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"I wonder how this is going to affect lufkins growth..."

Kiss your boom days goodbye. If I-69 were to have been a freeway, you would have continued to grow like crazy. Now, with the existing US-59 about to be locked down in a non-compete clause with Cintra (or whatever private company gets the contract), and the toll road being so expensive that the few regular people that do use it wanting the shakedown to end as quickly as possible and therefore never exiting until absolutely necessary - you will now become, as the Dems like to say: "Flyover Country". [a bit of a run-on sentence, but you get the point]

...and the people who own land in these corridors agree with me, otherwise they wouldn't be screaming down the doors against this plan at every public meeting they can get to.

But the governor sits in Austin, apparently oblivious to this uprising, while his poll numbers sink to what is now just a 5-point load over (Democrat) Chris Bell.

I wonder how this is going to affect lufkins growth... We've been boomin over the years.

Still a lot of expansions up that way.... It won't be long before 175 is four laned between Lufkin and I-20 thus another good route for commerce to traverse. US 69 between Beaumont [I-10] and Lufkin is getting upgrades every year. A lot more of US 59 north of Houston has been four laned on towards Livingston and maybe beyond.

Walmart has their Houston Bayport Container terminal up and running to which they expect to receive upwards of 28% of their container imports through. These goods have to move North, East and West out of Houston.

"I wonder how this is going to affect lufkins growth... "

One little tidbit here in Houston. Take the story of the Grand Parkway (a highway that will ring Houston some 30 miles in radius - far outside of anything existing).

Originally, the Grand Parkway was to be a freeway. At that time the landowners along with route, which are the major developers, offered to literally to give the necessary land to the state for FREE. They knew what it would mean to the value of the rest of the land.

Well, roughly 8 to 10 years ago, some brain surgeon in Austin decided that the Grand Parkway would now be a TOLL ROAD. And you can guess the rest of the story. The developers rescinded their offer and told the state that they would now have to BUY the land from them - as they knew full-well of the lockdown effect that toll roads bring.

An interesting story in that when you look at it in purely financial terms, the dumbest thing that the state can do is build toll roads. In addition to cost of the road, you now have to add the cost of the land, and cost of the toll collection, the cost of the lock-down effect, along with the profit margin (monopoly levels, in the case of Texas).

Like I say, if I were rich, I'd love to have a road system to myself with fast speed limits and priced out of the reach of the little people - but I'm not rich - I just want to be left alone to drive and not be financially raped.