Drawing the lines

Fort Worth Star-Telegram ^ | May 21, 2006 | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Local elected officials, business leaders and transportation experts in North Central Texas are fuming about a proposed primary artery of the Trans-Texas Corridor that would skirt the east edge of Dallas County and shun the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

They want the corridor to run northward from the Hillsboro area and straight up the middle of the Metroplex, along the general path of an extended Texas 360 and on to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. The corridor potentially would include high-speed rail.

They also favor the development of rail and freight corridors that would run in a general east-west direction south of Fort Worth and Dallas and then loop around the edge of Tarrant and Dallas counties as they extend northward.

These bypass corridors could become part of a gigantic outer loop that also would let passenger vehicles travel swiftly around Dallas, Fort Worth and other Metroplex cities. At their southern extremity, the bypass corridors would connect to the north-south corridor running between the Hillsboro area and D/FW Airport.

This concept of the up-the-middle corridor and outer loop is being touted by the Regional Transportation Council (RTC) of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, composed of elected officials from 16 Metroplex counties, including Tarrant and Dallas.

A broad-based regional coalition known as Partners in Mobility, including Metroplex leaders from both the public and private sectors, is expected to express support for the RTC's Trans-Texas Corridor concept in a Thursday meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission in Austin.

The RTC concept makes great sense. It would provide a major new transportation corridor to the heart of the Metroplex, including the airport -- a vital transportation hub. The proposed bypass corridors and outer loop would help reduce congestion from freight trains, 18-wheelers and passenger cars and trucks on existing rail lines and roads.

Reducing rail freight traffic through the heart of Fort Worth, Arlington, Dallas and other Metroplex cities could open up tracks for badly needed new commuter rail lines. It also could help unclog the Tower 55 area on the southeast edge of downtown Fort Worth, one of the most congested bottlenecks for freight train traffic in the nation.

The Trans-Texas Corridor, fervently backed by Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson of Weatherford, is proposed to relieve gridlock in the state's biggest cities by diverting large volumes of traffic, freight and utilities around them.

The Trans-Texas Corridor's TTC-35 segment is proposed to run from the Oklahoma border to the Metroplex and on to the Mexican border.

Its focus is to curb congestion on packed Interstate 35 and the major cities through which it passes: Fort Worth, Dallas, Austin and San Anto-nio.

Some stretches of TTC-35 might include -- within a broad corridor up to 1,200 feet wide -- separate lanes for passenger vehicles, 18-wheelers, freight trains and high-speed passenger rail and conduits for water lines, oil and natural gas pipelines, and transmission of electricity and broadband. Motorists would pay tolls to travel on the higher-speed corridor.

Under a plan accepted by the Texas Transportation Commission, Madrid-based Cintra and San Antonio-based Zachry Construction are lead partners in a venture in which they propose to use $6 billion in private investment to build a 316-mile, four-lane toll road segment of the TTC-35 corridor from the Metroplex to San Antonio and pay a $1.2 billion concession fee that the state could use to help pay for related transportation projects. In exchange, Cintra-Zachry would collect tolls on the TTC-35 segment for 50 years.

Rather than proposing to run the initial leg of the corridor up the middle of the Metroplex to D/FW Airport, Cintra favors running it around the east edge of Dallas County, presumably because it would be more profitable.

A private contractor should be able to make a profit. But when it comes to meeting the long-term transportation and economic needs of the Metroplex, that can't feasibly be the only factor in determining the TTC-35 corridor route.

Relieving gridlock and helping to ensure a strong D/FW economy are crucial. The RTC concept offers the promise of doing that. But if the initial primary leg of the TTC-35 corridor swings around the east edge of Dallas County, that could seriously hurt the transportation and economy of Tarrant County, outlying areas in the western half of the Metroplex and long-underdeveloped southeast Dallas.

Dallas City Councilman Bill Blaydes has said he fears that the corridor could result in a "transfer of wealth" from the Metroplex to outlying rural areas. And Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce President Bill Thornton expressed concern in early April that the primary focus of the corridor route "appears to be ... east of the Metroplex."

Some of these concerns might prove unfounded. Cintra also has proposed to build a rail line around the western side of the Metroplex to divert freight trains outside Fort Worth and other heavily populated areas.

The new rail line could become a component of a huge outer transportation loop similar to the one envisioned in the RTC concept. Such a loop might have separate corridors for freight trains, 18-wheelers and toll-paying autos traveling 65 to 70 miles per hour.

Potential routes for the TTC-35 system are expected to be discussed extensively in dozens of upcoming public hearings this summer before any final determinations are made.

Williamson has offered assurances that the concerns of Metroplex officials will be strongly considered. He noted that the corridor is a gigantic project that will be built in stages over a period of decades, with the Cintra-Zachry proposal probably only a major first step in terms of the Metroplex. If population projections are correct, a 10-county Metroplex area will gain 4 million people from 2000 to 2030 -- an 80 percent increase.

A mushrooming volume of cars and trucks could make today's grid-lock look like nothing unless major transportation improvements are made.

The greatest growth is likely to occur in the western half of the Metroplex. The RTC concept would ensure that the heart of the region is served by the Trans-Texas Corridor and that this western area isn't snubbed.

It's crucial that this viewpoint be understood and embraced by Texas Transportation Commission officials in Austin.

IN THE KNOW

On the Web

North Central Texas Council of Governments (Transportation

Issues): www.nctcog.org/trans

Trans-Texas Corridor: www.keeptexasmoving.org

Texas Department of Transportation: www.txdot.state.tx.us

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

In all fairness, there is also:

Corridor Watch

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!

[I got the rope]

I've spoken to many of my family members in Texas and they are all completely in the dark about all of this.

I don't get it. Why does it seem that everyone is uninformed about this highway plan?

[wayoverthehill]

The way the map looks now it seems that a large portion of Rockwall County, already the smallest county in the state and one of the fastest growing, will be practically inundated by this road. I think they need to come about 12 miles farther east so they will have to buy my land in Hunt County - LOL.

[Jedidah]

Smokey backroom shenanigans, that's why. Greedy hands in deep pockets.

[Paleo Conservative]

The way the map looks now it seems that a large portion of Rockwall County, already the smallest county in the state and one of the fastest growing, will be practically inundated by this road.

Those are just the preliminary study areas. The final corridor will be a maximum of 1200 feet wide.

[TexPride]

The corridor's will place Texas far ahead of the rest of the nation in terms of transportation infrastructure to support continued growth. The were many naysayers during Ike's administration in the 50's who bemoaned the Interstate program.

[Paleo Conservative]

The corridor's will place Texas far ahead of the rest of the nation in terms of transportation infrastructure to support continued growth. The were many naysayers during Ike's administration in the 50's who bemoaned the Interstate program.

The existing rail network in Texas was laid out in the nineteeth century when Texas was very sparsely populated. Not much of it is double tracked. In 1900 Texas had just over 3 million people of which 82.9% was rural. In 2000 Texas had a population of 20.8 million and 80% was urban. The urban population grew by a factor of 40 between 1900 and 2000. If we had better freight rail transportation through the state it would take hundreds of thousands trucks off of the busiest freeways in the state. If you think traffic on the highways in Texas is bad now just do nothing while the population increases to 50 million by 2050.

Pro TTC Ping!

This is a pro Trans-Texas Corridor ping list.

Please let me know by Freepmail if you want on or off the list.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[wolfcreek]

The corridor's will place Texas far ahead of the rest of the nation in terms of transportation infrastructure to support continued growth

Is it just me or is anyone else in Texas a little tired of this 'growth'. I suspect it's not for Texas but, for the future 'North American Union'. Say goodbye to the wide open spaces and the stars at night that are big and bright.

[TXnMA]

Notice that this is all about the economics ov the Metroplex -- nothing about the negative impacts on rural Texas.

Ever hear the liberal term, "Flyover Country"? That is the disparaging term the liberal elites use to sneer at everything in the U.S. between the two oh-so-important coasts. Only the big cities are worthy of consideration; the rest of America is just "something you fly over to get somewhere important".

Perry's Trash-Texas Con-job" is designed to turn the vast majority of Texas into "Driveover Country".

By gobbling up a square mile of rural Texas for every four or five miles of extremely limited access high-speed "flyway", Perry wants to:

• Use eminent domain to remove nearly 1,000 square miles of Texas land from productivity and fromrural Texas tax rolls.

• Divert the commerce that is now the lifeblood of rural Texas into a network of "sewer pipes" that flush traffic non-stop through rural Texas -- leaving no more dollars behind than do the liberals that continually fly over our heads!

• Hand the profits to a bunch of foreigners.

  Wake up, rural and small-town Texans!!! RINO Rick Perry intends to rob you -- to benefit the big cities -- and Mexico!!!

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

You're welcome.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Bump.

[TexPride]

Must be you, you cannot stop growth but you can manage it.
As far as the loss of "wide open spaces"? I have lived in Texas for 44 years and seen just about all of it. We could 10x's our size and not even begin to encroach on our wide open spaces

[wolfcreek]

It won't look the same after it's covered in concrete. You sound like you've given up. Maybe it's time to change the old screen name.