Posted on 10/04/2006 10:58:20 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Texas Transportation Commission unrolled Sept. 28 the long-awaited road map for the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Release of the Master Development Plan will result also in public disclosure of the full contract between the state and Cintra-Zachry, a private joint venture between the Spanish firm Cintra and the Texas highway contractor Zachry.
Both Cintra-Zachry and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) appealed a ruling from the Texas Attorney General’s office that the full contract is an open record. A trial was scheduled for Oct. 10 in Travis County district court.
The master plan calls for the prompt building of seven segments of the Trans-Texas Corridor’s parallel route to Interstate 35 (TTC-35), mostly with private funds.
“The plan will help us take advantage of private sector innovation and investment to relieve congestion on I-35,” said Michael Behrens, TxDOT executive director. “It will allow us to develop TTC-35 as it is needed and as private sector funding makes it feasible.”
In coming weeks, expect Gov. Rick Perry’s opponents to pore over the full contract, looking for issues to raise.
“For 16 months Rick Perry has fought to keep Texans in the dark and his contract with a foreign-owned company to build toll roads across Texas a secret,” said Mark Sanders, spokesman for Perry opponent Carole Keeton Strayhorn. “ … Texans have the right to know what their government is doing, but Rick Perry and his highway henchmen are determined to cram toll roads down our throats and were willing to go to court to protect this administration’s special interests.
“As governor, Carole Keeton Strayhorn will blast this $184 billion boondoggle off the bureaucratic books … In a Strayhorn administration, agreements and undertakings of this magnitude will be put to the voters or be approved by the Legislature.”
As this deal is likely to become the subject of significant debate in coming weeks, it’s important to understand what Cintra-Zachry has placed on the table.
Seven near-term roadways were identified costing $7.5 billion, with nearly $2.3 billion paid to the state up front for the right to operate these highways. Five segments of road were identified as near-term roadway facilities that the developer could design, build, finance, operate and maintain:
1. the Dallas Northeast Connector (which would connect Interstate 30 east of Dallas with US-75 near the Oklahoma border).
2. the Dallas Southeast Connector (connecting Interstate 45 south of Dallas with Interstate 30 east of Dallas).
3. a toll road from Hillsboro to Temple.
4. a toll road from Temple to Georgetown.
5. the first half of a Southeast loop around San Antonio that would allow trucks and cars from Laredo to bypass the metropolitan area and head straight to the proposed State Highway 130 (which would go from Seguin to Georgetown).
Concession fees from the first five segments of road could also be used to help build two other proposed near-term toll roads: the second half of the San Antonio loop road and a Northwest connector that would connect Interstate 35 near the Oklahoma border with US 75.
The near term roads could be ready for development within five years and open for traffic within 10 years.
In addition to the roads identified as part of TTC-35, the master plan identifies three other roads as ready for construction: State Highway 130 segments 5 and 6 (Seguin to south of Austin), southern portions of a proposed Loop 9 around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and a freight rail facility from Dallas-Fort Worth to Mexico.
The Trans-Texas Corridor envisions separate lanes for trucks and cars as well as space for utilities and rail. Total right of way is expected to be 1,200 feet wide. The master plan includes detailed revenue projections for all facets of the project, using complicated statistical methods.
The revenue projections assume a toll rate of 12.5 cents per mile for cars and 48 cents per mile for trucks. The study calls these rates consistent with tolls on the state’s existing toll roads in the Dallas and Houston metropolitan areas. (Dallas-to-Waco is approximately 100 miles. A 100-mile journey at 12.5 cents per mile would cost $12.50.) The Texas Department of Transportation has to approve the methodology for determining the tolls.
Much of the controversy surrounding the Trans-Texas Corridor involves use of eminent domain to condemn land. Only the state, not the private contractor, can use eminent domain, and the right-of-way belongs to the state, even though the state sells a private company the right to build and operate a road on that right-of-way.
The exact route of TTC-35 has not yet been determined. What route to use, and whether to build it, are decisions governed by the National Environmental Policy Act.
TxDOT and the Federal Highway Administration are jointly conducting environmental studies on the road. Unlike past projects, this one stipulates simultaneous planning and environmental studies.
“What the public is seeing,” continued Behrens, “is an environmental process that runs in tandem with a separate planning process. The private developer assumes a great deal of risk this way, but the ultimate benefit to drivers is that the project is delivered sooner. In the past, environmental studies and detailed planning were performed sequentially, adding years to major projects. I firmly believe that the public knows and appreciates it when we move faster on our projects.”
During the study process, the department held 54 environmental hearings around the state. These, Strayhorn turned into political rallies, where she railed against toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor. Many rural residents also showed up and voiced concerns.
TxDOT emphasizes that corridor development will not put a halt to gas-tax funded work along Interstate 35. The department is currently widening the road to at least three lanes in each direction between San Antonio and Hillsboro. “The state’s commitment to expand IH-35 remains intact,” said Behrens. “Everything that TxDOT is working on now and has scheduled over the next 25 years under the traditional gas-tax financed system will continue as planned.”
The department estimates the segment from Georgetown to Hillsboro will be completed by 2011.
Ed Sterling
AUSTIN - Details of Cintra/Zachry's proposed contract to build the "Trans Texas Corridor" project have been made public by the Texas Department of Transportation. Cintra, a Spanish firm, says the toll road part of the 50-year-long construction project will cost more than $8 billion.
The Project Cost document, Chapter 4, has a chart showing that main lanes of the road will cost about $5.8 million per mile, while frontage roads will come in at $2.6 million per mile. "Fully Directional" interchanges will set taxpayers back more than $49 million each. Bridges will cost a little more than $1.7 million per crossing.
Also budgeted is a line item for customer service and public relations, at $30,360 per mile, per year.
Anyone who has a fast computer connection and plenty of time to read can go to the state agency's Web site and download the contract and related documents: 31 different files in all.
Plans include separate lanes for passenger vehicles and large trucks, freight railways, high-speed commuter railways, and infrastructure for utilities including:
water lines
oil and gas pipelines, and
transmission lines for electricity, broadband and other telecommunications services.
If the 600-odd mile highway project becomes a reality, drivers will have an alternative to Interstate 35, which runs from Laredo through San Antonio, Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth to the Oklahoma border.
There's also a high-speed rail component to the Trans Texas Corridor Project, and its cost is estimated at more than $8 billion. Plans are for rail lines to connect San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth.
At public hearings around the state, opposition so far has been registered by land and other property owners along the proposed construction route, anti-tax groups and individuals and government watchdogs.
A final vote on the project is forthcoming.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
BTTT
That sucks.
Round trip from Houston to San Antio and back would be about 50.00. Y'all in SA can start shutting down those theme parks any day now.
Thanks for the ping!
Surely Mexican trucks will be exempt from all tolls.
bump.
You're welcome.
Of course they will be. In California they are exempt from our smog laws.
Only if they pay us "la mordita."
*ping* for smartass & JP(if you haven't received already)
We're going to Hell in a handbasket and there's a shortage of handbaskets. (stole that one from Rush)
I've had 3 sinus infections in a month from the dust of a 11mile tollroad being constucted near our home. Stop the Madness.....I want to breath!
"Fully Directional" interchanges will set taxpayers back more than $49 million each.
They won't cost taxpayers a single penny, since the toll company would pay 100% of the construction costs plus pay more than $2 billion to the state upfront for rights fees. $2.3 billion that can be used on other roads instead of spending taxpayer money.
As I've pointed out to you several times before over the last year, that is a CONCEPTUAL plan of possible routes that MAY be possible over the next 50 years. Each would be evaluated independently and only pursued if enough market demand (traffic growth) develops. It was just a starter concept, and if you look at the new proposals you'll find that the I-35 portion has already changed substantially. And the buildout cost was estimated at $184 billion, not $500 billion (a number you keep just pulling out of your butt.)
Yes, you can trust that number. The government did the calculations, so it is probably correct.
Beltway 8, The Westpark Tollway, The North Dallas Tollway, and the George Bush Turnpike are all packed every rush hour. Texas seems to be packed with these nobodies, and 400,000 more are added EVERY YEAR (most not from Mexico, in case anyone wants to throw out that red herring, only Florida has more persons from other states moving to it.)
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