Free Republic

“Texans have a problem,” State Representative Larry Phillips said about the current statewide transportation system and its government-proposed solution, the Trans-Texas Corridors. “We can either address the problem, know what’s coming, and plan accordingly, or we can stick our heads in the sand and pretend it will go away.” Texas Governor Rick Perry proposed the corridor system in 2002. Texas Department of Transportation and other officials echo that sentiment and are looking at the TTC to offer long-term solutions for the masses. The TTC plan to date The Trans-Texas Corridor is a proposed multi-use, statewide network of transportation routes in...

TTC-35 PUBLIC HEARINGS BEGIN NEXT MONDAY - JULY 10TH IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU PARTICIPATE IN THE NEPA PUBLIC HEARING PROCESS. These hearings seek comment on TTC impact to: farmland; Ag conversion; community travel patterns; community social disruption; emergency services; local retail; regional economy; property & sales tax revenue; disadvantaged populations; air quality; noise; water quality; wildlife; floodplains; threatened & endangered species; historical sites; cemeteries; archaeological sites; hazardous waste sites; and, visual quality. Your opportunity has been created by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a federal law that requires TxDOT to follow a specific process in assessing the...

Just as Dallas and Fort Worth came together over the Wright amendment, civic and business leaders across the region are closing ranks over another transit issue: the state's immense Trans-Texas Corridor project. It's a vital step if North Texas wants to be properly served by the futuristic, privately built tollway. The region's diverse interests need to harmonize in a clear message to Austin in upcoming hearings over where to locate the corridor. Here's where things stand: State transportation officials, after two rounds of meetings, have recommended a path for the multibillion-dollar toll corridor. That 500-mile path closely parallels Interstate 35...

ENNIS — Texas Turnpike Authority director Phillip E. Russell provided an update on the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 to members of the Ennis Chamber of Commerce on Monday. Noting the upcoming public hearings, Russell said the Texas Department of Transportation, which oversees the Texas Turnpike Authority, continues to seek input regarding the proposed thoroughfare. In Ellis County, hearings will be held in Ennis on July 10 and in Waxahachie on July 12. Each public hearing will begin with an informal, open house from 5-6:30 p.m., followed by the public hearing itself at 6:30. Fifty-four hearings in all are scheduled from July...

Who's calling the shots? Who will have final say on where and how the Trans-Texas Corridor system is developed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area? Will it be the Texas Transportation Commission, working with North Central Texas elected officials and transportation planners who know the region and its long-term mobility needs better than anyone? Or will it be a Madrid-based company, Cintra, whose primary interest is making bucks by extracting tolls? The Star-Telegram Editorial Board strongly believes that state and regional officials and transportation planners should decide. The primary determinant should be what best meets the current and future transportation and...

AUSTIN -- Companies that are willing to pay for the right to build toll roads in Texas should have wide latitude to decide where they're built, state officials told Metroplex leaders Thursday. New evidence of the state's move to privatize roads was on display Thursday, when members of the Texas Transportation Commission said they will not pressure the private consortium Cintra Zachry to build the Trans-Texas Corridor closer to Dallas-Fort Worth. About 100 North Texas elected officials and business leaders had traveled to Austin to ask the commission to force Cintra Zachry to build the highway as a loop around...

Local elected officials, business leaders and transportation experts in North Central Texas are fuming about a proposed primary artery of the Trans-Texas Corridor that would skirt the east edge of Dallas County and shun the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. They want the corridor to run northward from the Hillsboro area and straight up the middle of the Metroplex, along the general path of an extended Texas 360 and on to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. The corridor potentially would include high-speed rail. They also favor the development of rail and freight corridors that would run in a general east-west direction...

The Trans-Texas Corridor project, proposing four to six toll truck lanes and four to six toll passenger lanes from Laredo to Oklahoma, may be as near as five years. Greg Massey, a member of the Oklahoma Highway Authority, recently met with the Texas Department of Transportation. “We really didn't get any new information. The project is still proposed to cross over and connect with I-35 to come into Oklahoma. TxDOT did say they are five years out on the project,” Massey said. Ten different routes are proposed for the corridor. The major variations in the routes follow the three represented...

North Texas leaders want a giant outer loop around the Metroplex for cars, trucks and trains, rather than allowing the state to build a toll road bypassing the area. The proposed loop could be about 200 miles long — nearly triple the length of the Capital Beltway in Washington — based upon conceptual drawings by the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Motorists who took the loop would likely pay tolls. It’s being pitched by North Texas leaders as an alternative to the Trans-Texas Corridor, a privately funded toll road that according to preliminary plans would steer automobile traffic well...

In the next few decades, the ever-growing Dallas-Fort Worth area could experience striking changes in the way that people and goods move. North Central Texas' population has been ballooning faster than the transportation infrastructure -- a situation akin to that of a growing middle-schooler whose old jeans don't quite fit anymore. With the Metroplex expected to add about 4 million people by 2030, it's hard to imagine the hellish traffic jams that we'll face in the future unless we take giant steps to reverse course. New transportation projects and strategies are being hashed out now that might someday save us...

Regional planners are considering three Collin County routes as options for the state's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor, which would link Mexico to the Oklahoma border. The President George Bush Turnpike, Dallas North Tollway and the proposed Collin County Outer Loop are included on a Trans-Texas Corridor study conducted by the North Central Texas Council of Governments. The agency manages the Regional Transportation Council, which allocates federal transportation funds. The agency developed maps for potential auto, freight and rail traffic. The state will narrow study options for the corridor's future in the next few weeks. No decisions on narrowing potential paths for...