Posted on 05/12/2006 7:21:53 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Trans-Texas Corridor project, proposing four to six toll truck lanes and four to six toll passenger lanes from Laredo to Oklahoma, may be as near as five years.
Greg Massey, a member of the Oklahoma Highway Authority, recently met with the Texas Department of Transportation. “We really didn't get any new information. The project is still proposed to cross over and connect with I-35 to come into Oklahoma. TxDOT did say they are five years out on the project,” Massey said.
Ten different routes are proposed for the corridor. The major variations in the routes follow the three represented on the map in light blue and dark blue.
Oklahomans are pushing for the widening of U.S. 69/75 to bring the traffic through Durant and up to Tulsa. Proposed routes 9, 10, 11 and 12 on the map represent the ones that may come our way. At the Texas border, these routes go south on U.S. 75 to U.S. 380 and connect with the other routes to Laredo.
Route number 5 on the map is TxDOT's recommended preferred alternative as described in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement document. This route has a centerline length of approximately 521 miles and an area of approximately 5,307 square miles. The northern point is at the Texas/Oklahoma border at I-35. The corridor heads southeast across US 75 near McKinney to US 380 where it curves southwest across I-30, I-20, I-45 and continues southwest near Temple, around Austin and ends at the Texas/Mexico border near Laredo.
This preferred alternative is subject to change pending the public hearing process, tentatively scheduled for Summer 2006.
The Texas Department of Transportation will take public comments by writing to: TxDOT Turnpike Authority Division, TTC-35 Comments, P.O. Box 14707, Austin, TX 78761-4704. More information on the proposal and another place for on-line public comments is at keeptexasmoving.com. Maps, population and traffic data are available on the Web site as well as the environmental impact study.
Some groups are for the proposal and others are against it. One group has formed to oppose the proposed route and established their own Web site at corridorwatch.org.
A historic agreement that is expected to result in regional transportation planning was recently inked by officials from North and Central Texas.
The ceremony was held at the Cleburne Civic Center but the seeds for the agreement were planted during a January meeting organized by City of Hillsboro officials.
Mayor Will Lowrance brought together legislators and transportation planners from North Central and Central Texas for the meeting.
Congressman Chet Edwards, State Representative Jim Pitts and State Senator Kip Averitt participated in the discussions.
Also present were representatives from the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), Heart of Texas Council of Governments (HOTCOG), Regional Transportation Council and Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization.
The joint memorandum of understanding signed between the North Central Texas and Heart of Texas regions recognizes the extreme importance of transporting people and goods across the regions.
“This is significant in that for the first time in history, transportation planning will not be limited to COG (council of governments) lines, but will be seamless from Collin and Dallas counties on the north to Hill and McLennan on the south.
“My goal is to see this planning effort eventually expand to include all of Central Texas to Austin and San Antonio. This will increase both efficiency and effectiveness of transportation planning,” Lowrance said.
Officials pledged to coordinate on the provision of public transportation, including future passenger rail service through the area.
“We made the case that when design and planning is done for the next 40 years, where commuter rail is concerned, the lines shouldn’t stop at Ellis and Johnson counties. They need to keep going through Central Texas,” the mayor pointed out.
They will also coordinate planning for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) along the Interstate 35 corridor.
The ITS would use state-of-the-art technologies to improve safety, time and efficiency in the transportation of people and materials.
Most importantly, there will be coordination between the organizations for moving truck and rail-freight goods through the area and work on the state’s Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC).
The Texas Department of Transportation recently announced a 10-mile area for further study on locating the TTC that parallels Interstate 35.
The TTC-35 study area currently crosses the southeast part of the county, taking in the cities of Mount Calm, Penelope, Malone, Irene and Mertens before going north around the east side of Dallas.
Hillsboro officials had supported a NCTCOG plan for TTC-35 that would bring the route within a few miles of Hillsboro.
It would then cross Interstate 35E and come up south of Arlington. The corridor would then connect with a proposed outer loop around both Fort Worth and Dallas.
The River of Trade Corridor Coalition (ROTCC), of which Hillsboro is a member, also supports the plan.
The ROTCC was created in 2004 to unite cities, counties, freight-movement entities and businesses along the traditional NAFTA trade route on I-35.
It has expanded outside its originally boundaries to include significant gateways for international trade, including Los Angeles, Laredo, Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
The coalition has attempted to protect, maximize and expand commerce and economic vitality of the NAFTA corridor, while at the same time mitigating congestion and facilitating a cleaner environment.
The ROTCC held its quarterly meeting recently in Dallas and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 6.
The two groups will be working together to develop a “Green, Clean and Safe Multimodal Corridor.”
Richard Greene, Region 6 administrator, and Dallas council member Bill Blaydes signed the document.
The officials committed to a collaborative and focused partnership on improving quality of life issues along the entire River of Trade Corridor, such as improved air quality and more efficient trade movements.
A number of local city and county officials attended both the ROTCC meeting and the Cleburne signing ceremony.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
this project needs killing.
Another BIG DIG?
I know there's been talk about the Corridor but I haven't been following it, never the less lets start right here.
Could you explain why you think this project needs to be killed.
Government needs to get out of this as much as possible before I will support it.
As with any big project Government needs to get Regulations out of the way, and let Private Industry, Private Property Owners and Supply and Demand drive.
Way too much Power and Money to entrust to Government.
GMHO
TT
As I understand this it is to be a toll road, where a Spanish company is suppose to own and control it, a foreign company with the right to condemn and take private property. However, a foreign company cannot manage our ports. What a crock.
this project needs killing
I know there's been talk about the Corridor but I haven't been following it, never the less lets start right here.
Could you explain why you think this project needs to be killed.
///////////////
If you read about the people behind the plan -- what you see is a bunch of people dedicated to a north american superstate that combines Mexico the USA and Canada. (And this idea would be a stepping stone to a new world superstate which in turn would be a stepping stone to world government. The idea is to create a one world government piecemeal one step at a time rather than all at once.)
Even if you conceptually agree with the idea--it instantly becomes clear that the American taxpayer is exposed to unlimited liabilities in exchange for nothing.
Liabiabilities? The point of the toll road is to give mexicans unilimited unmonitored access to all of north america.
Its part of the methodology used to erase our border with Mexico. The corridor will hook up with Mexican corridors and chinese run ports there so China has a direct "goods movement corridor" from their ports to the heart of America.
China, Mexico, Spain and Australia will then control the flow of goods, in and out of the US.
These corridors are significant in the plan to integrate the US with Mexico, just as the transcontinental railway was key in the integration of the east and west coast states in the US in the 19th century. See the CFR document detailing the building of a North American Community.
You beat me to the post! Good points.
HA!
It'll be longer than that before Denton County widens a mile of the city's bypass!
I'm continually amazed at the total nonsense some on this board buy into. What you wrote is a complete load of crap. The Illuminati, Freemason, and New World Order have nothing to do with this road. Quite smoking Joe Farah's World Nut Daily dope.
Even if you conceptually agree with the idea--it instantly becomes clear that the American taxpayer is exposed to unlimited liabilities in exchange for nothing. Liabiabilities? The point of the toll road is to give mexicans unilimited unmonitored access to all of north america.
More baloney. The point of this road is to meet growing demand. Every year 250,000 new residents are added to the urban areas between the Red River and San Antonio. Do you understand that every 6 years more people than now live in the Austin area are added to this I-35 corridor? Not just more people than live in the city of Austin, but more people than currently live in the entire area between San Marcos to Georgetown and Bastrop to Marble Falls. With all that growth, do you really think we don't need to expand road capacity in this corridor?
The options are to expand I-35 or build another road. Expanding I-35 is expensive because it goes through many urban areas, so many people and businesses live along the road, their properties have higher values, and more overpasses would have to be replaced. Building a new road through rural areas is cheaper and would affect much fewer persons. Either way will require eminent domain because the I-35 right of way just isn't wide enough in many places for what is needed. But the latter choice can be built using tolls at no cost to TXDOT, in fact the private company is going to pay a $1.2 billion franchise fee for the operating rights.
Yes there is an increase in industrial traffic from Mexico, but that increase has been happening for years using our existing roads. So you think if they don't build this road that will change? You really think that more Mexicans will come into this country if there is a new road that will save them an hour or two? You really think that time differential is what will draw them?
So if we don't build this road, what is your solution to traffic on the already crowded I-35 corridor when 250,000 new people are added each year? And most of those are from births and Americans moving in. Even if we finally build the entire border wall, we are still going to see growth over 200,000 per year. What is your solution if we don't build this road? Be specific.
That's what they are doing, as much as possible. There are still numerous fed regs that the state can't avoid, though they've tried to shorten the process by bidding out this toll project to private companies. The state won't pay for the road, the private firm will (recouped via tolls) and will also pay the state $1.2 billion for an operating franchise (the state will still own the ROW and has a buyout clause on the op agreement, too.) The state is spending a few million on initial studies. Its about as privatized as it can get right now.
BTW, are you aware that the state hadn't planned on moving quite this soon, but the private company, CINTRA, approached the state with this proposal? After reviewing it, the state put the concept up for bid, and CINTRA had the highest bid and got the contract. So this is in part driven by the supply/demand, at least a private firm's perception of such.
The state will own the road and do the condemnation. The private firm, CINTRA/Zachary, bid on and won an operating franchise. The route and condemnation is in consulation with the state, which has the final say.
Would you prefer the state spend $6 billion in tax money to build it instead?
The way I see it, this is a done deal. I don't know anything about Mexico much other then a lot of companies have moved to just across the boarder to Mexico. Now whether these companies are equally distributed along the boarder I do not know but I'll take a wild guess that most of them are pretty close to where this Corridor is planning on being built. Also I don't know where the railroad lines in America are, but I'm guessing that this Corridor is linking up to them, That's probably why the proposed line is running just North of Ft. Worth, Dallas area. My guess is that there is a major railroad line near the end of this Corridor, Shipping stuff by railroad across the US is an incredibly cheaper then by truck. Also I notice that the Corridor is near the Gulf of Mexico, and my guess is that a lot of Cargo containers off of ships will be unloaded in Mexico some where close to this Corridor. The way I see it, the real purpose of this Corridor is to provide a slightly cheaper and more efficient way to get the cargo container goods into the US not just from Mexico but China and other countries etc through the use of cheaper ports in Mexico.
The Manufacturing companies are going to continue to shift to the south states, basically cheaper to heat and air condition(if your lucky)the factories in the south. Also the Southern states are not as pro Union as the North.
Also Mexico is a cheaper place to live, but not safe enough place for people to live in and retire in, but eventually I do believe in the next couple of decades Mexico will work on this and I can see a lot of retires in the US moving to retirement resorts/mini cities in Mexico near the Gulf of Mexico. And maybe in 50 years or so Mexico's standard of living will get closer to the US so that the Mexicans will stay in Mexico, but that's a whole another discussion.
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.