Senate votes to drive final stake through Trans Texas Corridor

The Dallas Morning News ^ | May 21, 2011 | Christy Hoppe

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

AUSTIN — The ceremony was brief and drew few mourners, but the Trans Texas Corridor is finally dead.

The Senate unanimously passed a bill that strikes from state law any language, reference and authority once connected to the massive highway envisioned to slice a swath through Texas.

The same measure already has passed the House. There are some minor differences that still need to be reconciled, but the bill is expected to go to Gov. Rick Perry, who will have to decide whether to join in the final rites for his once-prized project.

Legislators did keep a provision that was allowed under the authority of the Trans Texas Corridor: the potential of 85 mph speed limits on certain highways that are properly engineered to handle the higher speeds.

The highway corridor to parallel Interstate 35 had been a signature issue for Perry, but it was doomed after angry citizens rebelled against the private contracts, the massive proposed taking of private land and what was seen as arrogance by state transportation officials.

Perry said last year that the highway is dead, but lawmakers this year are determined to salt the earth.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

All that’s left is for Perry to drive the stake through the heart...

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!

[balch3]

A man’s got to know his limitations. I know I don’t need to be driving 85 mph. I’ll stay in the righthand lane and feel free to wave as you pass me by.

[freekitty]

It should be dead and I hope Perry signs it

[ken21]

took long enough.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“Legislators did keep a provision that was allowed under the authority of the Trans Texas Corridor: the potential of 85 mph speed limits on certain highways that are properly engineered to handle the higher speeds.”

The TTC would have had a separation between lanes for heavy trucks, and those for lighter vehicles. I wouldn’t want to be on a highway, where semis travel at 85 mph, on all sides of me.

[B4Ranch]

The golden rule, “Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly.”

[MrEdd]

Good news. Land revert to righful owners?

[B4Ranch]

I don’t believe it. Why did Hillary go to Mexico City last December for the North American Union Plan annual meeting if they had intentions of shutting down plans for the Corridor?

This needs someone to read the Bill very carefully and check all the out links / references in it.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The remainder of the article (outside the excerpt) said that the 85 mph limit would probably only apply to new tollways that have the engineering for such speed.

I believe that there are stretches of highway where 85 could be done safely, such as on I-80 through the Bonneville Salt Flat in Utah. Beware, however, the road is up on an embankment there.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

As I understand it, a simple highway would initially be built, with 13-foot-wide lanes and a wide median. Then, apparently, as traffic increased, 12-foot-wide, auto-only lanes would be added on the inside, and the original lanes would be used by the trucks.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Land hadn’t been taken in the first place, as far as I know.

[muawiyah]

They don't usually BUY the land from the owners until the highway route is established and all the environmental impact studies are done.

My guess is most of the "rightful owners' are going to be mighty disappointed that the state isn't going to be buying their land near I35 now.

Any of you people ever live near an Interstate carrying lots of heavy truck traffic?

silence silence silence silence

I thought so. You don't know.

[af_vet_rr]

It should be dead and I hope Perry signs it

It'll be interesting, given how angry he was that us citizens dared to stand up to him.

[af_vet_rr]

The TTC would have had a separation between lanes for heavy trucks, and those for lighter vehicles. I wouldn’t want to be on a highway, where semis travel at 85 mph, on all sides of me.

Semis? Try a lot of drivers in general. 85 mph means a lot of them will be doing 90+. I've driven a lot of the 80mph areas in West Texas and even in a well-engineered car, I didn't feel safe because of others around me, especially those with just a few fingers on the steering wheel yapping away on their cell phones.

And then there is the Mexico traffic.

[BobL]

Boy, we had some really LIVELY debates on this scam. Funny, I don’t see the defenders of the TTC around here anymore...not for the past two years.

Perhaps they’re busy working on Perry’s presidential run now?

[Outlaw Woman]

I’ve heard about this ‘highway’ but can someone from TX give more details on it? What was the purpose to begin with?

I heard some years ago that the ultimate route was all the way to Canada? Does that sound right? Anyway just wondered if someone could provide some more details.

[basil]

The thing is—I don’t trust Perry -——

[MrEdd]

Not even close.

One of the things about the TTC that had Texans up in arms was the Kelo vs. New London style eminant domain abuse to avoid offering anything close to market value for the land. Including huge tracts wherever there might have been an interchange so political cronies could be awarded all comercial developement.

Landowners are glad to see this gone and if Perry ever runs for national office he may not carry Texas.

He has somewhat made amends by taking on the EPA.

[af_vet_rr]

This is probably not over. They'll come up with another name for it and will learn from their mistakes. There is too much money involved for it to just die, and the North American Super Corridor people are still meeting and still scheming and still getting money from Congress.

Plus, I'm sure the Perot family is not going to let this die without a fight either, they put some money into building their inland port to take advantage of the TTC. I'd expect they are regrouping with Perry, Giuliani's law firm, the Spanish construction consortium, and the people running the Mexican ports and rails, and looking at how they can avoid running into the problems they did with the TTC. This ain't over by a long shot.

Speaking of Giuliani, did anybody figure out how much Giuliani's lawfirm ended up making off of this, since he was doing work both for the Spanish company and for TxDOT?