Free Republic

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Public investment funds based in Texas could invest directly in transportation projects through a new corporation under a plan unveiled on Thursday by the state's legislative leaders and the governor. Texas has the nation's biggest road privatization plan but the legislature, reacting to criticisms that developers were enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers, enacted a two-year moratorium. That has crimped road-building projects and led to a series of clashes between the governor and the legislature, who now have agreed on a compromise plan. Developers, including overseas companies, investment banks and private equity funds all vie...

A big protest is planned for Monday afternoon, ahead of the latest public hearing on the proposed statewide tollway. Lots of landowners are upset about the state’s plan to build a tollway from Mexico to northeast Texas. There have already been several town hall meetings about the Trans-Texas Corridor. Most of the people who have spoken out about the plan say it will put them out of business. But state officials argue the tollway is necessary to keep up with the growing population in Texas. Monday’s meeting is being held in Huntsville. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Walker...

Texas drivers are tired of traffic gridlock. We want new roads built sooner rather than later, but we do not want a Trans-Texas Corridor that would surely invite more illegal drugs and more illegal aliens. Legislators have gotten our message but since both highway funds, the State Highway Fund (a gasoline tax) and the Texas Mobility Fund (bond money), have been pilfered for other uses, there is no money for road building. Members of the Texas Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee met on August 7 to discuss this funding dilemma. Committee Chairman John Carona suggested a new constitutional amendment...

Public hearings on a narrowed study area and alternatives for the Trans-Texas Corridor-35 will be held in the future, after work is completed on the draft environmental impact statement, TxDOT officials said in a press release. TxDOT, in consultation with the Federal Highway Administration, has identified areas under consideration and these are in a 4,000-page draft environmental impact statement covering a 10-miles wide study area and including information on criteria such as natural and cultural resources. TTC-35 extends from Oklahoma and Mexico on a highway with less entrance and exit ramps than currently built on state and interstate highways. It...

I-69 is dead. The TTC-69, however, remains alive and well. What exactly is the difference, between the Interstate and the Trans Texas Corridor projects? According to Nacogdoches Mayor Bob Dunn, the only difference is federal funding. And the absence of that funding, according to some, may be a blessing in disguise. Because the project will most likely be a state project, instead of a federal one, Dunn said, the "politics and red tape" will be dramatically reduced. TTC-69, has always been heralded as having enormous potential as a trade route. But Dunn said there is now a new reason that...