Perry's former staffer is back on payroll of toll road developer

San Antonio Express-News ^ | San Antonio Express-News

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Planning for Trans Texas Corridor in North Texas continues

Kerry Craig

Aug. 17, 2006 -- Sulphur Springs City Manger Marc Maxwell, who serves as a member of a citizens advisory panel for Texas Department of Transportation, was in Austin Wednesday for still another meeting on the planned Trans Texas Corridor.

Tentative plans calling for the route to bypass both Dallas and Fort Worth have drawn enough opposition from those cities to have them included in a second environmental impact study.

The primary study is nearing completion, and the proposed alignment has been determined, and it shows the corridor coming far to the east of Dallas.

D-FW Metroplex communities and organizations are not happy with the plan.

"They have proposed the first tier should be10-miles wide until it reaches the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and the study should encompass the Metroplex. It would then return to 10 miles when it got north of the Metroplex," Maxwell said. "That is what they have been pushing for, and in the final analysis, that's what the Trans Texas Corridor Citizens Advisory Committee decided to do."

Maxwell said that Gov. Rick Perry weighed in on the study, and sent a letter to TxDoT saying he agreed with the Metroplex cities in that the study should be expanded in that first tier to include the Metroplex.

The decision to to expand the study was only one part of a 15-point white paper prepared by the citizens committee. The main point, Maxwell said, was that the transportation corridor should be built.

""We all felt, unanimously so, that the 'no build option' was not an option at all, and we gave the commission credit for having the foresight to pursue a project like this," he said.

The city manager said that although environmental impact studies will be broadened to include the Metroplex, the plan calls for the new transportation route linking the port of entry at Laredo with the Oklahoma state line to cross Interstate 30 between Greenville and Royse City.

That intersection would, according to Maxwell, bring an increase in traffic, especially trucks, through Sulphur Springs and Hopkins County and would have a positive effect on the local economy.

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Rick's getting desperate

Governor Rick must really be running scared.

Now he's endorsing the plan to create an outer loop around Dallas-Fort Worth as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The story says, "Metroplex leaders are thrilled" at the news, without saying who these "Metroplex leaders" might be. I'm not sure they exist.

This is a goofy idea endorsed by a desperate politician, and anybody thrilled by this is a boob.

An outer loop would take 20 or 30 years to build. It would cost an amount of money for which there is not yet a term ... Jillions? Kazillions?

And by then, who will be able to fill up the gas tank in their car?

If we still have gas ... and if we still have cars ...

Posted by pbourgeois on Friday, August 18, 2006

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Perry's backing of outer loop praised

Posted on Fri, Aug. 18, 2006

By GORDON DICKSON, STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Metroplex leaders say they're thrilled that Gov. Rick Perry has written a letter endorsing the plan to create an outer loop around Dallas-Fort Worth as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Texas Department of Transportation officials said last week that they were asking the Federal Highway Administration to include the outer loop, which would allow the Trans-Texas -- a cross-state toll road -- to be incorporated into existing highway plans rather than simply bypassing the Metroplex.

Then, on Tuesday, Perry sent a letter to the transportation department supporting the Metroplex plan, to the delight of Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief.

"Our proposed alignment would direct traffic to the center of our region and include an outer loop going east and west around our Metroplex. It will utilize current resources, move traffic to the core and create more direct routes," Moncrief said in a statement. "We spoke in a united voice, and we were heard."

State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the state Senate's transportation commission, sent a letter to Perry thanking him for his responsiveness.

Although thousands of people have flooded Trans-Texas hearings this summer to speak against toll roads, North Texas' elected leaders have said they'll support Trans-Texas as long as it comes through the Metroplex, rather than bypassing it.

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Back in the Loop: Perry's support key to area's Trans-Texas goal

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!

[Clara Lou]

This is going to wind up being a bigger boondoggle than the Big Dig. And Texas is going to suffer.

[deport]

This is going to wind up being a bigger boondoggle than the Big Dig. And Texas is going to suffer.

---

How's that? bigger and suffer?

[Clara Lou]

I'm not sure what you mean, but I'll respond. The politicians in this and their friends are going to take a lot of land, make big money, and disrupt a lot of lives for a long time. I don't even know for sure that this highway, in principle, is a good idea.

[deport]

Thanks. Just trying to get a feel for what you meant. You may be correct but I do believe there is a need to address future roadway needs now in order to develop some methodology of implementing them in the future say, 2015-2020.

[basil]

Ping!

[CenTex]

Governor Goodhair is pushing through a scheme that takes tens of thousands of acres of land away from multi-generation Texans so that a Spanish company can make billions of dollars from tolls and franchise fees to expedite the passage THROUGH Texas of goods to and from the corrupt Mexican government and the Frenchy Canadians in support of the United States job give away called NAFTA. Yes, I voted for that socialist, Ross Perot.

The communities and political entities (school districts, counties, etc.) would be split in half causing either a total reorganization or excessive expenses to overcome the newly created dead-end rural and secondary highways. School buses would have to travel up to an additional fifty miles and emergency response units would have to do the same or have multiple units on either side of the travesty.

In return the communities would get the noise and pollution created by the traffic and a decrease in land values that is not confiscated along the route by this project that was not presented to the citizens for approval.

There will be no new jobs created in the communities, indeed they will decrease, and many family farms and small towns will cease to exist.

I expect that all of the utilities using the TTC will have to make a little donation to Spain for the privilege of placing power lines, pipe lines and railroad tracks through it.

In addition all services, fuel, food and accommodations will have a franchise fee attached. I expect that the franchisees will be exempted from local taxes. This is probably covered in the 250 pages of unreleased contract information that Goodhair is trying to keep secret.

Unlike the current Interstates there will be no gourmet rows (Wendy's, McDonald's, etc.) or two star hotel/motels along the nonexistent frontage roads. A loss of jobs and tax revenue.

Anybody but Goodhair and his Spanish buddies...

[deport]

Curious........ are you against any roadways being built for the transportation needs of the future?

[BobL]

I guess we are the laughing stock of the country now, we've made the front section of World Net Daily again (actually with two articles, one current, one from a month ago).

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/ (3/4 of the way down)

And we Texans used to laugh at Louisiana...

[CenTex]

No.. just boondoggles such as Good Hairs TTC, well on the way to making the Big Dig look like a spade full of sand...

An Interstate quality road from Laredo to Texarkana and another from Orange to Lubbock/Amarillo makes a lot more sense than paralleling an already existing IH and now, the latest, adding loops around DFW...

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

bump.

[deport]

No.. just boondoggles

---

Then what boondoggleless approach to routes, size, schedule, financing, etc would you propose. Do you have any that would keep tax money out of the mix?

[Clara Lou]

You may be correct but I do believe there is a need to address future roadway needs now
I agree with you. [My own community suffers from lack of planning for the future.] Better now than later. As far as this new highway is concerned, though, I smell politics, cronyism, poorly spent $$, and cost overruns. [I'm saddened at the amount of land that will go under concrete, but I don't have an alternative to it.]

[wolfcreek]

Do you have any that would keep tax money out of the mix?


Tolls are taxes. Example: 183A which is an 11 mile toll road north of Austin will cost $2 each way. Considering a 5 day work week, it will cost the average driver $1000 per year. I don't know if a figure has been estimated for TTC but, I'm hearing about 15 cents per mile.

[deport]

My question about how he would finance a roadway without tax money since he didn't want tollways. The state doesn't have the funds so it means taxes on all of us as opposed to those that choose to use and pay the tolls. He wanted to build interstates but gave no financing or payment provisions, thus my question to him.

[TWfromTEXAS]

bttt

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

B BTTT TTT

[wolfcreek]

I think the state does have the funds but, they would rather have the us be squeezed a little more. IMO. a 'Growth' plan should be implimented. The number one reason I say this is due to the often overlooked fact, Texas has a limited amount of WATER.