Posted on 08/27/2006 1:17:11 AM PDT by AnimalLover
Grupo Ferrovial, Spain’s construction, infrastructure and services giant, had a busy summer acquiring airports in the UK and Peru. Now it has a concession to build and operate a Texas superhighway.
Construction of the new toll road project, designed to develop an alternative route to Interstate 35 as part of the planned Trans-Texas Corridor is due to start early next year.
This is has been agreed by the Texas Department of Transport under a comprehensive development deal with the Spanish company Cintra - Concesiones de Infrastructuras de Transporte, a member of the Ferrovial group.
Cintra’s partner for the five-year road building programme is the San Antonio-based contractor Zachry Construction Corp, but Ferrovial’s construction company Agroman is getting a share in the business.
Zachry joined with Cintra in a scheme to provide private investment worth $6 billion. The assignment is to design, build and operate a four-lane toll road covering the 500 km distance between Dallas and San Antonio, bypassing the State capital at Austin.
For this concession Cintra is paying the State of Texas $1.2 billion. It gives them the right to build and operate this initial segment of the intended Trans-Texas Corridor.
This would be part of the ‘super-highway’ spanning the United States from the Mexican border at Laredo, making its way through Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma and connecting with the Canadian highway system north of Duluth, Minnesota.
Because it would provide a connection all the way between Canada and Mexico, the project is also described as the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) super highway.
The project as conceived by Cintra and its partners and endorsed by the Texas transport department is certainly ambitious. They have talked about developing a corridor providing two lanes for high speed trucks and three for passenger vehicles in each direction, plus high speed and freight railway lines, possibly also telecommunication cables and oil, gas and water pipelines in an adjacent utilities corridor.
But a corridor of this overall width – maybe as much as 360 m - has alarmed people who stand forced to surrender property in land and buildings to the project. This concern has been sharpened by the disclosure that, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the developers intend to exercise the principle of ‘eminent domain’ in land acquisition proceedings on the grounds that they are acting as agents of a public authority.
The developers apparently believe that such rights, once established in Texas, could then be applied across the entire 6,500 km length of the NAFTA highway. Whether that proves to be so depends on the outcome of any challenge that might be launched against such a claim.
The Cintra-Zachry partnership is however in a strong position because they have already secured an agreement granting them the right to develop the new highway in Texas. They have also put money down for the privilege.
The first concession within the Trans-Texas Corridor has already been awarded to Cintra. According to a statement by parent company Ferrovial, construction is expected to start early in 2007 once environmental and other permits have been obtained.
These initial contracts, to build two segments of the new toll road 64 km between Austin and Seguin will be performed 50 per cent each by Ferrovial’s construction subsidiary Agroman and Zachry, which has won around $180 million worth of road contracts already this year from the Texas Department of Transport.
Total construction investment in the new contracts is said to be $1.3 billion.
“The new highway”, the statement explained, “will offer an alternative to I-35 between San Antonio and north Austin, making it possible to avoid the highly congested area of central Austin on medium and long-distance journeys.
“The new high capacity road will absorb growth in long-distance truck traffic expected as a result of trade agreements between the United States, Mexico and Canada.”
Cintra has also recently taken over management of the Indiana Toll Road (ITR) after paying $3.8 billion to the State’s finance authority for the transfer of the asset. In a 50:50 consortium with the Australian bank Macquarie, Cintra now has charge of this 250 km highway which links Chicago with the eastern seaboard of the United States.
The concession will run over 75 years.
The company commented: “The project reinforces Cintra’s presence in the U.S., a strategic market for the company: it has a 99-year concession to operate the Chicago Skyway ($1.83 billion) which links with the Indiana Toll Road, and it is a strategic partner of the State of Texas for 50 years to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor, one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the United States.”
What are you talking about? Why will this road be more "open" than any other border-crossing road?
Would it help if you were told that the article is wrong? They may have access to press release information from the Spanish companies, but on the Texas end none of this has been completed.
No plans for the TTC have been finalized. No land acquisition has started.
And even if it does happen, it is just a road. Maybe even a railroad. So what? We have all that now. Is one more gonna make all that much of a difference, except maybe ease some of the traffic on what is an already overcrowded freeway?
I have a lot of sympathy for the people who might lose some land, but that happens everytime something big gets built. These types of projects are why the taking by ED process exists.
All your rights belong to us.
OMG, the SuperCorridor will make Canada's Inuit territory turn magenta?
Well what do you know the Chicoms are here. Hi boys (and girls?).
Who's that?
Contention: The state will use eminent domain to take private land.Office of the Governor [Texas]
Reality: Under any scenario, the state will need to purchase land to build more roads over the next 50 years. The 5th amendment of the U.S. Constitution and state law require the state to pay fair market value when purchasing private land for public purposes. If a landowner doesn't believe an offer to purchase is fair, the law provides they can appeal to special commissioners and even a district judge who will decide what is fair.
Several other protections exist in state law to ensure that landowners are fairly compensated. Landowners may retain the development rights of any property purchased by the state, and state law also allows landowners to accept an equity interest in the road rather than a cash payment for their land. Landowners whose land is severed by the corridor are required to receive damages caused by the severance including inaccessibility.Contention: Huge amounts of private land will be taken by the state through eminent domain for superhighway, train, and utility rights of way.
Reality: Over the next 50 years, the state, railroads, and utilities will all need to purchase private land for expansion. By using the Trans Texas Corridor to combine many of these rights of way into one corridor, less total land will be needed. The Corridor will ultimately result in the purchase of less public land than would otherwise be needed to keep up with growth, and all the needed land will be purchased during one process, instead of on a piecemeal basis as we need to build out infrastructure one project at a time.Contention: The private companies helping to build the corridor will have the ability to condemn private property.
Reality: This is false. Only the government and common carriers have the power of condemnation.Contention: The corridor will allow the state to condemn land and build restaurants, hotels, golf courses, and chemical refineries.
Reality: State law only allows the condemnation of corridor land for transportation purposes. Condemnation for any other purpose is illegal.
Uh foreigners(furriners in phylis schafley/pat buchanan speak) helped finance and build America's railroad system in the 1800's.What was the names of the foreign companies that owned them when they were finised and did they charge a toll?
Nice straw man. Totally unrelated to the concversation, childish debating tactic gambic 1 is declined.
Well what do you know the Chicoms are here. Hi boys (and girls?).
Pot, meet the straw man kettle.
LOL!!
I thought my #49 was directly on-point, bearing mind the comment, "yup that's why ED exists, so Texas land can be taken from Americans and given to Spanish developers for the benifit of Chinese communists."
1. There are very few large businesses that would pass up the opportunity to pay a sovereign to confiscate property that would otherwise never be sold in the open market. The State is using eminent domain to take from U.S. citizens and give to a foreign corporation. Calling it corporate welfare is being kind.
2. The primary beneficiary of this travesty is big business...obtaining a government subsidized transportation route. If it was economically feasible to build this route in the private sector, big business would buy up the land without government involvement and create the toll road.
3. Then there are the leeches who will line politicos pockets to ensure that toll road exits just happen to be at points where they own adjacent land for development.
Yes. It is corporate welfare on multiple levels. And using the power of the State to trample individual rights is not a conservative idea.
Facts tend to confuse these guys.
I remember when conservatives were generally in favor of privatizing non-essential governmental functions, and not fighting for the "right" to increase their tax burden.
And? So what? You're concerned that folks will be able to drive all the way from Mexico to Canada without having to change highways? Why do you care what route people take?
What is being given to a foreign corporation?
If it was economically feasible to build this route in the private sector, big business would buy up the land without government involvement and create the toll road.
LOL!
Then there are the leeches who will line politicos pockets to ensure that toll road exits just happen to be at points where they own adjacent land for development.
Will those be American leeches? Americans who will benefit from this road? In addition to the Americans who benefit from using the road? Don't tell jpsb.
And using the power of the State to trample individual rights is not a conservative idea.
Who's rights are being trampled?
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