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!
That sucks.
Surely Mexican trucks will be exempt from all tolls.
*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.
$12.50 per 100 mile stretch. Plus gas. Plus car ins./car payments.
It may be cheaper to fly.