Posted on 04/20/2008 1:26:27 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
For years, Texas has been planning a privately financed super turnpike from Mexico to the Oklahoma border.
But like rush-hour traffic, the plan for a Trans-Texas Corridor is only inching along.
"It ran into a firestorm of controversy in Texas,” said Neal McCaleb, a former Oklahoma transportation secretary.
Critics have a wide range of concerns about the corridor, which has a key stretch that would parallel Interstate 35. (Another stretch would extend from the Texarkana/Shreveport area to Mexico.)
Particularly upset are landowners who may be in the corridor's path.
The Texas Transportation Department calls many concerns myths. The department says, for instance, that property owners will be paid fair market value and entire towns will not be wiped out.
How would it affect Oklahoma?
Still, the critics, including former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, got the attention of Texas legislators. Last year, legislators approved a partial moratorium on private toll road deals. How the corridor — if it ever is built in Texas — would affect Oklahoma is unclear.
McCaleb was a consultant for a company that was seeking to build the corridor along I-35. The company proposed extending the corridor through Oklahoma.
"The Oklahoma arm never got off the ground because our proposal was not selected. And the other proposals had no provision for anything in Oklahoma,” McCaleb said.
‘There's a lot of misinformation'
Oklahoma transportation officials say they have no plans to extend the corridor through Oklahoma. They say existing roads could be used to take the traffic. Oklahoma officials also say most of the planning in Texas is on the stretch of corridor between Dallas and San Antonio.
"It appears to be that's where their focus is,” said David C. Streb, engineering director for the Oklahoma Transportation Department. "These things take a long time.”
Streb said of the criticism, "There's a lot of misinformation.”
Oklahomans organize opposition to plan
Opponents of the corridor going into Oklahoma already have organized. A group, Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free Enterprise, incorporated last year.
"We heard of all the various problems with it,” said George Wallace, president of the group. "In Oklahoma ... at least 33,000 acres would be taken by eminent domain. ... It will be a private company running this and they can set their tolls at whatever they want.”
Wallace is skeptical of claims the corridor may not be built in Oklahoma.
"The corridors that we're talking about in Texas are up to 1,200 feet wide,” Wallace said. "They have lanes dedicated to trucks, lanes dedicated to passenger vehicles, rail lines, power lines, water lines, oil lines ... Let's say it comes up to the Red River. Is it just going to stop?
"Doesn't make much sense, right?”
I’m becoming more and more paranoid about the TT road.
We have some things happening with the North American Union.
A long highway from Mexico through the Central US to Eastern Canada would be tailor made for NAFTA. As usual the taxpayers would socialize the costs, and the corporations would capitalize on the profits.
Do a Google on the NAU. Ask yourself just what is going on here. I see a direct attack on American sovereighty and some sort of socialist grand plan that I can’t get a handle on as yet. But the Trans Texas is one of the keys to it.
Some proposals include the Baja California section of Mexico, another further south and potential on the Gulf of Mexico side especially when and if the Panama Canal is widened. Walmart has already moved a huge container operation into the Port of Houston complex and uses the Panama Canal even though it is longer sea time and smaller ships.
That route is TTC-69, so named because it will carry I-69. There is another route called TTC-35 that will roughly parallel I-35 and run, ultimately, from Oklahoma to Mexico.
And that's as good as it gets with the anti-road crew. Tney're happy to have a couple of Mexicans on the place to kind of look after things and that's it.
Did you know how much peyote they can grow in Texas? It's phenomenal.
Nothing, as far as I know. And some of that could probably be tax-financed if some of the state gasoline tax wasn't being diverted to public skrools, DPS, and other things.
I-35 is being widened to six lanes south of DFW, but widening it beyond that would be a really expensive proposition, since TxDOT would have to purchase expensive (and presumably developed) land along the highway. And don't you mean I-27?
Mexico has some undeveloped shoreline. The idea is to trash Mexico's shore and save our own.
OK pretty much escapes the proposed road systems for future expansion except I-35...... click the following for a look at some of the proposals, many of which will most likely become reality...
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep10/nhs/hipricorridors/hiprimap.html
>>These guys don’t want roads.<<
“These guys?” I realize that that roads need to be improved — that always has been true. What I don’t want is a Rick Perry swindle enriching foreign investors and hiring illegals to work on it.
An earlier post noted that NO cities would be obliterated. Not true. Natalia, Texas will be.
There is nothing wrong with expanding the highways. What IS wrong is that the TTC will be a toll road, owned by one US company and One Spanish company. All facilities along the corridor, such as gas stations and eating facilities will be owned by said companies. Land owners will not have the opportunity to make back what has been taken from them.
This is a land grab on a large scale and must be stopped. As for me I will vote for Kinky again. We need to at least co-ordinate just who we will back in order to defeat Gov. Perry.
I-69 is an appropriate name for this road, considering how the taxpayers will get screwed !!!
Perhaps the name should be “I-been-69ed”
The Texas Republican Party platform calls for the repeal of the TTC. Do Perry and his minions represent Texas Republicans, or foreign countries?
I meant I-29 KC through the Dakotas to Winnepeg.
Perry was campaigning for Walter Mondale when I was voting for Reagan. He didn’t become a Republican until about 89. He’ll sell out his fellow Texans then buy a small South American country with the profits and retire.
BTTT
BTTT
Well, I was talking about Texas, so my bad.
As a matter of fact, they're widening/improving all the Interstates to and from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
As far as I-35E, south of Dallas, if you've ever driven that stretch, there's not a lot of development.
Would it cost billions to add additional lanes? No!
If necessary, the additional lanes could be tolled not, by a foreign company but, by the state.
I doubt you have a clue what *Us Guys* (so typically YANKEE) want.
I’ll tell ya’ll one thing, *US Guys* don’t want to be like Indiana.
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