an idiot. I have not done the same to you. So: What obligates Cintra to put ALL of the money into roads. Sure, they will want to pay off their debt, but what about the other 50% of what they collect. Does Texas ever get to see any of it?

Again, if you have access to information that us little people don't, please share it. Otherwise, I have to assume that Cintra is in this to make some money, some big money. After all, isn't that also capitalism.

As far as diverting of gas money - you're making the same 'mistake' as an earlier poster. Just because 25% of the gas tax money is being diverted today does not mean that 25% of that money has to be diverted tomorrow. The legislature can do whatever they want with that money - and in fact, they could end the diversion and give TXDOT a huge shot in the arm without even raising the tax. But why bother, when you've got Cintra to rob Texans anyway.

"You go on and on about expanding I-35, but how much do you think I-35 can be expanded????"

Yes - I lived in California for 10 years, and I've seen how creative planners can be when it comes to fitting in a lot of lanes in very tight places. Austin is nowhere near that level, yet.

"Finally, do you honestly believe the state is going to shut down I-35?!?!"

I don't think that I said shutdown I-35, but I did mean that freeways and highways on the entire corridor parallel to I-35 will be frozen in time - at best, once the contract is signed with Cintra. I did say that they may rot, but that's because I don't even know if we'll be allowed to resurface the road in the future (since, even a resurfaced road will draw traffic from Cintra, especially truck traffic - so they may not permit it) - I just don't have any access to what's being negotiated. Do you?.

As for I-35 itself, we'll just see. I know that the governor tried at least 3 times in the last year to impose tolls on freeways (2 built, one of those being an Interstate, with the third nearly complete), so I have no clue what's in store for I-35 - other than to be absolutely convinced that Cintra will NEVER let Texans have any say in it (NEVER being defined as 50+ years).