Posted on 04/11/2006 7:28:08 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
State officials have taken the first formal action to allow for a private contractor to bid on handling the construction of the proposed Trans Texas Corridor-69 (TTC-69), a thoroughfare that could bisect East Texas as part of a trade route connecting Canada with Mexico.
A time line was given in a joint press conference held Monday afternoon by Louis Bronaugh, Lufkin mayor and board member of Alliance for I-69 Texas; Ric Williamson, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission; and John Thompson, Polk county judge and vice chairman of Alliance for I-69 Texas.
The bid process, not unlike highway construction, can be painfully slow, according to Williamson.
"Twenty-years from now is not an unusual length (of time for a corridor to be built)," Williamson said.
The TTC-69 time line begins with the request for qualifications in which the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) publishes notice, which occurred with Monday's press conference, followed by a June 7, 2006, deadline for submissions. The short list of proposers will be selected by late July.
At that point, TxDOT will request detailed proposals, with the department allowing for industry review of the proposal before officially publishing it. This is expected to be done in the August/September time frame, Williamson said.
In November 2006, TxDOT will publish the official notice, and in February 2007, proposals will be due. The best value developer will be named by the commission in mid- to late 2007.
Then come the environmental studies, divided into two tiers. Tier 1 will be a broad analysis over the entire length to determine the final study area, with the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Study in late 2006 or early 2007. A record of the decision will come in late 2007. Tier 2 will include detailed alignment studies, likely numerous studies to cover different segments and modes.
"If someone came with a bid tomorrow, they'd have to wait," said Williamson, because everyone should be given a chance to give in their bids, and that could take six months.
"The environmental process typically takes five years for such projects," he said.
But for the first time, Williamson said, the federal government has permitted TxDOT to study the environmental impact on bits and pieces of the corridor which allows the process to be expedited. "If a developer is ready, then those sections can be built."
A press release from the TxDOT concurred with Williamson, stating, "If environmentally approved, the project would be developed as needed and as private sector resources are available."
City councilman Jack Gorden, executive vice president of First Bank and Trust East Texas and a Lufkin mayoral candidate, wanted to know whether TxDOT was asking East Texans to pay for the connection between Canada and Mexico.
Williamson said the I-69 project was expected to be a toll road.
The interstate will be built by one developer but have different contractors, he said. "I'm guessing it would be between $7.5 and 10 billion." And 75 percent of this amount would have to come from a private partnership.
By asking for early proposals, he said, TxDOT is also hoping for the private partnership to pay for environmental studies.
"It is apparent to the Texas Transportation Commission that neither the federal government nor the state government has the resources to pay for I-69," Williamson said in the TxDOT press release. A private alternative is the best alternative to move forward on this project, he said.
The request for qualifications issued by TxDOT initiates a competitive, two-step selection process to develop a public-private partnership for I-69/TTC. Proposers would be asked to submit statements detailing their experience in developing and financing large, multimodal transportation projects.
These statements also would include a conceptual proposal to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain I-69/TTC. Conceptual proposals are due by June 7, 2006, the release said.
The Texas Transportation Commission would need to approve the next step – issuing a request for detailed proposals. The entire two-step selection process can take approximately 15 months to complete.
The statewide network's 2nd leg would run from North Texas to the Mexican border
By RAD SALLEE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Texas highway officials said Monday they are seeking proposals to build a leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor from North Texas to Mexico, with connections to the Port of Houston.
The route, designated I-69/TTC would be the second segment in what Gov. Rick Perry proposes as a statewide network of corridors, each up to 1,200 feet wide in places, with separate toll lanes for trucks and cars, tracks for freight and passenger rail and space for pipelines and power cables.
Contract for first corridor
In March 2005 Cintra-Zachry, a consortium led by construction firms in Spain and San Antonio, contracted with the Texas Department of Transportation to build the first corridor parallel to Interstate 35 through Central Texas, passing near Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Laredo.
Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said the main corridor of I-69/TTC would pass west of the eight-county metro area so that through trucks would not aggravate ozone levels.
He said the port and corridor could be linked by spurs from Fort Bend and Brazoria counties to the west and from Liberty and Chambers counties to the east.
Steve Simmons, deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, laid out a best-case timetable Monday at the Houston TranStar traffic control center.
"By late July or August we may have a short list of proposers," Simmons said. "Possibly by late October or November we will publish the actual detailed proposal we want them to move forward with. Around February 2007, we'll expect those proposers to come up with their concepts.
"Then we'll evaluate them again, and in late 2007 we'll actually select somebody to move forward with developing them, just as we did with TTC-35. It's a long process, but we have to take this first step now," Simmons said.
Built in pieces
Eckels said both of the corridors are likely to be developed in pieces, starting near cities and other high-traffic areas.
Texas Transportation Commissioner Johnny Johnson of Houston said local governments, toll road authorities and regional mobility authorities could submit proposals for I-69/TTC, along with private firms.
04/11/06 - Lufkin
New life is being pumped into a plan to build a superhighway stretching from Mexico through the United States up into Canada. The I-69 Project has been on the drawing board for almost twenty years, but a lack of funding for construction has kept it at a stalemate. Now those who feel most passionately about it are looking to the private sector to get things moving in Texas.
The chairman of Texas Transportation Commission, Ric Williamson says, "The ideal candidate for Trans Texas Corridor 69 would be a partnership between timber interests, manufacturing interests in the Missouri areas, manufacturing interests in Monterrey, Mexico, road builders who are familiar with the East Texas terrain, I can't name names because that would sound like I was favoring someone, but road builders in the Houston area that are comfortable with the terrain and local banking interests that understand what the manufacturing background of East Texas is, that would be the ideal partnership."
Williamson, along with Lufkin Mayor Louis Bronaugh and Vice Chairman of the Alliance for I-69 Texas, was in Lufkin on Monday to announce the search for a long-term strategic partner. Williamson says, "It is apparent to the Texas transportation Commission that neither the federal government nor the state government has the resources to pay for I-69. Private investment is our best alternative to move forward on this important project."
Developers would be asked to submit statements detailing their experience in developing and financing large, multi-modal transportation projects. These statements also would include a conceptual proposal to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain I-69/TTC.
Today at on the East Texas News at Five, hear more about the plans and what they could mean to East Texas.
Tony Hartzel: Corridor route plan irks North Texas (Dallas Morning News--Excerpt)
North Texas leaders now have a rough idea where the Trans-Texas Corridor probably will be built. While the first part of the corridor won't open for at least 10 years, the political arguments and battles over its exact location can begin in earnest.
On Tuesday, state and federal transportation officials held a news conference at the Grand Hyatt DFW at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to announce an agreement that establishes the 10-mile-wide, 521-mile-long proposed corridor study area, which runs on or near much of Interstate 35.
Just a few minutes after – and just a few feet down the hall in another Grand Hyatt ballroom – some North Texas leaders gathered to denounce the proposed alignment.
They don't like it because it splits off from I-35 and runs too far east of Dallas.
A final 10-mile-wide study area will be announced in about a year, after dozens of public hearings beginning this summer.
Local leaders said the state did little to solicit their input on the route.
"Nobody asked for any input, really," said Dallas County Commissioner Ken Mayfield.
State officials said selection of the study area is an environmental process that takes into account many factors, including environmental hazards, wetlands that could be claimed, and developed property that would have to be bought.
As such, the state and environmental planners could not consider political concerns and released as much information as they could.
"We followed the rules and regulations of the federal government. The process that has been followed in the last year was as open and as transparent as the law and the regulations permit," said Ric Williamson, Texas Transportation Commission chairman.
For more articles on or mentioning the Trans-Texas Corridor:
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
I like the idea of a corridor between Mexico and Canada. They are going to encase it in a steel-clad concrete shell, right? So long as they keep on a movin', they can travel between Mexico and Canada all they like!
They oughtta stand that road on its edge and make it a wall.
Thanks for the ping!
BTTT
I-69? First We get sucked in then, We get screwed.
You're welcome. :-)
Thanks for bumping.
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.