Posted on 07/05/2006 3:38:20 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Just as Dallas and Fort Worth came together over the Wright amendment, civic and business leaders across the region are closing ranks over another transit issue: the state's immense Trans-Texas Corridor project.
It's a vital step if North Texas wants to be properly served by the futuristic, privately built tollway. The region's diverse interests need to harmonize in a clear message to Austin in upcoming hearings over where to locate the corridor.
Here's where things stand: State transportation officials, after two rounds of meetings, have recommended a path for the multibillion-dollar toll corridor. That 500-mile path closely parallels Interstate 35 from Laredo north through San Antonio, Austin and Waco. Then it veers east in a wide swing past most of metro Dallas-Fort Worth.
That wide swing has local transit planners and community leaders dizzy with disbelief – and understandably so. North Texas, an important nexus in transcontinental shipping, needs better access to the giant transit path. But as drawn, the recommended route is as far as 50 miles from some spots in the metro area.
The corridor concept is sound overall. I-35, a vital economic artery from Mexico to the Red River, is dangerously clogged. Quick cash to start a reliever project isn't available from tapped-out government sources. Private developers have been recruited to build the project over 50 years and make a billion-dollar payment to the state. In return, the developers would gain the right to collect tolls on segregated car and truck lanes and on utility and rail lines.
We'd like to say everybody wins, except the project would displace untold thousands in the path of the 1,200-foot-wide swath.
That level of disruption demands a greater good. And that test is not met unless the needs of Dallas-Fort Worth are more prominently figured into the equation.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
I wonder how many tens of billions it'd cost to put it closer to D-FW, just in property costs and litigation. If D-FW wants the corridor closer, it sounds like now would be a good time to consider and pass city resolutions to support the project, and start working on community support. A half mile wide section of city probably isn't going to want to get out of the corridor's way.
By ALL means leave us out of this boondoggle.
Naw.....it's a lot of fun dodging these truckers who are half asleep and weaving between lanes on I-35 right now.......can't wait to play Russian roulette with some of these illegal Mexicans driving trucks in the future.
Anyone know how far from I-35 this is supposed to be? I'm not far from I-35 myself and the proposed route map is making me quite nervous. Couldn't find any specifics on the website.
Oh, drat. I reread your post. You have already seen the route map. All I can say is that the route is a ten-mile-wide study area (narrower south of San Antonio). The final quarter-mile wide route has not been determined yet, so just keep up with the news.
As a government employee, I want to say that selling our infrastructure out to private companies is a very bad idea.
Sure, government in it's normal state is inefficent and wasteful (doesn't have to be if well managed, but that never happens.) However, governments do not have to generate profits for shareholders, and don't pay seven-figure salaries to top execs. The President only makes $400 grand, and George Pataki (NY governor) only makes $179,000- five grand more than Schwarzenegger.
(The fact that private companies pay tax and governments do not is a wash.)
Numerous studies (performed at great expense, funded by taxpayers) show that private companies do no better work than even us unionized state worker drones, and at a higher cost due to the above mentioned factors.
The response to these studies by Albany has been to hire more consultants, and order more studies- performed by still more outside consultants at taxpayer expense.
The New York State Thruway Authority, despite being a corrupt and inefficent quasi-governmental entity, makes money hand over fist. Once the initial construction bonds were paid off, the Albany Pols were faced with the horrible prospect of keeping their promise to remove the tolls. Instead, besides issuing new bonds for reconstruction, they "sold" non-toll portions of I-287 and I-84 to the Thruway authority, along with the State's antiquated barge canal system. That's how much the Thruway rakes in in profit over and above the cost of operating and maintaining the toll highway.
Investors, not taxpayers, will reap these profits when the private tollway companes start up all over the country.
In addition, motorists will be subject to the massive traffic backups that tollbooths cause by their very existence.
I predict that these private companies will milk the contracts for every dime they can, then when the contract ends the taxpayers of the state will end up with a worn-out road needing complete reconstruction at great expense- right back where they are now.
Texas isn't selling any infrastructure to a private company. What they are proposing is to lease out a construction, maintenance, and operating contract to a private firm. A 50-year agreement, but one that can be cancelled by the state at will for any reason, subject to buying out whatever the company has invested that hasn't yet been recouped by tolls.
Toll booths are quite avoidable, nowadays. There is transponder technology that can speed your way through the tolls. There is even something called open-road tolling which allows you and your transponder to go through the tolls at highway speed, even if you're changing lanes at the same time. The toll road company can even take your picture and bill you if you don't have a trasponder. Any company that doesn't implement these technologies on its toll roads nowadays is a dumb-head!
In addition, motorists will be subject to the massive traffic backups that tollbooths cause by their very existence.
Thanks for the ping!
I commute to work on the Thruway, so I was one of the first in line to get EZPass. It saves me tons of time, but at peak travel times (especially on holiday weekends when there are the most cash customers) things still back up, sometimes for miles. We're talking about billions (with a B) to improve highway capacity in this state, when the biggest bang for the buck would be to simply remove the toll booths as was promised.
Open road tolling might work. Would eliminate the lines and accidents at the tollbooths. Monies lost to toll evasion would be more than offset by eliminating all the well paid tollbooth attendants.
That sounds better than some of the tollway plans I've seen in other states.
There are some aspects of the Trans-Texas corridor I especially like, such as the new publicly-owned, jointly used rail lines. We need that in every state. Private ownership isn't working the way we need it to, and there is no competition to serve the majority of shippers who have access to only one railroad. Let the railroads run the trains, but the tracks should become public infrastructure.
How about the "Ronald W. Reagan system of interstate and defense railways?"
See my #14. The only reason government can't advance technogy is due to short-sighted, "penny wise, pound foolish" politicians and managers. We can buy the same technology on the open market, and our cost of capital is generally lower than the private sector. Figuring in the cost of state worker pay and benefits, a better case can be made for tech spending in government than the private sector.
But when we try to make these business cases, we meet resistance from three sides- politicians, and the Unions. If we fix the political problems, and agressively reform the current managment culture, we can get things done.
And as I stated before, contrary to popular myth, State workers are equal in quality and less expensive than consultants. Two state comptrollers (one D, one R) and a KPMG study(commissioned by an administration trying to prove that consultants are cheaper and better) confirm this. Much as I hate to agree with anything the unions (CSEA and PEF) say, they happen to be right on this one:
http://www.thecommunicator.org/oct05revised/statewaste.htm
http://www.pef.org/fact_sheets/2004/dot.pdf
My agency worked up figures proving that if we add clerical staff to support the engineers (who are now spending time answering phones, making photocopies, filing, etc.) we could produce more engineering hours at a lower cost per hour (including the salary and benefits of the clerks.) Did we get any more clerks? No- we lost support staff. But they're hiring a few more engineers, because the ones we have are spending too much time on administrative tasks.
I'm against this project but not because it's privatizing infrastructure. Your prediction that "these private companies will milk the contracts for every dime they can, then when the contract ends the taxpayers of the state will end up with a worn-out road needing complete reconstruction at great expense- right back where they are now," how is that different from what the DOT does every day? And worse, when the DOT runs things, we're stuck with a bureaucracy full of arrogant civil 'servants' to boot.
Given a choice between TTC and status quo I choose TTC. Given a choice between real road privatization and TTC, I choose privatization. This is a Kelo wanna-be, and if it's so important to have this road and it will be such a success, government shouldn't have to condemn land to do it, a private company should WANT to do it.
They don't, so TTC is simply more planned development, i.e., government instituting 5-year-planning in what used to be a capitalist state.
"If we fix the political problems, and agressively reform the current managment culture, we can get things done."
Mussolini made the trains run on time, too. Government control of roads means government corruptly administering them.
Cheer up!
1) there will be no burden on the taxpayer
2) You can go through a toll booth in Texas at 80 mph. There is no massive back-up.
3) Cheer up! Roads last a long time in Texas!
Also, one more time... We are not selling any infrastructure. To continue to say that is deceptive.
Not to mention letting you know you were going 88 mph through them. :-)
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