Texans Are Divided Over Plan for Miles Of Wide Toll Roads (Trans-Texas Corridor)

The Washington Post ^ | February 8, 2005 | Sylvia Moreno

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

AUSTIN -- Everything's big in the Lone Star State, but the term "superhighway" barely begins to describe Texas's transportation plan for the 21st century.

Called the Trans-Texas Corridor, it is the most ambitious highway project since the Eisenhower administration introduced the interstate system in the 1950s. The $184 billion, 50-year plan calls for building 4,000 miles of roadways up to a quarter-mile wide. Each corridor would contain six high-speed toll lanes for cars and trucks; six rail lines and easements for petroleum, natural gas and water pipelines, as well as electric, broadband and other telecommunications lines.

With Texas's population expected to double to 50 million in the next few decades and NAFTA-fueled cross-border trade increasing, the new corridor would move people and goods on these mega-highways from the Mexican border to Oklahoma and from the piney woods of East Texas to the El Paso desert. Cars and trucks could zip along at 85 mph. Oil could be piped out of Mexico across the country. Water from the Louisiana border could flow into drought-stricken West Texas. And hazardous materials could be routed out of Houston and Dallas, improving the state's ability to prevent terrorist attacks or other disasters.

The price would be minimal to taxpayers, say state officials, who are seeking private companies to finance, develop, build and maintain the corridor in exchange for the right to charge tolls for half a century.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

This article apparently says that the TTC will have TWELVE lanes ultimately. It seems that six lanes would be for trucks, six for cars. Do they know something that we don't?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!

Please let me know if you want on or off this list. Thanks.

[G32]

Is my math wrong here.. But $184b / 50 years /25,000,000 average population is about $174 a year.

I'd much rather this be a standard highway project than the horribly expensive toll they want.

[LibKill]

This is B.S.

Once a toll is in place it never ends. The highway is paid for, the original builders and users die of old age, and the toll is raised.

To hell with it.

[RightWhale]

There should be more roads rather than wider roads.

[LibFreeOrDie]

"Once a toll is in place it never ends. The highway is paid for, the original builders and users die of old age, and the toll is raised."

This is EXACTLY what happened in Massachusetts. The Mass Turnpike, a toll road across the entire state, has been paid off for years, but the tollbooths are still there. It's just a source of cushy jobs for political hacks and their friends.

[supercat]

There should be more roads rather than wider roads.

Agreed, but why don't planners see it that way? How much of the traffic on the 'big roads' is people who are actually going in the direction of their destination, and how much is people who are going somewhat out of their way to get to another big road to take them somewhat toward their destination?

[bahblahbah]

For those wanting more roads instead of wider roads, how do you expect to pay for it? That kind of complicates the whole toll road option.

[RightWhale]

The highway engineers see only what they are funded to see. The funding is from politicians and their public pork powers. Did somebody ever accuse gov't of providing elegant solutions?

[FierceDraka]

Bad idea. It would create an economic choke point. Too much centralization would leave the Trans-Texas Corridor too vulnerable to disruption in the event of an attack by terrorists or a rogue state.

[RobbyS]

Much of the problem has to do with truck traffic. When I worked a few summers for the Texas Highway Department in the '50s, when they were designing the interstates, an engineer showed me how much of the cost of the interstate was owing to the fact that it had to bear the weight of tank carriers with bridge clearances high enough that tank turrets could pass underneath. As time wore on, trunks grew in size because they could be really big and still travel those roads. If some roads could be set aside for car traffic, it would greatly reduce the cost of the construction of such roads.

In any case, the big question is: what routes are the corridors going to follow. Common sense tells us that the final plan will be considerable different from those now proposed, because cities such as Dallas and Fort Worth don't won't to be bypassed by commercial truckers.

[dandelion]

Yes please! Put me on the list - this thing is, by all accounts, swinging just BARELY to the north of my land. And no, I'm not sure I like the idea of more toll roads...

[C210N]

Do they know something that we don't?

That was the question I was thinking of... why are authorities expecting BIG-time traffic near the Southern border? I can see a link to more globalization, and less nationalism.

[quantim]

Once a toll is in place it never ends

It gets worse.  Illinois recently jacked the tolls way up.  So on the return trip from Minnesota recently all of our commerce went into Wisconsin and northern Michigan.  Illinois priced themselves out of our tourism dollars.  It wasn't the $5 in hiked tolls, it is the $5 multiplied by millions of cars a week. 

Legal, highway robbery.  The roads sucked too, BTW.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

You're added.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

A vision of the game FROGGER comes to mind is this thing close to the border ?

[PAR35]

Once a toll is in place it never ends.

Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike is now the free I-30 between those two cities.

Louisiana - the Sunshine Bridge across the Mississippi was built as a toll bridge and is now free.

[traviskicks]

The price would be minimal to taxpayers, say state officials, who are seeking private companies to finance, develop, build and maintain the corridor in exchange for the right to charge tolls for half a century.
---

um... why do these state officials need to seek them then? If it would be profitable, why can't these private companies do it themselves, without government?

[traviskicks]

A vision of the game FROGGER comes to mind is this thing close to the border ?
---

LOL that would be a tough finish! How many lanes and rail tracks do you have to cross to get to the other side?!

[B-Chan]

Not true. I-30 between Fort Worth and Dallas was a toll road (the D/FW Turnpike) for several decades. It is now a "free" Interstate highway.

The era of "free" highways is over, however. From here on, the cost of new highway construction has to be spread over the user base as well as the taxppaper base. Taxpayers want new roads but scream at the notion of paying for them with higher taxes. The toll road is the only alternative.

Facts:

1. The population of Texas is rapidly expanding.

2. The current highway system is inadequate to handle current traffic loads, much less future traffic.

3. Therefore, new highways must be built.

BUT

1. New highways are highly expensive.

2. Taxpayers are unwilling to pay higher taxes.

3. Therefore, alternative sources of highway funding must be found.

Tolls are the only alternative to higher taxes. TANSTAAFL.

(Of course, the real payoff of the TTC will be the high-speed passenger rail system -- but that's another post.)

Texas has to have new highways. That much is certain. Our only choice is in where, when, and how these new roads will be built and paid for. I have yet to see any other alternatives that can meet the transportation needs of a future Texas without jacking everyone's taxes up in the process. Therefore, my choice is to support the TTC project, and I applaud Governor Perry for his forward-thinking advocacy of this alternative.