So because we’re near Mexico we’re not allowed to build road infrastructure! Really!
25, 000,000 people live in Texas. Have you witnessed the dead stop back-up on major Texas freeways as people were fleeing the coast and approaching hurricanes?
Dallas to Austin – 4 hour drive (takes longer than pre interstate days due to congestion)
As Gov. Perry stated, Texas needs a bigger interstate highway footprint; we need more lane highways between major cities.
Houston’s Port ranks with New York and Los Angeles ports. We need to be able to move products and people.
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"The Port of Houston": The Port of Houston is a 25-mile-long complex of diversified public and private facilities located just a few hours’ sailing time from the Gulf of Mexico. The port is ranked first in the United States in foreign waterborne tonnage (14 consecutive years); first in U.S. imports (19 consecutive years); second in U.S. export tonnage and second in the U.S. in total tonnage (19 consecutive years).
The Port of Houston is made up of the Port of Houston Authority and the 150-plus private industrial companies along the Houston Ship Channel. All together, the port authority and its neighbors along the ship channel are a large and vibrant component of the regional economy.
More than 220 million tons of cargo moved through the Port of Houston in 2009. More than 7,700 vessel calls were recorded at the Port of Houston during the year 2009. The Houston Pilots navigate each vessel through the Houston Ship Channel.
The Port of Houston has an impressive listing of firsts, from unloading the world’s first container ship to becoming the country’s first port to receive ISO 14001 compliance. The Houston Ship Channel
The Houston Ship Channel has been a catalyst for growth in Harris County since the first journey of a steamship up Buffalo Bayou in 1837. The ship channel plays a critical role in today’s community as well. It generates jobs and opportunities that allow businesses to flourish.
A 2007 study by Martin Associates says ship channel-related businesses contribute to more than 785,000 jobs throughout Texas while generating nearly $118 billion of statewide economic impact. Additionally, more than $3.7 billion in state and local tax revenues are generated by business activities related to the port. It is projected that the Port of Houston will continue to be an important factor as north-south trade expands.
2008 Port of Houston Ranking:
• 1st in the U.S. in foreign tonnage for 13 consecutive years;
• 1st in imports for 18 consecutive years and
• 2nd in U.S. in total tonnage for 18 consecutive years;
• 7th largest U.S. Container port Source
”Big Bad” Cintra: ".......The SH 130 Concession Company is an independent company formed by Cintra, a multinational corporation based in Spain, and Zachry American Infrastructure headquartered in San Antonio. Cintra, described as one of the world’s largest private-sector developers of transportation infrastructure, currently manages 21 toll highways worldwide. Cintra’s portfolio includes the Chicago Skyway, the Indiana Toll Road and the 407 ETR toll highway in and around Toronto, Canada.
Zachry American Infrastructure was created in 2005 to develop U.S. infrastructure investments in the transportation, energy and water sectors. The Zachry family’s older entity, Zachry Construction Corp., has built more than 1,000 heavy construction projects including more than 110 projects along the U.S. Interstate highway system. Cintra-Zachry in June 2006 reached a $1.3 billion agreement with the state of Texas to build segments 5 and 6 of SH 130. In exchange for its investment, Cintra-Zachry gets the right to collect tolls for 50 years in a revenue-sharing agreement with the state......" Small roads are squeezed because the bigger roads can't handle the traffic. Travel times are prohibitive for both people trying to get somewhere (work?) (fun?) and for the transport of goods and services for the growing Texas economy.
At long last, U.S. 290 work will begin-- Local officials symbolically break ground on massive project ““We recognized the importance of a good transportation system to our community both from mobility and safety standpoint. The traffic volume on U.S. 290 is more than 26,000 vehicles per day.”
I-35 is a nightmare. People ask online how to avoid it.
People couldn't get out of the way of last 2 major hurricanes (told to evacuate) and were stranded on freeways (dead stopped) w/o gas or food.
We are (as are people in all meto areas) fighting off light rail projects being pushed by ENVIRONMENTALISTS who endlessly tie road projects up in court (driving up costs) to stop infrastructure construction, as they tout toy trains that NO ONE wants but Leftists and unions. Texas is BIG it's hundreds of miles between towns (with a lot of small and medium towns and farming communities in between) and we don't want to go where LIBERALS tell us to go and when and how often.
Sierra Club and State Transportation Plan: “The Houston chapter of the Sierra Club has issued a report that itemizes TxDOT’s State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) projected costs of building the 186-mile State Highway 99 around the Houston region during the next 4 years. The total is $4,824,492,381.
"By comparison, the total cost allocated for building Houston’s 5 new light rail lines is $3.3 billion and the cost of building a complete, 5-line base regional commuter rail system has been estimated at less than $3 billion. [In the 2035 Regional Transportation Plan, those SH 99 costs totaled over $6 billion.
The first segment to be built is scheduled to be across the open Katy Prairie at a cost of over $350 million. That is slightly more than the cost of building the 290 commuter rail line. Additionally, the STIP contains $468 million for improving US 290, but notes that it is $170 million short of funds for the first project. For comment on that see “How would you spend $350 million?” To participate in a survey about this priority, go to spend350million.org.]"
The lawyers, unions and environmentalists will work this gig as long as they can.
AND HERE IS ONE NOW!!
The FR LINK that directed me to take a look at DAVID STALL and his wife, LINDA STALL.
TAKE A LOOK
The MOVEMENT behind blocking TTC :
[CorridorWatch.org Files Comment and Complaint at NEPA Tier One TTC-35 DEIS Public Hearing During the July 27, 2006, Public Hearing in Dallas, Texas, David Stall presented oral comments and submitted written comments on behalf the members of ”CorridorWatch.org
Texas ENVIRONMENTAL Grantmakers Group “David Stall of Corridor Watch, a 501[c][4] monitoring the Trans Texas Corridor project, began our discussion about transportation and environmental impacts. He explained that his background was in government, both as general manager of the cities of Nassau Bay, Columbus, and Shoreacres, and as a 4th generation public servant. With that experience, he considers the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) project to have little to do with transportation, nor with the Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M, nor regional urban traffic planners. To Mr. Stall, the TTC seems to be a rather desperate effort by the Governor’s office to generate revenue……………”
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CorridorBotch.org, or David Stall-ed “It appears that as a political issue, the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) does not cut nearly the swath its opponents allege the asphalt itself will.
For we find CorridorWatch.org (CW.org) founder David Stall falling pronouncedly flat in his bid to become District 18's state Senator. In a jurisdiction he has spent the last two years dousing with disinformation regarding just what the TTC will be, his attempts at grassroots movement failed to translate into grassroots support…………
According to their website, Stall's wife Linda founded CorridorWatch.org in February of 2004. Of course her beau had a hand therein, but because he was the City Manager of Columbus, Texas, at the time, the website leans heavily on her influence at the organization's inception.
David Stall's involvement in so political an institution as this quickly led to his dismissal from his city post. Columbus officials were also less than thrilled that Stall had registered CorridorWatch.org using the city's account. Oops.
The Stalls immediately began driving hours in any direction from their Fayetteville home to attend Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) meetings to disingenuously participate in the open forum process. As their disinformation spread, they began culling fellow travelers on the no-Road to Anywhere; we here know from first-hand accounts that either the Stalls or members of their growing circle of lubricious surrogates have fanned out across the state to pitch false information on the potential throughway.
If everything with which these CW.org miseducators, and their brethren in groups such as Texas Toll Party, have been frightening or angering these poor residents into intellectual submission were true, the TTC would be a slab of concrete spanning from Beaumont east to El Paso west, and pave the state in totality between San Antonio and Dallas.
Every town to which these people pay a visit is told that they are in dire danger of being diametrically bifurcated by the coming highway, no matter how far east or west they might be. To cite but one fraudulent example, residents of every single city, town and village along the Taylor-Manor corridor have been regaled with egregiously fabricated tales of municipalitive destruction and vociferous eminent domain pillaging.
The problem is, Corridor Watch et. al. are by no means allowing the facts to get in the way of a good beating. Every proposed path (and there are still at the very least three) currently under consideration places the TTC on the northern and southern ends of planned SH-130, which is a good fifteen miles west of the villes in question and in crisis over their alleged impending devastation.
That these Corridor clowns are asserting anything with certitude belies their veracity on all things, because right now NO ONE outside of the TxDoT TTC circle knows anything about any aspect of the plans…………………..”
Texas Farm Bureau speaks out against Trans-Texas Corridor
Southwest Farm Press
Mar. 30, 2007 10:40am
While many strides were made in the previous legislative session in regards to Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), farmers and ranchers feel there are still concerns to address, a Texas Farm Bureau representative told state senators in a transportation committee meeting recently.
“We believe the impact of the TTC will be devastating to the agriculture industry and to rural communities,” McLennan County Farm Bureau President Marc Scott said at the Austin hearing.
The lack of access due to the division of family farms and ranches, the massive condemnation proceedings that would trail in the wake of corridor approval and the usage of regional water resources for the construction were all among concerns Scott raised before the committee.
“As a personal note, the 1,700 acres that I produce on are all within the footprint of the proposed TTC,” Scott, a cow/calf and hay producer, said. “So this issue is very near and dear to my heart. My livelihood depends on the outcome of the TTC.”
Scott said Texas Farm Bureau is urging lawmakers to use existing rights-of-way whenever new road or highway construction is under consideration, provide access points for landowners divided by roadways and ensure FM roads would not be spliced by highways.
The state’s largest family farm organization is also pressing state reforms on eminent domain law, urging lawmakers to consider relocation costs for families affected by something as large as the corridor, as well as good faith offers on the land’s best and highest use whenever condemnation proceedings take place.
Scott said farmers and ranchers whose land is targeted by the proposed TTC feel strongly that many landowner concerns have not been adequately addressed.
“The delegate body of the Texas Farm Bureau has voted overwhelming to continue to oppose the TTC,” Scott said. “Our county leaders have spent four years studying this project and attending public meetings held in counties throughout the state. While we readily admit that many changes have occurred to lessen the sting of the corridor, there are still more issues that need to be resolved.”
Texas Farm Bureau speaks out against Trans-Texas Corridor
Southwest Farm Press
Mar. 30, 2007 10:40am
While many strides were made in the previous legislative session in regards to Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), farmers and ranchers feel there are still concerns to address, a Texas Farm Bureau representative told state senators in a transportation committee meeting recently.
“We believe the impact of the TTC will be devastating to the agriculture industry and to rural communities,” McLennan County Farm Bureau President Marc Scott said at the Austin hearing.
The lack of access due to the division of family farms and ranches, the massive condemnation proceedings that would trail in the wake of corridor approval and the usage of regional water resources for the construction were all among concerns Scott raised before the committee.
“As a personal note, the 1,700 acres that I produce on are all within the footprint of the proposed TTC,” Scott, a cow/calf and hay producer, said. “So this issue is very near and dear to my heart. My livelihood depends on the outcome of the TTC.”
Scott said Texas Farm Bureau is urging lawmakers to use existing rights-of-way whenever new road or highway construction is under consideration, provide access points for landowners divided by roadways and ensure FM roads would not be spliced by highways.
The state’s largest family farm organization is also pressing state reforms on eminent domain law, urging lawmakers to consider relocation costs for families affected by something as large as the corridor, as well as good faith offers on the land’s best and highest use whenever condemnation proceedings take place.
Scott said farmers and ranchers whose land is targeted by the proposed TTC feel strongly that many landowner concerns have not been adequately addressed.
“The delegate body of the Texas Farm Bureau has voted overwhelming to continue to oppose the TTC,” Scott said. “Our county leaders have spent four years studying this project and attending public meetings held in counties throughout the state. While we readily admit that many changes have occurred to lessen the sting of the corridor, there are still more issues that need to be resolved.”
At least they will use less gas in the future while battling congestion. Obama's new fuel economy mileage standard is 54 miles/gallon. Of course, he's counting on a lot of new cars being battery operated.
And, BTW, they might just exhaust their battery capacity while in the traffic jam. TX DOT better plan on building battery recharging stations along the highways. Or better yet, let a new company, Exxon Electric build the stations, charge the drivers and pay taxes to the state on the income. A win for free enterprise, the company, the state but not the poor driver.