Posted on 08/27/2006 1:17:11 AM PDT by AnimalLover
Grupo Ferrovial, Spain’s construction, infrastructure and services giant, had a busy summer acquiring airports in the UK and Peru. Now it has a concession to build and operate a Texas superhighway.
Construction of the new toll road project, designed to develop an alternative route to Interstate 35 as part of the planned Trans-Texas Corridor is due to start early next year.
This is has been agreed by the Texas Department of Transport under a comprehensive development deal with the Spanish company Cintra - Concesiones de Infrastructuras de Transporte, a member of the Ferrovial group.
Cintra’s partner for the five-year road building programme is the San Antonio-based contractor Zachry Construction Corp, but Ferrovial’s construction company Agroman is getting a share in the business.
Zachry joined with Cintra in a scheme to provide private investment worth $6 billion. The assignment is to design, build and operate a four-lane toll road covering the 500 km distance between Dallas and San Antonio, bypassing the State capital at Austin.
For this concession Cintra is paying the State of Texas $1.2 billion. It gives them the right to build and operate this initial segment of the intended Trans-Texas Corridor.
This would be part of the ‘super-highway’ spanning the United States from the Mexican border at Laredo, making its way through Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma and connecting with the Canadian highway system north of Duluth, Minnesota.
Because it would provide a connection all the way between Canada and Mexico, the project is also described as the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) super highway.
The project as conceived by Cintra and its partners and endorsed by the Texas transport department is certainly ambitious. They have talked about developing a corridor providing two lanes for high speed trucks and three for passenger vehicles in each direction, plus high speed and freight railway lines, possibly also telecommunication cables and oil, gas and water pipelines in an adjacent utilities corridor.
But a corridor of this overall width – maybe as much as 360 m - has alarmed people who stand forced to surrender property in land and buildings to the project. This concern has been sharpened by the disclosure that, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the developers intend to exercise the principle of ‘eminent domain’ in land acquisition proceedings on the grounds that they are acting as agents of a public authority.
The developers apparently believe that such rights, once established in Texas, could then be applied across the entire 6,500 km length of the NAFTA highway. Whether that proves to be so depends on the outcome of any challenge that might be launched against such a claim.
The Cintra-Zachry partnership is however in a strong position because they have already secured an agreement granting them the right to develop the new highway in Texas. They have also put money down for the privilege.
The first concession within the Trans-Texas Corridor has already been awarded to Cintra. According to a statement by parent company Ferrovial, construction is expected to start early in 2007 once environmental and other permits have been obtained.
These initial contracts, to build two segments of the new toll road 64 km between Austin and Seguin will be performed 50 per cent each by Ferrovial’s construction subsidiary Agroman and Zachry, which has won around $180 million worth of road contracts already this year from the Texas Department of Transport.
Total construction investment in the new contracts is said to be $1.3 billion.
“The new highway”, the statement explained, “will offer an alternative to I-35 between San Antonio and north Austin, making it possible to avoid the highly congested area of central Austin on medium and long-distance journeys.
“The new high capacity road will absorb growth in long-distance truck traffic expected as a result of trade agreements between the United States, Mexico and Canada.”
Cintra has also recently taken over management of the Indiana Toll Road (ITR) after paying $3.8 billion to the State’s finance authority for the transfer of the asset. In a 50:50 consortium with the Australian bank Macquarie, Cintra now has charge of this 250 km highway which links Chicago with the eastern seaboard of the United States.
The concession will run over 75 years.
The company commented: “The project reinforces Cintra’s presence in the U.S., a strategic market for the company: it has a 99-year concession to operate the Chicago Skyway ($1.83 billion) which links with the Indiana Toll Road, and it is a strategic partner of the State of Texas for 50 years to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor, one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the United States.”
Apparently everything is signed, sealed and delivered - construction starts next year and this foreign company has a 50 year lease.
One other article that is a MUST read is
The NAFTA Super Highway by Phyllis Schlafly
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2006/aug06/06-08-23.html
Given what the Spanish cowards did in Iraq, not a time to reward them with this government corporate welfare project.
Don't we have Americans that would build things?
Leaving aside questions about the SPP, why would any foreign company be given the right to collect tolls on this highway for FIFTY years?
First, this looks like a Texas deal. What does the President have to do with it? Or is this a case of "it's all Bush's fault?"
What exactly is giving you the most grief? You don't like roads? You don't like TOLL roads? Or you don't like foreign owenership? Because it is the last on the list, the solution is easy. An all American consortium needs only to come up with the cash and the deal's theirs.
Finally, who are you that you think a businees deal needs your (or even my) consent?
You're absolutely right.
The United States of America and everything and everyone in it is "FOR SALE"
to the highest bidder.
Always has been, always will be. Amen.
Bush had nothing to do with this. It is all that RINO Rick Perry's doing.
Looks like the Canadian's aren't too happy with Spain over their Toll Roads.
http://www.nupge.ca/news_2004/n13au04a.htm
From the article:
" An arbitrator ruled earlier this year that the consortium has the right, spelled out in a 600-page contract negotiated and signed by the Harris government, to set whatever tolls it likes until the deal expires in 2098."
Ouch! Sir, that will be $30 use 'our' toll road.
Two words: Eminent Domain.
President Reagan observed in his farewell address to the nation:
Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: "We the people." "We the people" tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. "We the people" are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the people" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the people" are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I've tried to do these past eight years.That is fundamentally opposed by what W and the globaloney despots are up to. They are fundamentally opposed to "We the People." Reagan never was. He also led a great tradition, unlike W, and now you... of stopping runaway governments that get too big for their britches...as he said in that same speech:..............
But back in the 1960s, when I began, it seemed to me that we'd begun reversing the order of things — that through more and more rules and regulations and confiscatory taxes, the government was taking more of our money, more of our options, and more of our freedom. I went into politics in part to put up my hand and say, "Stop." I was a citizen politician, and it seemed the right thing for a citizen to do.I don't think we need to belabor that W totally rejects this classical Founders formulation of governance and liberty. His Big Govermentism...and his "One Family" North American Unionism trumps all other concerns.I think we have stopped a lot of what needed stopping. And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.
And this isn't just Texas. Bush has had extensive talks with Fox and the Canadian Presidents on this...and has given millions of Federal Money to subsidize planning the Texas Corridor Project.
Interesting find.
Paul
More about Spain, oh yeah, they mention $6Bil for the TTC. big surprise in that one.
http://www.technologyreview.com/microsites/spain/toll/docs/Spain_infrastructure.pdf#search=%22spain%20toll%20roads%20pdf%22
Though Cintra won the bid,Spanish companies accounted for all four of the companies qualified to bid for the road. Cementing its leadership position in the U.S. thus far, Cintra also was chosen as a strategic partner with the state of Texas for the development of the Trans- Texa s Corridor. At first analysis of the needs of the planned corridor, Cintra has proposed developi ng at least five toll roads and investing approximately $6 billion.
Agreed, big surprise...
ping
Because they are building the highway. If not that many people use the highway, then the company, and not the local government, loses money.
Smartass it would seem 'hadaclueonce" needs some information.
This is a Texas deal; do you not believe in states' rights?
As long as it's private money and doesn't cost taxpayers, they can do whatever they are capable of doing.
After the "BIG DIG" in boston which started at 2 Billion and is now Uncompleted at 15 Billion it doesn't appear we have Americans who can do the Job.
Bush seems to be selling off the Country to any foreign power who has the money.
"Emminent Domain" is shaping up as the reason for a second American Revolution.
Save up your Tea Bags.
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