Posted on 08/17/2005 10:02:18 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Ramiro Dela Fuente attended a recent forum on the proposed Interstate 69 highway, because like a lot of other people, he’s anxious about which route it might take.
"Interstates bring commerce. Restaurants, hotels, stores start building up around them. That would be good for Harlingen," the 58-year-old Harlingen resident said. "We’ve been seeing the signs for future routes of I-69 everywhere, and we don’t know where it’s actually going."
At this point, nobody really knows.
What many agree on is this: The route that is eventually selected will become the gateway to the Rio Grande Valley. Will it be U.S. 77 or U.S. 281, or perhaps a combination of the two? Some say the economies of the area’s cities are at stake.
One economist points to Route 66, perhaps America’s most famous highway, as an example of what possibly to expect.
Towns and communities once thrived along the historic highway. But when Route 66 succumbed to the interstate system, "a lot of those towns withered away," said Joselito Estrada, a former assistant professor of economics at the University of Texas-Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.
"There is a historical precedent that shows if a stretch of highway is not chosen to be part of the interstate system, there is a possibility that economic activity will slow down in those communities," said Estrada, who will be teaching economics and transportation at Texas A&M University at Galveston this fall.
"Towns may not wither away, but they may not prosper like they once did. The route not chosen will have less traffic, less commerce, less economic activity."
But other economists aren’t so pessimistic.
"Overall, I think the whole region would benefit from this corridor, no matter which route is selected," said Teofilo Ozuna, associate dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Texas-Pan American. "I don’t see any reason why the route not selected would be affected negatively."
Hubs of commerce would likely develop along the interstate. But other businesses servicing those hubs could also thrive, Ozuna said.
The Texas portion of I-69, the so-called NAFTA Superhighway, would be the Trans-Texas Corridor. Its purpose is to give international truck traffic the most efficient, seamless and direct route from the Mexican border through Texas and on to the Canadian border, said Gaby Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation.
The development of a Trans-Texas Corridor dovetails with the development of I-69 as a 1,600-mile national highway connecting Mexico, the United States and Canada, the same way that the North American Free Trade Agreement connects those economies. Eight states are involved in the project, which would extend from South Texas to eastern Michigan.
Other than U.S. 77 and U.S. 281 to the Rio Grande Valley, U.S. 59 to Laredo is also under consideration.
A fourth option could be a new highway that would be built west of U.S. 281.
But a final decision on where the corridor would go — if it’s built at all — could be years away.
"We’re still a long way off before this is finally decided and we see which option rises to the top as the best," Garcia said.
State transportation officials say a final configuration could include some type of hybrid that incorporates two or more routes to South Texas.
"There are lots of pieces that could be mixed together," Garcia said.
That’s encouraging to those who say the Rio Grande Valley would be best served if 281 and 77 were both selected, creating east and west spurs to the interstate.
"My gut feeling is they’re not going to choose one route over another. Because of the dynamics of the Rio Grande Valley, I believe you’re going to see the use of both 77 and 281," said Alan Johnson, transportation chairman for the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce.
"Both highway destinations win. I think the Valley wins."
Nat Lopez, president of the Harlingen Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, agrees.
"We believe you could have east and west routes for I-69. The whole area is going to be where the flow of goods is going to be happening," Lopez said.
But there are skeptics who say two spurs is a scenario that isn’t likely to happen.
"In this climate of tight budgets, it’s going to be extremely hard for the federal government to develop two spurs. I just don’t see them designating both routes, just because of limited resources," McAllen Chamber of Commerce President Steve Ahlenius said.
Estrada is another who sees it that way.
"The belief that both are going to be chosen, I’m not sure how realistic that is, because the federal government doesn’t have all the money in the world. Neither does the state," Estrada said.
Transportation officials say they do not have a list of pros and cons for each option.
"At this stage, all options are equal. Everything is still on the table," Garcia said.
———
Valley Morning Star reporter Matt Lynch and Monitor reporter Marc B. Geller contributed to this story.
Legislators address eminent domain concerns
...
The House version of the bill does not specifically address the Trans-Texas Corridor, but an amendment added by Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, prohibits the Texas Department of Transportation from using eminent domain to acquire land for highway “ancillary facilities,” such as gas stations or convenience stores.
“The goal of the amendment was to say you can't use eminent domain,” Kolkhorst said Friday. “(The highway department) can still negotiate with landowners (to buy land for ancillary facilities) if they still choose.”
But that is a function that has traditionally been left to free enterprise, she said, like the private development of businesses lining Texas interstates.
...
Anyone have a bigger image? I can't tell some of the locations on the map.
I know that even the small towns that will have this passing through have already talked about it in the city planning committee's. So your local planning committee may have better understandings.
State workers boycott group's transportation summit (08/12/2005)
By Gordon Dickson
Star-Telegram staff writer
IRVING - The region's largest annual transportation gathering experienced a bit of a boycott this year. Nearly 1,200 people attended the four-day Texas Transportation Summit, which is ending this afternoon at the Omni Mandalay Hotel in Irving - a record attendance for the eight-year-old event.
But Texas Department of Transportation employees were not among them.
The agency's commission chairman, Ric Williamson of Weatherford, in December directed all employees not to provide technical support to the summit.
Why the spat?
Williamson was upset that the summit's consulting firm, Dean International of Dallas, had organized a River Of Trade Corridor Coalition. The group opposed Gov. Rick Perry's plan at the time to build the Trans-Texas Corridor tolls road bypassing the Metroplex - although that plan has since been tweaked to more closely follow the Interstate 35 corridor.
Summit organizers said this week they were never expressly against Trans-Texas, but simply wanted a voice in the planning.
But Williamson said he would rather that TxDot employees deal directly with the public and local leaders across the state, rather than using paid consultants.
Dean International also organizes:
Gordon Dickson, (817) 685-3816
gdickson@star-telegram.com
Texas Legislature Saves Hamburgers from Seizure! (08/12/2005)
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Probably the most significant special provision in the bill is a set of firm restrictions on how eminent domain can be used when seizing land to build highways. It particularly targets the Trans Texas Corridor project with the objective of making it difficult for that project to profit unfairly off of massive land seizures around the route of the highway. It could have gone further and just banned the project alltogether on the grounds that letting a private company build its own giant toll road through the heart of Texas is a huge violation of land owner rights, but it's Governor Perry's pet project, so that was too much to hope for. What it does do is limit associated land sales and leases for truck stops and conveniencestores to the median of the highway at least 10 miles from any exits, reserving more desirable land for development by the original owners, a vast improvement over the original plan which gave a huge swath of right-of-way to the developers to use for any purpose they wanted. It also includes provisions to protect the rights of land owners, especially farmers, whose access to their property is disrupted by this grandiose 16-lane highway to nowhere. The restrictions may not be enough to actually stop the construction of this monstrosity, but they will limit the negative impact for those whose land will be seized.
...
Hmmmm a superhighway from canookistan to mexico ......kind of a symbolic cutting America in half I suppose....
There are signs up all up and down the US 77 coridor all the way to Brownsville. The location is nutty. Try traveling from Larado to Dallas via I-35. A true nightmare.
All this, and not a single joke about the name of the highway yet ...
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
BTTT!!!!!!
Scroll down to the maps section.
http://www.i69corridorstudy.com/global/whats_new/
If I69 is built over 281 to the Valley, I'll still go down 77 if I'm going to Harlingen/Brownsville. Brownsville's over 50 miles from McAllen where 281 runs.
From the economic impact perspective, if it's going to make a difference, it would probably be best to run it down 281 since there's virtually nothing but the King Ranch between Kingsville and Raymondville so there's little to impact there. Seems to me you go down 281 if you're going to McAllen/Rio Grande City/etc. and 77 if you're going to Harlingen/San Benito/Brownsville (going south) so where I69 runs may not make much difference.
ping
PLEASE read Phyllis Schlafly's August 21 article at Townhall.
Also... www.teamliberty.net/id275.htm
If these writers have hit on the truth, we have bigger problems in store than which route to take. IMO, they've got it right.
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