Posted on 01/29/2006 5:44:02 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I-69 is dead.
The TTC-69, however, remains alive and well.
What exactly is the difference, between the Interstate and the Trans Texas Corridor projects?
According to Nacogdoches Mayor Bob Dunn, the only difference is federal funding. And the absence of that funding, according to some, may be a blessing in disguise.
Because the project will most likely be a state project, instead of a federal one, Dunn said, the "politics and red tape" will be dramatically reduced.
TTC-69, has always been heralded as having enormous potential as a trade route. But Dunn said there is now a new reason that the state is focusing its attention on an Interstate.
During the unprecedented coastal evacuation that preceded Hurricane Rita, Dunn said, Texas witnessed the need for an Interstate-level evacuation route, where all lanes of traffic could be turned to northbound lanes, without having to worry about the hundreds of towns and intersections along the way.
Last year, state officials told East Texans that they shouldn't expect to see an Interstate through East Texas, anytime in the near future.
Prompted by the bleak news, Nacogdoches County Judge Sue Kennedy and Nacogdoches county commissioners arranged a meeting with the Angelina County commissioners court to discuss the possibility of forming a Regional Mobility Authority, for Nacogdoches and Angelina counties, to get the project started.
But when Dunn and Kennedy recently attended a meeting in Houston, they received some encouraging news about TTC-69.
And because the state seems committed to the project now, and has released a timetable, Kennedy said she didn't think that the counties would need to form an RMA.
"This is very positive for both Lufkin and Nacogdoches," she said. "And I'm really encouraged to find out that in addition to the corridor, TxDOT plans to continue with upgrades to the existing Hwy. 59.”
Dunn said the timeline set forth for construction of the corridor no longer makes it seem like a distant concept.
This month, TxDOT expects to select a general engineering contractor who will manage the process for a request for proposals for the comprehensive development agreement partners on TTC-69. They hope to receive responses from the RFPs by the summer.
TxDOT also expects to hire a professional marketing and communication team, which will conduct workshops in the spring, and a draft of the environmental impact study should be ready by the summer, according to the minutes of a recent I-69 alliance meeting.
The big question that remains is how will Texas fund the massive cost of constructing an Interstate-level system without federal funding – it's called the Texas Transportation Challenge.
TxDOT maintains that the Texas transportation system has not kept pace with the transportation needs that have accompanied the recent population boom.
State planners have identified $188 billion in needed projects over the next 25 years. But according to information from TxDOT's Web site, the agency estimates that only $102 billion will be available to meet those needs – reflecting an $86 billion shortfall.
Currently, the state gas tax pays for 32 percent of the Texas transportation budget. If the $86 billion shortfall were to come from gasoline tax, as it does currently, the state would have to raise the gas tax by more than 175 percent, according to TxDOT figures.
TxDOT and state officials maintain they have a plan that will fund the new projects using a combination of safety bonds, the Texas Mobility Fund, toll equity, and toll debt.
According to the Web site, TxDOT will also invite the private sector to participate in financing transportation projects.
Dunn said he is especially excited about the involvement of the private sector, because he thinks the East Texas section of the project will be one of the more sought-after sections, based on the need for a trade route and an evacuation path traveling north, from Houston. And when such a large shipping and traffic route comes through East Texas, economic development will most likely follow.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
"Reigns"?
The rains in Spain fall rarely in the southern plains.
What a mess.
People fighting infrastructure-privatization projects in South America (mostly leftists) report that the pressure is coming from the U.S. investment community -- precisely Dubya's "audience".
I use the term "audience" in the sense that conservative political scientist and essayist James Q. Wilson meant it when he wrote an article for a 1969 edidit (anthology or collection of articles) that was used as a poli-sci textbook for some years, The New Urban Politics, which was mostly (it was 1969, remember) about the growth of the role of direct federal/urban government.
Wilson's purpose was to explain the increasing distraction of city administrations, i.e., the degree to which urban policy was diverging from the wishes of the urban electorates (the "constituents"). The reason was liberal interference, first through big foundations and their grant system, and then (after LBJ) through the federal bureaucracy and its grant system, to co-opt (or simply "buy out") local politicians and their allegiances by controlling marginal dollars available for budgets and politically potent initiatives.
In other words, liberals figured out how to get control of city budgets, which bought them the necessary political "vig" to turn politicians against their constituencies.
Hence the need for Wilson to explain the difference between a "constituency" and the "audience": the latter is the group of people that decides how things are going to be. The "audience" is the coherent group with coherent goals that controls the next political dollar, the marginal dollars that a politician always "needs" for his political goals -- either campaign cash, or grant dollars for new, high-profile, vote-getting or profile-raising projects. Not money from reliable sources like the tax base, but fresh, virginal dollars that bring political vig.
I figure that if a Redneck in a swamp knows the difference, a journalism major ought to. Oh, well!
That is what happens when someone depends on spell check alone and does not check usage. I have seen some real doozies as a result of this. One of the best being. " The house was near a bridal path"
Fred Gwynne of the Munsters wrote several children's books all based on a child's perception of homonyms. " The King Who Rained" " Chocolate Moose For Dinner" " A Little Pigeoned Toad" and the " Sixteen Hand Horse". But these are children's books and one would like to think editors can distinguish between reins and reigns.
I've never used spell check, with the old iron maiden school teachers I had, you learned to spell, or missed a lot of playground time.
Thanks for the ping!
TxDOT also expects to hire a professional marketing and communication team…
BTTT
IOW, the international money launderers have altenative methods of fleecing the American taxpayers.
"I am one of those who do not believe that a national debt is a national blessing, but rather a curse to a republic; inasmuch as it is calculated to raise around the administration a moneyed aristocracy dangerous to the liberties of the country."-- President Andrew Jackson - (1824)
LOL!
Glad I wasn't the only one to catch that.
Kinda hard to take an article seriously when it begins with such a blatant, basic misuse of words!
:)
Hey!
Why don't we take the money and build a fence INSTEAD?
That'll cut the 'population boom' at least in half and there won't BE a need for more roads!
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