Spanish firm to build and run new PFI toll road in Texas

International Construction Review ^ | 25 August 2006

[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.”

[Toddsterpatriot]

you oppose the road because it will be built without your money, and you won't have to pay for it unless you use it. Unless you argue that the road is not needed at all, the counter-argument is that the road should be built with your money, and you should pay for it even if you do not use it.

Logic so straight forward even hedgetrimmer could understand it (unless she's a blond).

[Smartass]

"Bush had nothing to do with this. It is all that RINO Rick Perry's doing."

The following links may help clarify:
Who's Idea is the Trans-Texas Corridor?

Toward a North American Union

Trans Texas Corridor

 

[quietolong]

>>> Contention: The state will use eminent domain to take private land.
Reality: Under any scenario, the state will need to purchase land to build more roads.....<<<

LOL
Reality: Read my post #28

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1431203/posts?page=28#28

[Ben Ficklin]

"Who's idea is the Trans-Texas Corridor?"

In 1996 the Center for Transportation Research released their final report which recommended the multi-modal corridor.

Source

This is years before Perry took office.

[Smartass]

Yep, you're partially right.   However, notice omitted
from most of, if not all reports, memos, and
papers of any high profile political names.

 

[Ben Ficklin]

Now that we have established that Perry didn't conceive of the corridor, you are saying that you don't like the way it is being implemented.

[Smartass]

"Now that we have established that Perry didn't conceive of the corridor, you are saying that you don't like the way it is being implemented."

I'm not, nor did I say anything of the sort. A request was made for data, of which was presented to that person[s]. From that point, people can frame their own thoughts and opinions. However, most if not all state commissions are appointed by, and report back to the governor, you can take what you presented from there.

 

 

[Ben Ficklin]

"people can frame their own thoughts"

I'm sure you would like "people to frame their thoughts" based on info from hedgetrimmer and Stall.

[Smartass]

"people can frame their own thoughts"

"I'm sure you would like "people to frame their thoughts" based on info from hedgetrimmer and Stall."

I don't know exactly know what your argument is, or with whom.   But hopefully we're still living in a land called America where people can still think for themelves.

Cheers...

 

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!

I also appended this article to a previous TTC post.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Thanks for the ping.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Interstates 5, 19, and 35 are especially loathsome. They go all the way to the Mexican border (cue spooky music).

[deport]

I'm sure you would like "people to frame their thoughts" based on info from hedgetrimmer and Stall.

---

Stall...... well the people in the Mar. 7, 2006 Republican primary for state senator in District 18 didn't think to much of Stall. They placed him last in a 3 person race with 9.43% of the vote..... So those that should know him best didn't put much faith in him it appears..

[AnimalLover]

I didn't see the President mentioned in the article, so why blame him?

The President signed this deal with the PM of Canada and Vicente Fox - at their Cancun meeting.

It isn't just Texas - it will continue on to the Canadian border - with Kansas City being the "Customs" stop for shipments direct from Mexico deep water ports to Kansas City. Shipments will branch out over the country from this point.

Walla!! Welcome to the North American Union where the Amero will be the common currency.

Doesn't anybody care that our country will be changed FOREVER and we have nothing to say about it?

[AnimalLover]

This "corridor" that will crisscross the country will be wide open to the Mexican trucks coming and going to the Mexican ports. As long as all licensing is proper, drivers are legal and licensed and the trucks properly maintained - still a lot of traffic.

But, we in So. California know about some of these vehicles and the amount of smog they put out not to mention bad brakes, etc., etc.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

It isn't just Texas - it will continue on to the Canadian border - with Kansas City being the "Customs" stop for shipments direct from Mexico deep water ports to Kansas City. Shipments will branch out over the country from this point.

As I understand it, that customs facility will be only for traffic bound for Mexico.

[AnimalLover]

As I understand it, that customs facility will be only for traffic bound for Mexico.

The Trans-Texas Corridor will be the first leg of what has been dubbed the NAFTA Super Highway to go through heartland America all the way to Canada. This would be a major lifeline of the plan to merge the United States into a North American Community.

Plans are already locked in for Kansas City Southern de Mexico Railroad to bring Chinese goods in sealed cargo containers from the southern Mexican port of Lazaro Cardinas direct to Kansas City, Missouri. Mexican trucks will be able to drive more sealed containers up the fast lanes of the NAFTA Super Highway, inspected only electronically if at all, and making their first customs stop in Kansas City.

[AnimalLover]

Some additional input from the Yuma Sun

http://sun.yumasun.com/google/ysarchive22883.html

Following are a few paragraphs you will find of interest.
Take special note of the last one concerning Hutchison

Plans to build a large shipping port at Punta Colonet, Baja Calif. — about 130 miles south of Tijuana — could mean that a new rail line would run through Yuma to quickly move cargo from the port to the interior of the United States.

There have been discussions with landowners in the area about property acquisition, but the details, and whether the line will actually be built, remain up in the air.

The line would be used to send containers by rail from the Pacific Coast through Mexico and then north to Yuma to tie into the current Union Pacific tracks that run through the city. A right-of-way agent has been speaking to government and private industry in Yuma about the proposed line — to the dismay of some in the agriculture industry.

The agent declined to comment for the story, directing questions to Chris Peterson, the Union Pacific director of government affairs.


Peterson declined to comment on the use of eminent domain.

Union Pacific has been working on preliminary studies for several months, but the idea itself is relatively new. Peterson said there is a high demand for freight rail service and Union Pacific is hiring across its entire system.

The company has about 1200 employees in Arizona, with about 100 in Yuma. Peterson said the creation of the line would mean more jobs in this area, but it is far too early to even consider a timeline.


The new port in Mexico and recent expansions to the Ensenada port, which is 60 miles south of Tijuana, are a response to congestion involved in getting shipments in and out of the extremely busy American ports in southern California. An interview request made to Hutchison Port Holdings, which operates Ensenada and has discussed developing Punta Colonet, was not returned.

NOTE: Does Hutchison-Whampoa ring a bell? They are the
ones screening our cargo coming in on the east
coast. Remember the following:

Chinese firm
to scan cargo
Hired to operate U.S. nuke detector,
chairman tied to communist regime
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49430

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[wolfcreek]

I don't know if this little ditty was mentioned or not but, when these *foreign* companies begin construction, they will bring in employees from all over the world. You think there's a lot of illegals in this country now!


How simple would it be for terrorist to get a free ride into the US in the form of a nice construction job? Especially, a company in a country who would rather 'appease' than fight!