Posted on 08/05/2005 1:06:34 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
About 40 commuters, retirees, and disgruntled citizens who could be affected by the proposed widening of Highway 281 from Evans Road to F.M. 306, bombarded members of the Metropolitan Planning Organization with threats and colorful language last Monday. Yet their tactics didn't affect the MPO's vote to move forward with preliminary studies of toll lanes on existing highways on the far North Side.
State plans include the possibility of installing toll lanes along Loop 1604 from Highway 151 eastward to I-10 East and along Highway 281 from Evans Road north to the Canyon Lake area. If a "comprehensive development agreement" is reached between local government and the Texas Department of Transportation, a section of I-35 could have toll lanes from Loop 1604 southward to near its intersection with Loop 410.
The toll road proposals include a TxDOT contract with Cintra-Zachry, a consortium of corporations [Cintra of Spain, Zachry of San Antonio] to build the toll lanes and collect the tolls to pay for the projects for a period of 50 years as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan to connect North Texas to México. The citizens who attended the Monday meeting protested that keeping the contract from public view violates the transparency of government; that turning over a public entity such as Highway 281 (already paid for by taxpayers) over to a private interest would create a cash cow for the state and the corporations and is a system of double taxation.
"When TxDOT takes a $30.9 million project and turns it into a nearly $80 million project, something stinks," says Terri Hall, director of the San Antonio area branch of www.TexasTollParty.com. The group's website accuses Governor Rick Perry and other elected officials of looting taxpayers' pocketbooks, and "disregarding the public outcry and the Republican platform" with "4,000 miles of toll roads, rail, and utility lines that will carry oil, gas, water, broadband, and electricity, all in one easy 1/4-mile span, a terrorists dream come true."
Hall accuses TxDOT of manipulating a solution to traffic congestion on Highway 281 by shelving an already-funded project in favor of installing toll lanes. "We demand an independent review of this toll plan and of these highway funds, and we demand accountability for the flagrant abuse of taxpayer money."
SAISD teacher Helen Rodgers drives to and from work 44 miles each day along Highway 281. Rodgers says she would have to quit her job rather than pay a projected 45 cents per mile to drive on a toll road. She gave MPO board members a photo of toll lanes in the middle of a publicly funded freeway in Orange County, and contended there were much fewer automobiles using the toll lanes than there were in the free lanes. "That tollway ended up costing the state in a big way. Motorists do not use the toll road. I will not pay that toll."
Jerry Morissey told MPO members that toll lanes would create two classes of citizens, "those who can and cannot afford to pay a toll. Building more miles of highway to chase traffic problems (has) never been solved by more miles of highway."
MPO board member Hank Brummett inquired whether the MPO could stop plans for toll roads in San Antonio. TxDOT spokesman David Casteel replied the state has already approved of proceeding with studies to develop the toll lanes.
"It would be nice to tell these people this is already a done deal [at the state government level]," Brummett said after many of the protesters had departed the meeting. "Don't beat up on us." •
©San Antonio Current 2005
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
Boy, are Texans gonna get fleeced BIG-TIME!
Glad I don't live there any more!
For you non-Texans, TxDOT really screwed the pooch on these two highways. Instead of building a clover leaf where it intersects Loop 1604, they left it a developed "mall" type strip center. So in order to get onto 1064 from 281, you have to take the exit ramp, stop at a stop light FOREVER, then turn, then merge onto 1604. Everybody tries to avoid this area at all costs.
The second is 1604 past Bandera. Why they expanded 1604 from 281 to Hausman and left it alone past that, beats me. It goes from a 4 lane high speed highway, to a FRICKIN STOP LIGHT!!!, then 2 lane.
Since they've decided to extend it on 1604 beyond 1-10 and 1604 West (or had last I heard) I guess they think I'm going to pay to get to Church on Sundays-fat chance.
And people out 281 got a heads up on it when the utility companies started moving poles to make room for the toll road a long time ago-it was a done deal before the public ever heard about it.
"About 40 commuters, retirees, and disgruntled citizens"
THAT'S IT! 40 citizens out of thousands!...WTF! PITIFUL!
Looked it up. Is this right?
Cintra-Macquarie, a Spanish-Australian consortium...
Get used to these toll roads, folks -- they are increasingly becoming a reality here even in places where the phrase "toll road" would have been anathema a couple of decades ago.
Cintra is from Spain. They have done projects in Canada. If that is any guide, they raped the Canadians with their pants on. Cintra is not a leading edge of some globalist, Trilateral Commission one world conspiracy, they are merely a very good, very greedy company looking to take advantage of gov't budget shortfalls and gig commuters, shippers and consumers of the products shipped for every dime they can get, and they have a lot more experience at the game than the state officials they are offering budgetary salvation to.
Key provision in Cintra's contract will give them veto over state expenditures to improve or even adequately maintain the existing parallel I-35. In short order, it will come to one's choices will be to run an increasingly pot-holed obstacle course on old I-35, or pay roughly $60 one way going Austin-Dallas.
This starts to look like it will really fly, our only protection will be to hedge by buying stock in Cintra, that should go up like a rocket.
BTTT!!!!!!
But what about the constitutional guarentee of free movement?
Thats why the government was tasked to build roads, so they could be used by everyone, and it was agreed that free roads promote commerce and economic well-being.
The shift to foreign companies owning and charging tolls is a bad thing for america, for freedom of mobility and for our economic well-being.
The transnational corridors harm our security as well, because if they are controlled by a foreign entity, any attempts to make them secure could be considered a "barrier to trade" among the "free traders" of the world, and they won't let soveriegn nations create "barriers to trade" doncha know.
The Constitution only addresses interstate travel. Why do you think every toll road in America(where relevant) offers you a chance to exit before crossing a State line? What happens within a State is none of the Constitution's business(at least as originally intended)
Thanks for the ping!
They could just raise motor fuels taxes and other fees to fund the highway upgrades, but if they tried that, you would hear the scream from Amarillo to Brownsville, from Orange to El Paso, especially with these high gas prices.
You hit the nail on the head. With an apathetic electorate to let them in, its the proverbial fox in the henhouse.
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.