Posted on 08/13/2006 10:32:56 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
What do the federal interstate highway system, the Golden Gate Bridge and D-FW International Airport all have in common?
All are indispensable projects safely transporting millions of families and tons of products every year. All also were bitterly attacked and criticized during their planning and construction phases.
Today, our state transportation system is at a crossroads.
Texas is the leading exporting state, the second biggest manufacturing state, and has added more than 600,000 jobs in the past 34 months.
Annually, Texans spend 3.7 billion hours sitting in traffic. Unless we change, it will only get worse. During the next 25 years, Texas road usage is projected to increase 214 percent. Yet road capacity will increase only 6 percent.
It is imperative that Texas expedite transportation improvements in the interest of public safety, job creation and overall quality of life.
The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC-35) utilizes many new financing and construction tools to get needed roadways built years sooner, without increasing state gasoline or sales taxes.
By harnessing private-sector investment and charging motorists a fee, Texas can build a necessary new road much faster.
Texas’ disaster and hurricane response would dramatically improve with the Trans Texas Corridor and other new transportation projects.
Safer infrastructure means faster evacuations and fewer lives lost.
Economic boost
Thousands of new Texas jobs, higher property values and resulting economic development would follow the corridor route.
Employers tend to migrate to wherever it’s easier to transport workers, raw materials and products.
On the subject of toll roads, modern technology means no more required stopping at toll booths. Toll-tags allow for convenient and high-speed collection.
TTC-35 also would benefit those who don’t want to pay the toll.
Every car or truck using TTC-35 would be one less vehicle on I-35, thereby increasing its safety and convenience.
In addition, free roads, parallel to most toll roads, would remain a viable option for those who choose not to pay.
The State of Texas would own these new roads, but private companies and investors would pay to construct and operate them.
New state laws enhance private property protections and allow local communities and landowners to share in the benefits. As a result, billions in new, largely untapped private investments would pour into Texas to improve our transportation infrastructure, easing congestion, increasing commuter choice and improving highway safety.
The debate continues. The democratic process is working. But don’t let anyone tell you that business as usual can improve Texas transportation. People and jobs are migrating to Texas. We must have the roads and infrastructure to carry them safely and efficiently.
Donna Williams is a Dallas-based aviation engineer and a board member of Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation www.bettertexasroads.org.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
I oppose the Trans-Texas Corridor for two reasons.
First, my family has owned land in Hill County since the 1920s. Now the state wants to build a quarter-mile wide toll-road where my great-grandfather raised cattle and call it a “transportation solution.”
Second, I am incensed over the way this is happening.
If this road is built in the “preferred” area (east of I-35 from Waco to Dallas), many small communities could be divided or built over, including Leroy, Penelope, West, Hubbard, Malone, Mertens and Bynum.
In May of 2005, Attorney General Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Transportation to release the comprehensive development agreement (CDA), an order which Gov. Rick Perry has defied. He has waged a legal battle to avoid disclosing it.
The governor and Legislature are running the state behind our backs. I think most of the attendees at the Hillsboro hearing I attended were surprised to learn just what is really going on.
The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America reads “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
Taking private land to build a toll road for the profit of a foreign-owned company does not fit my definition of eminent domain.
I feel like a “Johnny-come-lately” to the cause, but after the meeting in Hillsboro, I realize that I am not alone.
Less than a dozen of the more than 350 attendees had seen the so called environmental impact statement, with Texas Department of Transportation officials leading off the evening with a lovely little video and slide show.
Taking notes, I stopped writing when I heard the words “international movement of goods.”
Sorry, but that’s no excuse for taking generations of family farms and some of the best farmland in the state.
If Mexico wants to sell products in Canada, it can buy some ships and sail them up there, or send it on cargo planes. And don’t forget trains. Texans do not owe foreign importers a route through our land.
One thing TxDOT officials fail to acknowledge is that toll roads do not alleviate congestion. They create more congestion and pollution.
I lived in Houston for five years. Shortly after my move there, the western portion of the Sam Houston Toll Road was opened.
When we left Houston to move to Mansfield, the toll road was just as jammed up at rush hour every day as the freeways.
Paying for gridlock
Motorists are paying money to sit in gridlock.
So much for improving traffic flow.
What if the Mexican trucks (or the American trucks, for that matter) don’t want to pay the tolls? With gas prices steadily increasing, a truck driver’s margin is already thin. Will they be forced to use the toll road or will they keep driving Interstate 35?
CorridorWatch.org has lots of information about this abomination — route maps, detailed information about the process and how to get involved.
In whatever way I can, I’ll make my voice heard.
Regardless of what the state and the governor say, we can stop this.
Liz Sunderman, a native of Waco, resides in Mansfield, Texas.
Don't let Eminent Domain and dozers catch you crying
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
A highway four hours inland from the coast and paralleling the coast is going to improve hurricane response? Man, they're pulling out all the stops to try and sell this turkey to the public.
No new roads ever!!
It's taking land!
They don't reduce traffic. Cars use them all the time!
It's just wrong!
A vote for Kinky or Grandma is a vote against T-TC! Remember in November!
Et cetera, et cetera...
Thanks for the reminder. I'll vote for Perry.
BTTT
bump.
No way. If it means stealing people's private property it's no good. Also, Kinky and Grandma could probably be convinced very easily to comply. Just promise and give them what they want. They will fall like dominos and they won't be the first. Remember politicians = corruption and lies, and promises unkept.
Roads are not wrong, but this one is not right. I do nto see teh need for this and do not think TX needs to put all of it transportation arteries in one place for terrorists to attack.
That might make sense if we were closing down other roads.
But we're not, so it doesn't.
They are talking abotu puting pipe lines, telcom lines, roads, power lines, and rail road tracks all down the same 100 yard or so wide area. A mighty tempting terroroist target I say.
Well, lord knows we should never build anything that might be a target for terrorists ever again.
No more refineries, skyscrapers, subways, hell, no more cities.
Let's let the terrorists freeze any new development, and then let's rip up the targets that currently exist. Brilliant.
LOL. How much more land will you need for your project?
Maybe if Texas showed they can manage one of the sources of gridlock (illegal immigration), the citizens would be more motivated to trust them with this "solution."
Or, for that matter, maybe if local toll road projects delivered even 1/2 the benefits they promised, this mega-road project would inspire more confidence.
Most companies demand a small "proof of concept" project before committing to a monster investment. Texans would be wise to demand the same.
LOL again. If a company puts-up $6 billion of its own money, do you think it has some idea of its "proof of concept?"
What does the state of Texas have to do will managing immigration?
How does a company putting up billions of dollars show lack of proof of concept?..... gosh man you are running far afield for reasonable objections.
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