[WOSG]

“Most Texas highways run thru rural land”

NOT I-35!! Which is the key bottleneck.

“the TTC route is already “looped around” the big urban areas where it applies.”

yes, that is the point... it is rural because land is cheaper.

[TXnMA]

“Most Texas highways run thru rural land”

NOT I-35!! Which is the key bottleneck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Look at a map of all of I-35. My guess is that you live within the urban sprawl of one of our larger cities, and that your "worldview" of I-35 is strongly influenced by your daily commute.

Most of I-35 does, indeed, pass thru rural landscape -- and it has plenty of room to accommodate the only thing that is needed: additional passenger vehice lanes -- made possible by building separate truck lanes.

There definitely should be no ever-widening ROW consumed by idiocy like fenced-in pipelines, power lines, passenger rail, etc., etc. that must be crossed by ever-longer [and more expensive] overpasses on local roads.

Simply moving truck traffic onto separate lanes (or, better, a separate "freight pipeline") designed to handle the overweight traffic and stress would

1. Allow existing interstate lanes to last much longer -- with far less maintenance.

2. Enable existing interstate lanes to handle far more passenger traffic.

3. Greatly increase passenger vehicle safety.

4. Provider greater control and supervision over truck (including Mexican) traffic.

From an engineering standpoint, nothing in the "corridor" concept makes sense -- except for separate truck lanes.

Example: When was the last time you had to use an overpass to cross over a pipeline -- or under a power line?